Love Changes Everything (14 page)

He shrugged his broad shoulders but didn't answer as he concentrated on cutting up the meat on his plate.

‘Please, Dad . . .' she persisted.

His mood changed. ‘For God's sake, shut up. You can take your coat off and put her to bed,' he said nodding towards Cilla, ‘because you're not going anywhere till you've heard what I've got to say.' He put a forkful of food into his mouth and chewed noisily. ‘That won't be till I've finished this lot,' he added as he loaded his fork again.

Sam kept her waiting till he'd finished his meal and wiped round his plate with a piece of bread.

‘Now,' he said, belching loudly, pushing his chair back from the table and going to sit in his armchair, ‘you can go and get me a cup of tea.'

‘I'll do it,' Maggie said, whisking his plate away from the table and heading for the kitchen.

‘Well then, Dad? Are you going to tell me what this news is that you have for me?'

Trixie waited with increasing dread as her father picked a piece of meat from between his teeth with a fingernail. She could feel the goose bumps rising on her arms as she waited for him to speak. Why did he have to torture her like this? she wondered.

‘It'll keep,' he said cryptically. ‘For God's sake, get that one off to bed like I told you and let's have a bit of peace,' he added, nodding his head towards Cilla who was sitting on the floor in the corner, singing the same nursery rhyme over and over in a monotonous sing-song voice.

As she put Cilla to bed, Trixie couldn't stop worrying about what news her father could possibly have that affected her. It was strange that he hadn't seemed concerned about her losing her job and this made her all the more fearful about what he was going to tell her.

Chapter Twelve

Trixie waited all week for her father to make known whatever it was he had to tell her. She kept asking her mother if she knew what it was, but Maggie was as much in the dark as she was.

‘Try and stop thinking about it all the time,' she advised. ‘It's probably nothing very important; he's just having you on and trying to make you jumpy.'

‘It's not like Dad to tease; he's usually far too grumpy to do anything like that,' Trixie said worriedly.

‘It's probably some gossip that he's heard about you losing your job,' her mother reasoned.

‘No.' Trixie shook her head. ‘He mentioned something a bit odd before Christmas so I don't think it's got anything to do with losing my job. In fact, he acted almost as if it didn't matter.'

‘Yes, I must admit that struck me as odd,' her mother agreed. ‘I'd expected him to go off the deep end. Well, don't worry about it, luv. Whatever it was, he seems to have forgotten all about it, so let sleeping dogs lie, I always say.'

The revelation came on Saturday when Trixie arrived home with her final pay packet and handed it over to her father. He sat for a moment, turning it over and over in his hand and saying nothing, but he had a sly smile on his face that made Trixie cringe and her stomach churn as she watched him.

‘So this is your final pay packet from the biscuit factory, is it?' he said ominously.

‘Well, yes, but I'll soon get another job. I'll start looking first thing on Monday morning,' she said quickly.

‘I don't think so.'

His curt tone sent a chill shuddering right through her. ‘You mean you don't think I will find one?' she asked nervously.

He toyed with the pay packet like a cat would with a mouse, tipping it from one hand to the other, rattling the money inside it. ‘I have other plans for you. I told you so before Christmas,' he reminded her. ‘You haven't forgotten, have you?'

‘No, of course not, but you never said what sort of plans they were,' she said tremulously.

‘That was because it wasn't the right time to talk to you about them,' he said, his eyes narrowing as he stared at her fixedly.

Trixie held her breath, waiting for him to go on, to explain what it was he had in mind. When he stayed silent she decided after a few minutes that he still wasn't going to tell her what he was on about – not yet, anyway.

‘I'm going to take you out in a minute, so you'd better hurry up and clear your plate if you want to come with me,' she whispered to Cilla who was sitting at the table pushing food around on her plate instead of eating it.

‘Oh no you're not!' Sam Jackson thumped his fist down on the table, making the dishes rattle and causing Cilla to burst into tears. ‘You're not taking her round to mix with that Irish trash in Horatio Street any more. Go and smarten yourself up, girl, because you're coming with me,' he ordered.

‘Out with you?' Trixie looked startled, wondering if she had heard him correctly. She couldn't remember going anywhere with her father for years; not since before he'd gone into the army, in fact. She looked at her mother for confirmation, but Maggie looked even more surprised than she was.

‘Where are we going, Dad? If it's for a walk, then can Cilla come as well?'

‘No, she bloody well can't. We're not going for a walk and you won't be seeing her again for a while so you may as well say goodbye to her now,' he added moving his chair away from the table.

‘What on earth do you mean by that?' Maggie frowned. ‘Trixie always takes Cilla out on a Saturday afternoon. Why are you telling her to say goodbye to Cilla; what's going on?'

Her father scowled angrily at Trixie. ‘Do as you're bloody well told for once without the two of you asking so many damned questions.'

‘I will, when you tell me what I'm supposed to be doing,' she said balefully.

‘I'm waiting, so get yourself ready and stop giving me lip. Pack your clothes and anything else you want to take with you into a bag because you won't be coming back here again,' he bellowed.

‘What on earth is he on about, Mum?' Trixie asked, really worried now. She didn't like the tone of her dad's voice and her heart was thumping, she felt so frightened. She could tell from the look on her mother's face that she was scared as well. Why couldn't he tell them what he was planning, and not keep torturing them like this? she thought resentfully.

‘I really don't know, luv,' Maggie said quietly, putting an arm round her shoulders and giving her a reassuring hug. ‘What are you on about, Sam? Why in heaven's name does she have to pack her bags?' she demanded.

‘I would have thought it was obvious. She's lost her job so I've fixed up for her to do some other sort of work.'

‘If you mean you want her to live in somewhere, then that's one thing I won't stand for,' Maggie railed.

‘Shut your bloody mouth and don't make things more difficult than they have to be,' Sam told her furiously. ‘She's lost her job and we can't afford to keep her if she isn't earning any money, now can we? We've got one useless little baggage to provide for so we don't want another.'

‘Sam! That's a terrible thing to say,' Maggie exclaimed. There was a tremor in her voice and an ashen look on her face as she picked Cilla up and hugged her close.

‘Cilla isn't useless,' Trixie defended heatedly. ‘She's learning her letters and already she can read a few words. She might even be able to go to school quite soon.'

‘Pigs might fly. She's as thick as a plank and always will be, so don't try to pull the wool over my eyes,' he exploded.

‘No, Trixie is right. She really is telling you the truth, Sam. Little Cilla has turned the corner and is coming along by leaps and bounds,' Maggie said placatingly.

‘I doubt it! If she is, then in future she'll have to do it without Trixie there to help because I've other plans for her.'

Maggie took a deep breath and faced him challengingly. ‘You'd better tell me what these plans are, then,' she insisted. ‘I'm well aware that she needs to get another job because I certainly can't manage on the pittance I earn and the miserable amount you give me each week. I won't have her going into service, though,' she told him boldly. ‘I've always said that no child of mine will ever become a skivvy for other people.'

‘Watch your mouth,' he snarled. ‘I don't take any lip from you or her. She's going to do as I say; I've set it all up for her.'

‘So you keep on saying, but why does she need to take her clothes with her if she isn't going into service?'

‘Stop asking so many bloody questions,' he bellowed angrily. ‘You've five minutes,' he told Trixie as he stood up and rammed his cap on his head.

‘She's not moving from this room till you tell me where she's going,' Maggie told him, standing between him and the door. Her arms were akimbo and there was a dangerous light in her grey eyes. ‘Come on, let's hear it. I want the truth, mind.'

Trixie looked from one to the other of them in astonishment, She'd never heard her mother speak like that to her father before and she was surprised; not that it seemed to be doing any good, though, she thought miserably.

‘Give over and stop making such a bloody fuss. I've found her a place to work where she'll live in. You'll get your money each week; I've arranged that already.' He grinned. ‘Her wages have been paid in advance for the next three months.'

‘I've already told you, no child of mind is going to be a skivvy, so what is this job and where is it? She isn't old enough to be taken on as a nurse in a hospital; not even as a trainee.'

‘She's going to work as a housekeeper for a bloke I know. He's taking her on a three-month trial and after that, if he finds she suits him, then he might marry her.'

Maggie started at him open-mouthed. ‘I don't believe I'm hearing this,' she exploded. There was red-hot fury in her eyes and in her voice. ‘Paid in advance, did he?' she added contemptuously. ‘What you really mean is that you've sold our daughter to some fella like she was a bloody slave!'

‘It's not going to be like that at all,' Sam shouted. ‘She'll be living in a better place than this, let me tell you. He's a middle-aged bachelor with a nice home, and he earns damn good money; he's not only highly thought of but is also very respectable.'

‘A paragon of virtue as well, I suppose, who wouldn't dream of taking advantage of an innocent young girl,' Maggie said acidly. ‘Where did you meet him, down at the boozer?' she went on, her voice full of disdain. ‘What sort of services did you promise she'd supply him with, or would it be better if I didn't ask that?'

‘Shut your foul mouth and mind your own bloody business,' Sam Jackson snarled. ‘The deal's done. She's going there today, so don't let's have any more argy-bargy. One more word out of you and you'll feel the weight of my fist.'

‘Don't talk about me as if I'm not here,' Trixie choked, tears streaming down her face. ‘You can't do this, Dad. I won't go and you can't make me. This is my home and I want to stay here,' she sobbed. ‘Mum needs me, and so does Cilla.'

‘You'll do as I tell you. In the eyes of the law you're still a child till you're eighteen, so you have no bloody say in the matter. In fact, in a lot of things you have to do as I tell you till you're twenty-one, so don't you forget it.'

‘I've done nothing wrong, so you can't send me away from home,' Trixie gulped. She brushed away her tears with the back of her hand and went over to Cilla and hugged her. ‘Mum needs me to help her with Cilla, you know she does, Dad,' she pleaded, looking at him hopefully.

Her father turned away. ‘I've said all I'm going to say, now stop blathering and get yourself ready.'

‘Please tell us who this man is and where he lives before I go anywhere,' Trixie begged, her eyes filling up with tears again. ‘Please don't make me do it, Dad.' She caught at his arm. ‘You can't expect me to move in with some stranger and have to put up with whatever he wants,' she sobbed.

‘She's right, Sam. You must tell us more about him. I need to know as well. Surely you can tell us both a bit more about what you have arranged and set our minds at rest. I'll be worried silly if I don't know where you're taking her. Is she going to be safe with him?'

‘Stop building it up into such a disaster; you make it sound like a fate worse than death.'

‘It might as well be, since you insist that she has to live in,' Maggie pointed out. ‘Some men, even so-called respectable ones, have horrible habits.'

Sam glowered at her and his face grew a dull red. ‘I'm not bloody well asking her to move in with a complete stranger; I've known him, and spoken to him almost every day, for months.'

‘You've only seen him in the pub; you've no idea what he might be like when he's at home in his own house. If he's a bachelor then he's used to being on his own so he might resent having someone living there with him.'

‘Why the hell should he? He wants someone to clean his house, do his washing and have his food on the table when he comes home at night and that's the only time she'll see him.'

‘What about letting me go with you to meet him first and have a chat with him. I'd be a lot easier in my mind if you'd let me do that,' Maggie pleaded.

‘Talk sense, woman! What's he going to think if I do a thing like that?'

‘That we both think the world of our daughter and that we want to make sure she isn't going to come to any harm,' she told him boldly.

‘For Christ's sake, give up and let your tongue have a rest. I've told him she'll be there by three o'clock this afternoon and I intend to keep my word. If we don't get a move on then we're going to be late and that will be a bad start.'