BooksBarbecue
Back Goodnight Lady
Chapters (60)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Praise
  4. Dedication
  5. BOOK ONE
  6. Prologue 1989
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. BOOK TWO - 1925
  17. Chapter Ten - 1925
  18. Chapter Eleven
  19. Chapter Twelve
  20. Chapter Thirteen
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-one
  29. Chapter Twenty-two
  30. Chapter Twenty-three
  31. Chapter Twenty-four
  32. Chapter Twenty-five
  33. Chapter Twenty-six
  34. Chapter Twenty-seven
  35. Chapter Twenty-eight
  36. Chapter Twenty-nine
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-one
  39. Chapter Thirty-two
  40. BOOK THREE - 1947
  41. Chapter Thirty-three
  42. Chapter Thirty-four
  43. Chapter Thirty-five
  44. Chapter Thirty-six
  45. Chapter Thirty-seven
  46. Chapter Thirty-eight
  47. Chapter Thirty-nine
  48. Chapter Forty
  49. BOOK FOUR - 1968
  50. Chapter Forty-one - 1968
  51. Chapter Forty-two
  52. Chapter Forty-three
  53. Chapter Forty-four
  54. Chapter Forty-five
  55. Chapter Forty-six
  56. Chapter Forty-seven
  57. Chapter Forty-eight
  58. Chapter Forty-nine
  59. Chapter Fifty - 1970
  60. EPILOGUE

Molly pushed him from her in disgust. ‘So it’s come to this? You’d pimp out your own child, you dirty blackguard!

‘We had to eat, woman, can’t you see that?’

‘Why couldn’t we eat with your wages then? Because they all went in The Bull, didn’t they? Didn’t they? By Christ, I hope the priest’s waiting when you go to Confession. I hope he chokes the bloody life out of you. As soon as this child’s born I’m going to get Eileen, and if she’s busted, Paddy Cavanagh, I’ll have the Salvation Army after you, I swear it. I’ll scream what you’ve done from the bloody rooftops!’

Molly looked like a mad woman. Her hair was tangled and in disarray, her huge swollen breasts heaving with the effort of making herself heard. Suddenly she saw her life with stunning clarity. She saw the dirt floor, strewn with debris. Saw the only chair in the room with its broken back, the small amount of tea wrapped up carefully on the mantelpiece to keep the rats and roaches from it. The smell of the sewers was in her nose continually. They ran alongside the basement, and when it rained human excrement was forced through the iron grid in the wall. It was as if something burst inside her head.

‘You brought me this low, Paddy Cavanagh, and I allowed it. I tried to stand by you, with your drinking and your whoring. Never a full meal for any of the children. But this last act has finished you with me. My lovely Eileen sold to an old man! You sicken me. Sicken me to my stomach.’

Paddy picked up one of the sovereigns and walked from the room. As he opened the door a gust of icy wind blew in.

Eileen was lying in a big copper bath and Mrs Horlock was combing the lice from her hair. The smell of paraffin, sickly sweet, hung over them.

‘You’ve got lovely hair, child. Nice and thick. Once you get some meat inside you, it’ll shine. Like a raven’s wing, it is.’

She smiled a toothless smile and Eileen smiled tremulously back.

Mrs Horlock stood up. ‘You lie there now and Cissy will bring you in some more water to rinse yourself off. The scum in the bath is as thick as me four fingers.’