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Back Goodnight Lady Save as PDF
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

Tommy gave a low whisde. What he couldn’t do with that! He had the lowdown now on how to run a good ‘house’. Once he had the capital, he would buy a place and run his own. He wouldn’t stay the rest of his life at Nellie Deakins’. He looked at Briony and a glimmer of a plan formed in his mind.

‘Would you care to invest five hundred in a little business venture with me, Bri?’

She was intrigued.

‘What kind of business venture?’

Tommy took a deep breath and began to speak. And as Briony listened to him, to his plans, to his dreams, she felt a faint stirring in herself.

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Briony looked around her and took in first the high ceilings, then the grey and gold flock on the walls, and lastly the rather garish chandeliers on the ceiling. She looked at Tommy who smiled at her. She nodded her head, smiling back.

The small stocky man with the handlebar moustaches, Mr Tillier the builder, grinned at them, showing pointed teeth.

‘I knew you’d like it. I ain’t overdone it, see? Now Nellie’s place is nice, but it ain’t got no class. All that red and burgundy, it looks what it is. This place, it’s got a bit of class, and as you’re having only a select clientele, well then, Bob’s your uncle.’

He watched the young couple as they walked from room to room. The boy, or man as he tried to think of him, was cute. Cute as a nine-bob note, and as bent, but the girl - and she was a girl-was a completely different kettle of fish. He’d put her at no more than seventeen or eighteen, though he had heard through the grapevine that she was only coming up to her fourteenth birthday. Well, he mused, she must have pleased someone into giving her the money that she’d been spending like water. Her voice was nice, she spoke well, but it was forced. She still slipped in a ‘bugger’ or a ‘bleeding’ when she spoke to the young man.

He watched her climb the staircase. He was proud of the staircase. It curved round, and any of the ladies who walked down it would be shown to their best advantage. The chandeliers above it were of real crystal, their light giving off a bluish hue that made even the worst skin look good. As toms grew older it seemed the skin was the first thing to go with most of them, so good lighting was a priority for a class house.