Chapters (73)
- Cover
- 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
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- Keep Reading …
- About the Author
- Also by Barbara Taylor Bradford
- About the Publisher
‘I was thinking to go,’ Finn nodded, putting his bottle down, ‘but I’m not sure now. I might go to meet this girl my friend Tommy O’Hara wrote to me about. He’s from Galway, but he’s down now in London. His friend, Moira Aherne, has come to Leeds. He said I’d like her and that she’d like me, said I should look her up and be a friendly face.’
Blackie nodded. ‘Ye well might, and ye should go. Where does she stay?’ He raised a black brow and said, with a grin, ‘She might live in Upper Armley, if ye are lucky.’
‘No, she don’t,’ Finn said. ‘She lives somewhere called the Bank.’
Blackie sat upright, peering at his friend intently. ‘Are ye sure? What district did he say again?’
‘The Bank, it’s between the Selby railway line and the River Aire. That’s what he wrote. I’ve got the full address in me room.’
‘The Ham Shank, or Ham and Shank,’ Blackie pronounced, and shook his head. ‘Ye shouldn’t go there, Finn. Not alone.’
‘Why, what’s wrong with it?’ Finn asked, his curiosity aroused.
‘That ain’t such a nice neighbourhood,’ Blackie said, thinking back to the time he’d lodged there during his time as a navvy. The Ham Shank was home to many Irish people who’d travelled to Yorkshire, had been since the mid-1800s. But it was dangerous: the police patrolled there in threes, and the only person safe to walk alone in the nearby streets was a priest. That’s what it was like; it was a place for the poorest and most desperate. But he didn’t want to make his friend anxious. ‘Full of roughs and toughs it is!’ he told him.
Finn was startled. ‘But I thought a lot of Irish lived there, and—’
‘They do,’ Blackie said, cutting across him swiftly. ‘In fact, it’s a big Irish colony, so to speak.’ He paused, then lowered his voice. ‘I had to live there a couple o’ times in a boarding house, when I was working as a navvy. But don’t remind me uncle about that. There’s a lot of violence and heavy drinking. Also, Saturday would be the worst night of the week. It’s not the kind of place ye want to be frequenting.’ He shook his head once more. ‘Ye might be tall, but ye are not as tall as me, and half my weight.’
‘Are ye saying I might get into a fight, Blackie? I wouldn’t. I’d keep to meself and just go and see this girl, Moira, and that would be that.’