In Lonnie's Shadow Read Online Free Page A

by the mantle. The hearth was cold. He contemplated the lack of comfort in the tiny front room. There was nothing truly cherished here. Everything spoke of trade rather than enjoyment. A figurine, the statue of a woman in flowing robes, was chipped. The wine glass next to it stood half- emptied and scummy. The velvet chaise longue dragged from Mrs B’s Big House was worn pink in patches, no longer fine enough for the pollies and the toffs who went there for their bit of skylarking. Lonnie answered with a sense of deep shame on Pearl’s behalf, ‘You know me. Trouble seems to follow.’
    ‘Let me at least clean you up.’ She reached over.
    ‘Can’t let your mam see you looking like something the dog dragged in, or smelling like one, either.’
    He drew away his arm. ‘Stop fussing. I’ll just hang around until those turkeys quieten down. Sounds like Mrs B’s about to kill her.’
    ‘Stop arguing, yer soft chump.’ Pearl fetched her washbowl. ‘Sit down now and let me see those wounds.’ She led him to the tattered French lovers’ chair, inched off his jacket and tended to the cuts on his arm. ‘Anyways, you may have quite a wait. They’ll scratch and tear at each other, but it’ll stop short of murder. Annie’s no real match for Madam. Although I’ll sleep better when this business is over and done with.’
    Lonnie could see she was putting on a brave face.
    ‘She has to tire of coming after you, sooner or later,’ he said, knowing full well about the threats Annie Walker had been making of late. Pearl’s safety depended upon her working off an unreasonable debt of twenty-two pounds, two shillings. An amount Annie Walker decided had been lost to her business when Pearl crossed over to Mrs B, and which she was now claiming, in order to force Pearl back into her employ.
    ‘Annie may be no match for Madam, but you don’t know what she’s like with us girls.’
    The shouts of the two women silenced Pearl. She hoped Madam was indeed the stronger of the two, for her choice to come under Big House protection had been a deliberate way of ensuring her own survival. She wouldn’t go back. Never. Not after what she had seen Annie do on the night of the wild storm. Pearl couldn’t even utter the words out loud; Biddy’s precious babby wrapped in newspaper and tossed out like a clot of muck; left to wash along the street in the stormwater. There were things you dared not reveal. Vile and heartless things. And all she’d done was stand there gawping. She should have done more. Maybe if she had, Biddy would have carried the little mite a full term. Although the truth of it was, and didn’t she know it, things would have all ended up the same way.
    Lonnie interrupted her thoughts. ‘You should’ve walked out on Annie a long time ago.’
    ‘Don’t you think I’ve told myself that already? The only way to get her off me back once and for all is to pay up. By the time Madam creams off her percentage, there’s not much left over.’
    ‘If I had some spare coppers I’d willingly hand them over. As it is I’m giving Carlo a hand for the extra. It’s been tight since Da.’ He stopped, knowing they sounded like feeble excuses.
    A dark frown creased Pearl’s forehead. ‘I don’t expect nobody to fix things. Needless to say I’m on me own with this one.’
    The fiery argument between the two women was still going strong. Annie’s voice rose harsh and shrill.
    ‘I’ll stay out of yer rotten streets for now. But I want me girl back, or I’ll have her fixed good and proper.’
    ‘And I’m telling you, Annie Walker, you’re not the only one with brawn behind you. My Burke’ll take anyone on blindfolded, with one hand bound behind his back. It’ll be over my dead body before I ever answer to the likes of you.’ Suddenly her tone changed. ‘But think for a minute, woman. What good will it do either of us if we let Burke and Jack kill each other?’
    ‘I’m wise to them two madams,’ whispered Pearl,