Chapters (71)
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- Part One
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Part Two
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Part Three
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Part Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Part Five
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Books by Barbara Taylor Bradford
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Angela nodded. “That is important. I know from others that it’s grim and rowdy. A lot of drunks at the end of the week, fights, brawling. The worst spot in all of Leeds.”
“I shall be on me guard, I promise, Angela.”
“Will you come and visit me the following Saturday?”
“So ye will still be there?” His eyes rested on hers, and he frowned. “Why are ye staying in Harrogate so long?”
“To do the clothes for Her Ladyship.”
“I don’t know what ter tell Uncle Pat about going ter Harrogate for the day.”
“You could come with Sarah; surely he knows she’s a friend.”
Blackie nodded, but there was a worried look on his face, which Angela noticed. She said quickly, “You could say Finn was going, and you can bring him, you know.”
The cloudy expression on Blackie’s face faded away. “Finn would like that. He’s never been there; sure and he’d enjoy it. All right then. We’ll come with Sarah.”
Angela smiled, her eyes sparkling, and leaning closer, she put her arms around Blackie and held him tightly, filled with a kind of happiness she had never known.
Twenty-Two
Patrick Kennedy had traveled the world in the Royal Navy, and during his seven-year service he had seen and visited many countries: The best and the worst.
Sometimes he had found himself in places that were so run-down and overcrowded they were squalid and almost uninhabitable, and he had turned away in horror and disgust.
Now, on this muggy June morning in Leeds, where he had grown up, he was both startled and sickened as he approached the Bank, nicknamed the Ham Shank in the local vernacular of rhyming slang.
There was a stench in the air and, even from a distance, he realized how foul a smell it was. He took a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and held it to his mouth, wanting to protect himself from the effluvium of muck and slops and that malodor of rotten food and other rubbish that floated around him. Glancing at his friend Jack Blane, he raised a brow, and Jack nodded as he, too, brought a handkerchief to his mouth. Blackie and Finn, who were walking alongside them, followed suit.
Once they came to the end of the road near the railway line between Leeds and Selby, Patrick came to a standstill.
His three companions surrounded him and listened as he removed the handkerchief, and said, “It’s obviously a deprived and decaying slum across the road. And I want us to go in and out as fast as we possibly can. I don’t think we should expose ourselves to disease, and also to the thugs who are bound to be lurking around, intent on making trouble.”