Coming Home to the Four Streets by Nadine Dorries (books that read to you .txt) 📗

season ticket for the football for the lads and myself – our Harry, he deserves that.’

‘Five hundred pounds…’ She let the words roll around her mouth. ‘Five hundred pounds, Tommy, that’s such a relief! Why didn’t you tell me? I’ve been worried sick about whether or not you’d be taken on down at the docks or if we would have enough to manage until you got work.’

‘Because I wanted to show you that I’m not the useless eejit you think I am, that’s all.’

Maura squeezed her husband’s hand. As the realisation sank in that all was not lost, Maura had felt a thrill of excitement run through her while the ship blew its horn to let Liverpool know they were approaching as the jetty came into sight.

‘It’s a good thing, Tommy, to know where we belong. It’s good for the kids too. They know everyone on the four streets and everyone knows them; there’s no one to judge them, everyone has the same. We all know what it’s like to go without and kindness comes from that. It may have cost us to find it out, but at least now we know where we belong and isn’t that a richness in itself? And to think, we have the five hundred pounds to add to it! I feel like the luckiest woman in the world.’

Tommy felt a lump in his throat. Any other woman would have made his life a misery for spending all they had on the Talk of the Town and only getting half of it back, but not his Maura, who always looked for the good in every situation.

Now, as the taxi passed by the shops on one side and the warehouses on the other, Maura’s thoughts turned to more immediate problems.

‘Tommy, I hope to God Kathleen is still up to get a drink for the kids. I’m gasping meself.’

Tommy nuzzled her neck. ‘Mind if I nip down to the Anchor, queen? Let them all know I’m back like. Just for the one.’

Maura knew she could trust Tommy and that he would keep to his word, that it would be just for the one; nonetheless, her answer was unequivocal. She looked straight into his eyes and said, ‘No, you flamin’ can’t. You can get this lot unloaded into the house and get the fire lit – we left coal in the hole, if it’s still there – while I take the kids to Kathleen’s.’

Tommy leant over and whispered, ‘I’m not done with you yet, Mrs Doherty. Don’t think you are off the hook tonight.’

Maura elbowed him in the ribs. ‘Tommy, stop! Do you think I’m as big an eejit as you are?’

‘Ah, go on, Maura, will you? Let me have one jar, for I’m desperate to see Jer and it’s darts night, so they will all be in there. Can’t have the lads thinking I’ve snuck back like a thief in the night, can I? They’ll think I have something to hide. Let me be the big man for just one night, buy everyone a pint. Besides, I need to know what ships are coming in, what work is on. No time to waste.’

Maura was losing patience with him. ‘Something to hide? You have,’ she said, and there was no mercy in her tone. ‘Tell them about the monster, Cleary, how our Harry nearly died, and then there’ll be no question why we’ve come back home. Or, if you like, tell them that it rained for six months and we’ve all grown a set of gills.’ Her voice caught and she turned and looked out of the window, not wanting Angela to see the tears that had sprung into her eyes.

Tommy slipped his hand across her back and kissed her on the cheek. ‘You’re tired,’ he said. ‘Go on, Maura, just one pint and I’ll give you a treat when I get back home.’

Maura squirmed away from him. ‘Tommy, the kids! Do you have no shame? And have you not heard, big-man-buying-everyone-a-drink, a fool and his money are easily parted?’ Tommy grinned and kissed her on the neck again. This time she elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

‘Don’t you dare try and get your own way! No, Tommy, you are not going to the pub. You’ve lived in one for the past six months, it won’t hurt you to have a night off. Help me drop the kids at Kathleen’s and Angela and Niamh can sleep in the bed with Nellie, the boys on the floor.’

They were both steeled for the fact that there would be no beds aired in their own house and that they would struggle to get warm for a couple of nights until the bricks of the house had warmed. It was months since the fire was lit and the house would be damp through.

Harry was the next to wake up and in an instant had his mother’s attention. ‘How are you feeling, little fella?’ she asked him.

‘Are we here?’ He asked the same question they had all asked repeatedly since they had left the Talk of the Town.

Tommy ruffled his hair. ‘We are, lad, look out of the window.’

Harry leant forward and rubbed the window with his jacket for a clearer view. ‘Da! There’s the docks and there’s two ships in. Oh, I’ve never seen that one before, it has two funnels. I’m going to be a sailor, Mam, when I grow up,’ he said to Maura.

‘Oh no you are not, Harry, you are never going to be out of your mam’s sight for that long, I can tell you.’

Tommy gently nudged Harry away from the window. ‘I’ve no idea what that ship is,’ he said, ‘but Maura, Captain Conor’s is next to it and you know what that means?’

‘There’s the Anchor, Da,’ said Angela, and as they coasted alongside the pub, someone walked out of the door, throwing a light out onto the yard in front.

Tommy rubbed his hands together; he hadn’t felt happier since before Kitty had died. ‘Aye, aye!’ He