Liverpool Angels Read Free

John Strickland was her father. But hadn’t Maggie already gone and promised the dying woman? She would be sure to inform her brother of the fact. The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became. Couldn’t she have waited and discussed it with him first? John would be away at sea; it would be himself who would have to cope with the child on a day-to-day basis as she got older, as well as being responsible for Eddie. Well, for now he’d let the matter rest, he thought, but he certainly wasn’t going to just let it go.
    He wasn’t at all happy with the way life was working out, he thought irritably. Jobs were hard come by, they were short of space in this decrepit old house and Maggie had changed lately. Where had the easy-going, cheerful girl he’d married gone? Oh, to be sure she was upset by Beth’s death but it wasn’t just that. She’d become sharp-tongued of late, always complaining and comparing him – unfavourably – to that Bertie Mercer who was married to Agnes. Didn’t she make him out to be some kind of paragon who didn’t drink or smoke or have the occasional bet on a game of pitch and toss? Who never seemed to put a foot wrong or say a thing out of place? No, this wasn’t the life he’d envisaged when he’d left Belfast. Lately he’d begun to realise that Liverpool, with its grand buildings and docks crammed with ships, wasn’t the Promised Land of his dreams and now it looked as if he was going to be saddled with someone else’s child too. He wished he’d stayed longer in the pub.

B illy didn’t go to look for work the following day. There was never very much going on at the docks on a Saturday and he intended to call into the pub later to meet his mate from Belfast, for the atmosphere in the house was dark and depressing. He wasn’t very pleased when Maggie asked him would he go down to see old Mr Ziegler today as she had so much to do that morning and she felt far from well. Apart from the shock, regret and grief, she was also suffering the nausea of early pregnancy. She hoped he would offer to help with the formalities that had to be undertaken today too.
    ‘Agnes has promised to have our Eddie this morning even though it’s their busiest day and you know I always go down and light the fire and put their meal on to cook and do whatever else needs to be done. It’s their Sabbath and they can’t do things like that,’ she reminded him.
    ‘Both he and Harold manage to work just the same – Sabbath or no Sabbath!’ Billy retorted but grudgingly put on his jacket; it wouldn’t take him long to complete the tasks that Maggie usually carried out. She said she did it to help the old man, but he knew Isaac paid her for her time. At least he’d have a few more coppers in his pocket to spend when he finally arrived at the Alexandra.
    ‘I’d be very grateful, Billy, if later you could go and . . . register poor Beth’s death. They close after dinner and I’ve to see the undertaker and the vicar and then I’ll have Eddie as well as the baby to see to this afternoon.’
    Billy frowned, his annoyance increasing. At this rate he wouldn’t get to see his mate at all. By the time he’d finished at Ziegler’s and been to register the death, Nick MacNally would have given up hope of seeing him and moved on. John Strickland should be doing all this running around, not him. ‘Didn’t Himself pick a fine time to be away,’ he muttered as he went out.
    Maggie stared after him bleakly, too sick and heartsore to demand to know just what he meant, as she would have done ordinarily. He’d obviously had plans that would now have to be disrupted. But it surely wasn’t too much to ask that he give her some support? She wasn’t looking forward to the visits she must make this morning either and Agnes couldn’t be of assistance. She could hear the baby beginning to wake and murmur, she’d soon be wailing to be fed so she’d have to call into Mrs Taylor’s on her way to the