THE BONDAGE OF LOVE (9 page)

The young man rose slowly to his feet, all the while staring at Katie.

Then he pushed the chair towards her as if he were saying, take it.

And Katie said, "Thank you. But ... but there was really no need," she looked about her "I could have sat on the couch."

She sat down on the chair and found herself within an arm's length across the table from the master of the house. And she smiled at him and said, "If we had brought an unexpected avalanche into our house, my dad would have reacted much the same way as you did, Mr.

Gallagher. "

"And what is your dad's name, and what is yours?"

"I'm Katie, and my dad is named Bailey." And she now pointed towards the couch, saying. That's my brother, Willie, and that's our friend, Sammy, Sammy Love. "

"Sammy Love? Love? There's not many people called Love. And you don't see much of that these days either. Would you be Davey Love's lad?"

"Yes, Mr. Gallagher, one and the same."

"Well! Well! I knew Davey Love. He would go to

Mass only when he was dragged there, but fight for the Pope up to his last breath, like all the mad Irish. "

"Len!"

"Oh, I know, I know."

"No, you don't know. And when you don't know keep your mouth shut.

Don't you remember? His was the big funeral not so long ago when Father Hankin spoke so well of him from the pulpit in the Mass later on on the Sunday. "

"Oh, aye, aye." He was nodding at his wife now.

"But what I maintain is, death doesn't make saints out of sinners. As far as I can remember, Davey Love was a bruiser."

Willie's elbow in Sammy's side did not check the retort he was about to make, but Katie's voice did, for she was saying, "Oh, you couldn't have known our Mr. Love, Mr. Gallagher. Because he was ... well, to use a pun, a lovely man. Of course, he could use his fists, and from what I understand, the first time he used them was on the man who ran off with his wife. Now I'm sure, Mr. Gallagher, if anyone had attempted to do that to you, oh, I could see you would have stood on your hind legs."

She was smiling at him, and after a short silence, she went on, "I know he was given a prison sentence for this, but, as my dad said, it was a

miscarriage of justice; he should have had a medal."

When there was no response to what she had said, she glanced towards the occupants of the couch before, turning back and looking at Mr. Gallagher, she added, "You see, Sammy there was very small when his mother left him, and he missed her. It was after this that he came to visit our family, and his father came too. Oh, yes. Yes." She nodded now at the face staring at her as if she had been contradicted.

"Right from the beginning Mr. Love became a friend of our family. Oh, and I know he hit that workman; but wouldn't you have, Mr. Gallagher, if someone had called you a big, loud, Irish galoot, or some such?"

At this there was a stir in the room and smothered laughter from here and there.

"Now, wouldn't you?" Katie pressed the man.

Len, who now seemed bemused, drew in a deep breath, pushed his shoulders back and then replied, "It remains to be seen. Drunk, yes, I would. Sober, I would have hoped I would have the sense to fight him with me tongue, knowing of me record and that if I used me fists I might be sent along the line again. He might have been a lovely man, in your opinion, but he hadn't much sense."

"Oh, yes he had, and wisdom."

Her voice had changed, for she had practically snapped the words at him. And again she had the attention of the room, especially that of Daisy whose mouth was open as she looked at this swanky piece leaning towards her father and saying, "I'm telling you, Mr. Gallagher, he was he was the wisest man I know, or any of our family will ever know. And we all miss him." Then, suddenly sitting back in her chair she looked about her at the silent group and, closing her eyes, she drooped her head slightly, saying, "Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, I'm very sorry."

"What you sorry about, girl?"

Her head came up and she again looked at the man opposite her.

"I

should say, you've got nothing to be sorry about," he was saying.

"Meself, I've only met you minutes ago and you've had the bloody nerve to put me in me place, while at the same time praising a fella that I felt was no better than me self or not as good as. Well, you've spoken your mind and that's something. And you've kept your own opinion of the man, and that's something. Speak as you find. I would say, always speak as you find." And now looking towards the couch, he said, "Your escorts haven't much to say for themselves, have they?"

"You haven't given us much chance." The retort, of course, came from Sammy.

And he, taking his lead from Katie and using diplomacy, went on, "I know something. If me dad had been alive, he wouldn't have had far to go for a mate, in all ways."

The man at the table said nothing. It was as if he didn't know exactly how to take this. But glancing at the girl opposite him, he remembered that she held big Davey Love in high esteem, and so he met the fella's son halfway by saying, "Well, as the poor fella's dead, there'll be no proving that. But'

he nodded from one to the other 'you lot up at that Centre, you don't use your fists, except them in the ring, you use your feet. Topple people over onto their backs. That one there," he pointed at Daisy, "I tell her it's indecent, and I mean it, it's indecent, to bring a man or boy low by turning him on to his back.

She's had a shot at me, but I'm still a match for her. Oh aye. " He squared his shoulders now. Then glancing around the room at the members of his family before again addressing Katie, he said, " Today, this lot don't know they're born. With the exception of Harry there, they're all living on the state. And he's starting on Monday, the first time for a year, and two years out of school. My! In my time. "

"Oh, in your time." This had come from the young man with the cards who was still seated at the table, but who did not lift his head, and his father now bawled at him, "Aye! Mike, in my time they wouldn't have been sitting there playing for ha' pennies on a Saturday afternoon, they would have been outside kicking a football, anybody's football, or on our old bikes scouring the country, not sitting on their arses from Monday morning till Saturday night waiting for work to come."

"Len!"

He turned on his wife now and shouted, "Aw! don't Len me in that tone, Annie. I'm solid and sober, and I'll speak me mind. If this young skit

across here, who's come into the house uninvited, can have her say, I can have mine." He was pointing at Katie. Then, his voice suddenly changing and his manner, too, he said, "I didn't mean that, miss, young skit. You're no young skit. It's just a habit one gets into, but it makes me wild when I think back. You see," - he leant towards her 'the day I was fourteen, I was pushed down the pit. Aye, on me fourteenth birthday I was pushed down the pit; and I was there until I was twenty.

And I said, by God! I don't know how much longer I'm going to live, but I'm going to see the sun set and breathe fresh air all day long, at some job or other.

"Cos I'm not going down that hole any more. And I didn't. I went into the shipyard and from there to the steel works

Oh, aye. " Again he pushed his shoulders back, " I was a steel man. For years and years I was a steel man, and proud of it. Look," - he punched his cheeks with his middle finger, saying 'see the blood veins. You never lose them; that's with the heat. And the blue ones on me brow are from the coal.

You never lose those either. But oh, to be a steel man, it was something in those days. Fifteen years I was there;

and there's no greater sight than to see steel being born. We had a fella, you know, worked in our shop, and he used to make poetry about it. He said it was conceived like any child. And it was that. And when it was born, there it came out. Beautiful! Beautiful! Aye, it was that. But this fella used to say, it was a treacherous baby. And he was right there because it could take the skin off you. I saw it happen once. "

"Len! No more of that; we've heard it before," and, straightaway looking at Daisy, Annie said, "Go and put the kettle on; I'm sure your friends could do with a cup of tea." . When Daisy brought in the tray holding four cups of tea and placed it on the table, the young man, named Mike, rose quickly and gathered up the cards and coppers from the glass dish, while Annie called to Willie and Sammy, saying, "Would you two men like it there, or would you like to come to the table?"

"Give it here, Mam." Daisy quickly picked up two cups and took them to the couch.

"D'you take sugar?" she said.

"Yes, please." Willie smiled at her; but Sammy said, "No, thanks, Daisy, no sugar for me." And at this Daisy leant down close to Willie's ear and in a hoarse whisper said, "Now don't you say, he's so sweet he doesn't need any, or I'll skelp you."

At the table Mrs. Gallagher handed Katie a cup of tea, and she asked, "D'you take sugar?" And Katie replied, "No, thank you." But she watched the little woman spoon four large spoons full of sugar into the next cup, give it a stir, and hand it across to her husband, who took it without any remark about the tea, but continued as if he hadn't been checked by his wife about

describing events in the steel works

"I was strong in those days, miss," he said. He was holding the cup and saucer almost under his chin. The steam from it was wafting over his face, in Katie's eyes covering the red marks and blue blotches on his skin. And through the mist she glimpsed him as he might have been in his youth, a strapping young fellow, proud of his strength. She wondered why he was in this condition now? But only for a moment, for he was now telling her.

"I could lift a bar in those days," he said, 'that would take two or three of the skinnymalinks these days to even move. And I was well known. Oh, yes, miss, I was well known. I was a steel man. " And

then after a longer drink from the cup he enquired of her, "Does your dad drink?"

"He likes a glass of whisky." She smiled at him again.

"He comes foaming in at times after a busy day, and if my mother or Nell, she's our friend, asks if he could do with a cup of tea he answers, some times very scornfully, " Tea! No, I want something harder than tea. " So he has a whisky, sometimes two."

"Lucky man. Lucky man. One who can take it and know when to stop. But' -

he wrinkled his nose 'luckier still one who has it there when he needs it.

Me now, I used to be able to down six whiskys and chasers, that's a pint after, you know, and not turn a hair. But ... well, since I had me accident things have been different. Your body changes, you know, after an accident."

When a voice mumbled, "Yes, he tried to swim," the man made a movement as if to rise from his chair, and again his wife spoke, not to him this time but to her son, and her voice was harsh as she said, "That's enough of it, Mike.

I'll talk with you later and you'll be able to hear me voice, you will that."

Then looking from Katie to Willie and Sammy, she said in a different tone,

"We know your names but you don't know ours. Well, the one I've just been addressing is me eldest, that is me eldest here. Me real eldest is John, and he's in Australia. And me eldest daughter, Lucy, is away too. And then

there's Frank." She pointed to the other card player.

"As for those two layabouts," she had swung round now to where the earlier occupants of the couch were sitting on the front room chairs, and she grinned at them as she said, 'these two layabouts are Sep and Harry.

And Sep," she nodded at Katie now, 'is starting work on Monday, and if I'm to believe what I hear through Daisy, your dad is Mr. Bailey, the contractor, isn't he?"

"Yes. Yes, he is." Katie now turned and looked at the young man who was smiling shyly at her, and she said to him, "Who are you going to be under?"

"I ... I don't know yet, miss. I just met a Mr. Ormesby. He comes into the club, you know, and he says he'll have me set on. I'll have to do odd jobs at first, run around, you know."

"Tea boy." This came from Mike.

"Tisn't tea boy, Mike. I won't be a tea boy. Mr. Ormesby said I could be apprenticed, either carpentry, or bricklaying, whichever I'm needed on most.

You--' " Now, now, Sep. " His mother waved towards him; then swung round on her elder son, crying, " I'll slap your mouth in the open for you one of these days, I will that. Why don't you get yourself to hell out of it and look around? But no, you're too big for your boots. "

The young man now turned on his mother, and in a voice as loud as hers, he yelled, "I was apprenticed, Mam, don't forget. Three years I was

apprenticed, and look at me. For two years I've been going the rounds, and the big boots are worn out. Well, I'm going round no more.

They can bloody well keep me. "

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry about this." The little woman was nodding towards Sammy and Willie now. Then turning to Katie, she muttered, "I am indeed, miss. I'm sorry about this. Family rows should be kept for private times.

But... but apart from being bone idle, some of my lot are bone ignorant, and it's me that says it." She now put her forearm under her high breasts and heaved them up, before ending in a softer tone, "Drink your tea, lass."

Katie was about to take a drink from the cup when she gulped on it as Daisy's voice, from behind her, said, "I told you, didn't I? I told you."

Katie now laid the cup and saucer down on the table in such a way that the tea spilt over from the cup. And turning on Daisy, she said, "Yes, you told us. Well, I can say the same to you when you come and visit us, because as Sammy's father would have said, " There's often the divil's fagarties," if you know what that means. Miss Gallagher. And it goes on in our house, I know. I've got an adopted sister, much younger but she causes rue tions.

Willie there ... well, when he starts, he doesn't know when to stop. As for my dad. Oh!" She turned from glaring at Daisy now and, her gaze and voice softening, she looked at Mr. Gallagher again as she said, "As I said, as for my dad, I bet you couldn't hold a candle to him when he gets going. Bawling Bill Bailey, they call him at the works. And Bawling Bill Bailey he is at home at times. But there's another one of us, and that's my brother who is now in London, studying to be a doctor. And all I can say about Mark is, God help his patients, because he hasn't patience with himself or with anybody else. Willie and he' - she now thumbed over her shoulder 'used to go at each other's throats. So, you see' - she looked about her now 'it's nothing new to us, family get-tog ethers As for myself, in my time I think I have caused more ructions than all of them put together." She gave a little laugh.