Bye Bye Love Read Online Free

then, that’s enough,’ a firm female voice was saying.
    Scarlett ignored her. She was staring wildly at her mother, at the doctor, willing him to perform some miracle of medical science. But he just gave a sad little shake of the head.
    ‘I’m sorry, Scarlett—’
    ‘No!’ Scarlett howled. Her chest was heaving with sobs, tears welled up and spilled over in a storm of weeping. Her father was there, kneeling beside her, pulling her into his arms. Together they rocked and wept, oblivious to the people around them.
    ‘She was the best woman in the world,’ Victor croaked. ‘A gem, a diamond—’
    Scarlett could only bury her face in his broad chest and cry and cry. It was like the end of the world.
       
     
    After that came a terrible time of official things to be done. However much Scarlett and Victor wanted to shut out the world and mourn the dear woman who had gone, there were people to see, forms to sign, things to arrange. The funeral was very well attended. The Red Lion was a centre of village life. Joan had been there behind the bar all through the terrible war years and the difficult days of austerity afterwards. Everyone missed her round smiling face and her sympathetic ear.

    ‘She was a wonderful woman,’ people said as they left the church.
    ‘One of the best.’
    ‘Salt of the earth.’
    ‘She’ll be much missed.’
    Standing by her father’s side, Scarlett nodded and shook hands and muttered thanks.
    ‘You’re a good girl,’ people said to her. ‘A credit to your mother, a chip off the old block.’
    And all the while she wanted to scream and shout and rage against what had happened. This couldn’t be true, it couldn’t be happening to her. Her mother couldn’t really have gone and left her like this.
    But she had, and there was worse to come.

CHAPTER THREE
     
     
    O NE Saturday about three weeks after the funeral, Scarlett walked into the lounge bar to find her father sitting on a stool at the bar counter staring morosely at a letter. He looked dreadful. There were bags under his eyes, a day’s growth of stubble on his chin and he hadn’t bothered to brush his hair.
    ‘We’ve got to get out,’ he said.
    Scarlett stared at him. ‘What do you mean, get out?’
    ‘The brewery wants us gone. They’ve been holding the licence for us since your mum—’ He hesitated. Neither of them could bring themselves to say the word died . ‘But they won’t go on doing that for ever. They want a licensee on the premises to deal with any bother.’
    Long ago when Scarlett had first learnt to read, she had asked why only her mother had her name above the pub door as licensee. She had been told that the brewery preferred to have a woman in charge and, since the brewery’s word was law as far as they were concerned, she had never really thought to question it.
    ‘But surely they wouldn’t mind having your name up there now,’ she said. ‘You’ve been here for years. Everyone likes you. They all say what a good landlord you are. The brewery must know that, surely? And I could help as much as possible. We can keep it going between us.’
    ‘It’s not as easy as that,’ her father said.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    Victor sighed. He dropped his head in his hands and ran his hands through his hair, making it stick up on end. Fear wormed through Scarlett’s stomach. This was her dad. When things went wrong, her dad was always there with his cheery manner, making it all right again.
    ‘Oh, we don’t have to bother ourselves about a little old thing like that,’ he would say. ‘Worse things happen at sea.’ Or, ‘It’ll all come out in the wash.’ And generally he was right. Up till now, whatever life had thrown at them, they had coped. Surely he could solve whatever was worrying him this time?
    ‘I can’t hold a licence,’ he admitted.
    Scarlett stared at him. ‘Why not?’ she demanded.
    ‘Because I can’t, all right?’
    Fear fuelled the anger that had been simmering in her ever