Live the Dream (21 page)

'Don't ask me,' Roy shrugged. 'You've allus found summat in the past. Rob a bank or summat.' He laughed at his own suggestion. 'That's it,' he cried jubilantly. 'Rob a bank, why don't yer?'

'Don't be so daft, man!' Don snapped. 'I wouldn't know the first thing about robbing a bank. That's right out of my league. Besides, the last thing I need is to get thrown back inside. I've had enough of gaol to last me a lifetime.'

'D'yer want me to keep my eyes and ears open?' Roy was eager to make amends. 'They sometimes take folk on at building sites with no questions asked. I'll mek a few enquiries if yer like?'

'Thanks all the same, but I don't fancy working outdoors…' Don chuckled. 'Being in the nick seems to have spoiled me. Still, I'm not destitute yet,' he claimed. 'I do a bit here and there—buying and selling and such—but it won't last for ever. And lately it hasn't brought in the money, so I will need to get permanent work. I know that.'

Thinking about gaol, Roy asked, 'Do you still visit Arnold Stratum?'

'Course I do!' Don answered angrily. 'I'm not one to abandon a mate in trouble.'

Ready to change the subject,
he
regarded Roy with a degree of curiosity. 'Talking about Hammonds—as we kind of were—you seem to be settling down really well there.'

'Aye, an' I'm doing all right,' Roy revealed. 'I reckon if I stay on the straight and narrow, I might even be up for supervisor afore too long.'

Don laughed. 'Bugger me! You really are knuckling down.' He wagged a finger. 'There's got to be a girl involved somewhere,' he declared with a grin. 'That's it! You've got tangled up with some girl and gone all broody.'

Blushing to the roots of his hair, Roy said, 'All right, don't get too clever.' His face creased in a smile. 'Her name's Daisy and she's a good sort.'

'Daisy, eh?' Don made an expression of approval. 'And do you intend settling down with this Daisy? Is that the reason for your sudden enthusiasm in working for a living?'

'And what if it is?' Roy asked sharply.

The other man apologised. 'Don't tek it so serious,' he said kindly. 'I were only joshing. Matter o' fact, I'm interested in a certain woman meself. Smart as a tack and twice as handsome.' His grin widened. 'The name's Helen…' he laughed again, '…or so she says, but I've a feeling she's lying, for whatever reason.'

'What! You mean you don't know her real name?'

'It's not her
name
I'm interested in,' Don replied with a wink. 'Besides, it's not a serious thing…not like you and this Daisy. We're just having a bit o' fun, if you know what I mean?"

From his friend's manner and the way he was looking at him, Roy sensed there was more. 'Have I met her?'

'Nope.'

'Am I going to?'

'Not if I can help it, no.'

Roy began to understand. 'She's wed, isn't she?'

'She hasn't said, and I'm not asking,' came the reply. 'All we want is a good time. Like I said, we're not looking to settle down. It makes no difference to me one way or the other. She arrives, we play around, and then she goes. And that's the way I like it.'

Roy was curious. 'Can I ask you summat?'

'You might as well. You've done nowt else since you got here. So, what else do you want to know?'

Roy took a deep breath. 'D'you know a young woman by the name of Amy Atkinson?' He had been curious ever since Daisy told him that Carson was Amy's ex-fiancé.

There was a long, unsettling pause, during which Roy thought he should never have mentioned it, because now the other man was staring at the floor as if he'd gone into some sort of trance.

Eventually Don looked up, his expression surprisingly soft. 'Yes,' he nodded. 'Amy and me were once engaged to be wed. How do
you
know her?' he asked sharply. And before Roy could answer he added quietly, 'You're not messing with her, are you?"

'No, I'm not messing with her, as you put it,' Roy was quick to explain. 'And neither is Jack.'

Carson was suddenly alert. 'And who might Jack be?'

Roy thought he might have touched on a jealous streak. 'Jack and Amy are seeing each other,' he said. 'I don't know how serious it is, but I have to say, they do seem to have hit it off together.'

There was another moment of silence, before the other man remarked softly, 'As long as he looks after her, it's none of my business.' Looking Roy straight in the eyes, he explained, 'Like I say, we were engaged to be wed. In fact, we got as far as booking the church and all that stuff.'

'I see. And what happened then? Why did you never get wed?'

'I hadn't told her I'd been in prison, and it got as I
couldn't
tell her. I was trying so hard to go straight when I met Amy, and she was part of that—something good to aim for and live up to. But I set my sights too high. I got to realising I could never keep it up, and one day my grubby little past would all come out, or I'd let her down and fall into my bad old ways. I'll allus be a drinker and a two-timer and a ruffian—I know that now. I liked her mam and dad too. I couldn't hurt them all. I kept putting off mekking the break. Then suddenly the wedding was just a few days away and I had to do it before it was too late.

'Luckily they all work long hours so I know they're not around Blackburn much during the week, but I've been very careful to avoid anywhere I might bump into them.'

'Crikey!' Roy thought it must have taken some guts to back out of a wedding as close as that. 'And have you no regrets?'

'Well, of course I have! Amy's a lovely person, as good and kind as the day's long. I hurt her bad by trying to avoid hurting her even worse.' He took a minute to remember.'
That's
what I regret most.'

Suddenly he was on his feet, and demanding in a harsh voice, 'So what's this Jack like?'

'He's all right,' Roy told him. 'He won't hurt her. You've no need to worry on that score.'

Roy's answer seemed to calm him. 'How did they meet?'

The and Jack were out on the town when we just sorta met up with Amy and Daisy. Then another time, we met up again.' He wisely made no mention of his own shameful part in that first meeting. The and Daisy get on like a house on fire. In fact, we're even talking about getting wed.'

Don laughed at that. 'You didn't mention me to Amy, did you?' he asked then.

'Nope.'

'Don't!'

'Why not?'

'Because there's no point. When I left her in the lurch it was a cruel thing. I'm not proud of what I did. What's done is done and can't be undone, so keep your mouth shut.'

'Don't worry, my lips are sealed.' And he meant it.

Carson glanced at the clock. 'You'd best soon make tracks,' he said. 'I need to get washed and changed.'

Roy understood. 'Got a woman coming, have yer?'

'I might have,' Carson admitted, 'so you can bugger off and make yourself scarce.'

'Helen, is it?' Roy licked his lips teasingly. 'I might like to introduce myself.'

Carson laughed. 'I thought you were already gone, on your new girlfriend?'

'I am. I've met the one I want, and she's more than enough.'

'Just as well then, because Helen's a different kettle of fish altogether. I doubt if you could even move in her circles.'

'Oh, I see…a rich bitch, is she?'

Smugly, Carson nodded. 'Rich, handsome, and needing to be satisfied on a regular basis, if you understand my meaning?'

Coming across the room he threatened to manhandle Roy out of the door. 'I've told you, I need to get washed and changed. Sometimes she gets here too early and catches me in the rough. I don't like that. I have my pride like any man.'

'All right, keep your shirt on. I'm leaving, I'm leaving.'

As he went he told Carson from a safe distance, 'Enjoy yourselves, and don't worry about me. I'll call round tomorrow and you can give me a full account.'

'Sod off!' Carson gave him a final shove out the door. 'Get and find your own entertainment,' he suggested with a sly little chuckle.

As Roy crossed the street he was almost run down by a cab in a hurry. 'Watch where you're going!' Roy yelled as the taxi passed by. 'You nearly 'ad my bloody feet off then!'

When the taxi slowed down, Roy considered tackling the driver for his carelessness. Instead his curiosity was aroused when the taxi came to a halt outside Carson's place.

The woman who stepped out of it was exactly as Carson had described: well-dressed and well-built in all the right places, she was more than a cut above the rest.

But there was something else about her that intrigued him, yet for the life of him, he couldn't think what it was.

He watched her walk up the path, and he saw her knock on the door, and now, as she seemed to sense him there, she turned and smiled at him.

It was then that he realised who she was, and he could hardly believe it.

'My God!' Excitement coursed through him. 'It's Luke Hammond's sister-in-law?

He had seen her twice; once when she came to bring Hammond some documents from the house, and once when she came to collect her sister, Sylvia, who had come looking for her husband and thrown a tantrum when he was out on business.

He continued to watch her. Even before she had turned back towards the door, Carson was there to usher her inside.

Still reeling from the shock, Roy hurried away. 'It's just as well Carson doesn't know who she is,' he decided. This rich bitch really was roughing it.

He gave a whistle. 'I wonder what Arnold Stratton would say if he knew Carson was mixing with a Hammond?'

As he walked on, shock soon turned to amusement. 'Luke Hammond's sister-in-law, roughing it with a man like Carson!' He rolled his eyes. 'By! It's a turn-up for the books, and no mistake!'

Unable to contain himself, he made his way straight to Jack's place. The small house in Penny Street was furnished better than he himself could afford, a step up from his own humble abode.

'I thought I'd seen the last of you till tomorrow.' Jack was just beginning to settle down for an hour of music on the wireless, before getting an early night. 'Tea or coffee?' he asked, inviting him inside.

'Ain't you got nothing stronger?'

'No.'

'Coffee then. I can't abide tea…especially not when
you
make it. I put up with enough dish-water at the factory,' he grumbled, 'I don't see why I should put up with it in my own free time.'

'That's where we differ, you and me,' Jack informed him.

'Is that so?' Always at home in Jack's place, Roy sat himself down. 'And how d'you mek that out?'

Turning to answer, Jack paused at the kitchen door, 'Because you tend to see your time at the factory as being forced on you, in order to earn a living.'

'Too bloody right I do!'

Understanding Roy's point of view, Jack admitted, 'There was a time early on, when I felt like you…hated getting up in the morning and seeing it as precious time wasted, but now I see it in a different way.'

Roy had always known there was more to Jack than met the eye, so he wasn't surprised to learn he had a plan. 'So, what changed?' he wanted to know. 'How d'you see it now?'

Jack answered in simple terms, 'I used to see it as me working for somebody else and making them well-off. Now though, I look on it as all good experience…it's learning time, in preparation for my
own
business. The more I learn, the better I'll be, and the better I am, the quicker I'll get somebody to believe in me…say a bank manager, or a backer who'll take a risk on me.'

Roy nodded in agreement. 'By! If I had the money,' he declared boldly, 'I'd back you myself.'

'Honest? Would you?' Knowing Roy's wicked sense of humour, Jack never knew when to believe what he said. 'Or are you just having me on?'

'Am I heck as like!' Roy was genuinely indignant. 'Any fool can see you'll have your own business one day, it's just a matter o' time.' He gave a knowing wink. 'I dare say once you get your own premises, you'll be away with the best. And what's more, I'll be right there…your right-hand man, looking out for you all the way. Ain't that what best friends are for?'

Jack laughed. 'Looking out for
yourself
, you mean,' he chided, before adding in a serious voice, 'It's allus been my dream, to get my own premises. And when I do, I promise you hand on heart, you
will
be alongside me, and we'll look out for each other. How does that suit you?'

'Suits me just fine.' Roy was thrilled.I'll be the first in my rotten family, to be a foreman.'

'Hey, don't get carried away! I never said you'd be foreman.'

'You'll not be able to refuse,' Roy was confident. 'I'd work my socks off and learn the trade inside out. You'd be proud of me so you would. What! I'd be the best foreman you ever had.'

'All right then,' Jack laughed at his brashness,I'll think about it.'

While Jack made the coffee, Roy made himself comfortable. 'D'you want to know a secret?' he asked tantalisingly.

Jack popped his head round the kitchen door. 'What have you been up to now?'

'I've not been up to nowt! It's just that I know summat you don't.'

Jack returned to making the coffee. 'What's that then?'

'I've just been round to see Don.'

'So?' Returning with the coffee, Jack declared, 'There's nothing mysterious about going to Don's place,' he said. 'You visit him most weeks that I know of.'

Lounging in the chair, Roy took a leisurely sip of his coffee. 'I just thought you might be interested in what I've just seen.'

'Now, why would that be?' Settling into his armchair, one long leg dangling over the side of the chair and the other stretched out to the hearth, Jack waited for an answer.

Roy placed his cup in the hearth and leaned forward, his eyes aglow as he imparted his newly discovered secret. 'He's got a new woman friend.'

Jack stopped him right there. 'Aw, look, I've no interest in the man's love-life, for God's sake. Why would I want to know a thing like that, eh?'

Undeterred, Roy continued, 'She told him her name was Helen, only her name
isn't.
It's Georgina.'

'Helen, Georgina…'Jack shrugged. 'It doesn't matter to me either way. Now then, is there another reason why you've foisted yourself on me tonight, because if there isn't and you intend talking about Carson's new woman-friend, I can think of a thousand better ways to use my time.' Standing up, he headed for the kitchen. 'So, you might as well drink up and head for the street.'