A Liverpool Legacy Read Online Free Page A

remembered climbing stiffly off Sea Sprite and virtually collapsing, unable to do another thing. Valerie and Helen had taken over. She knew they’d pulled Pete out of the water and sent for the local doctor. He’d prescribed sedatives for her and Sylvie, and the girls had made them take hot baths and get into bed.
    She felt across her bedside table for her watch. It told her it was half past four but she knew from the light it wasn’t morning. She pulled herself across the bed to see Pete’s alarm clock, but that agreed with her watch. She felt she’d been asleep for a long time but surely not for the best part of twenty-four hours?
    She struggled out of bed, found her dressing gown and slippers and crept downstairs. The house was quiet but she could hear a voice and it drew her to the living room. Helen was swinging gently back and forth in the old rocking chair and cooing to her baby Jenny as she gave her a bottle. Helen had long dark hair with an auburn tinge and was said to have her mother’s pretty upturned nose. Valerie was nothing like her to look at, she took after her father.
    Pete’s birthday cards were still spread along the mantelpiece. ‘Pete,’ she blurted out. ‘Where is he? Is he all right?’
    She knew she’d alarmed Helen. ‘No, no, I’m afraid he isn’t,’ there were tears in her dark eyes. She got to her feet and hurried the baby out to her pram on the terrace. Millie followed. The storm had passed but the day was grey and dull. She saw her settle Jenny in her pram without much ceremony. Predictably, the baby began to protest, but her mother dropped a kiss on the child’s forehead. ‘Off you go to sleep, love.’
    ‘What’s happened to Pete?’ Millie demanded. She felt she was peering through swirling mist and could feel herself swaying. She groped to a chair for support. ‘Tell me.’
    Helen took her hand and led her back to the rocking chair in the living room. ‘There’s no easy way to tell you, Millie. Dad was dead when we got him out of the water.’
    ‘Oh God! He drowned?’
    ‘No, they did a post-mortem on him this morning and found there was very little water in his lungs.’ She mopped at her eyes and blew her nose. ‘You told us he’d been swept overboard by the boom . . .’
    ‘That’s what Sylvie said.’
    ‘Well, it cracked him on the head; we could see a big wound. They say it fractured his skull and that he was probably unconscious when he went into the water. That would be why he didn’t help himself.’
    Millie felt tears burning her eyes. ‘It all happened so quickly, I wasn’t able to take it in.’
    ‘You did marvellously well, bringing the boat back safely. Val and I are very impressed with that. It could have been much worse.’
    ‘Where is Val?’
    ‘She took the twins out walking to tire them out. She thought she’d better ring Uncle James to let him know about Dad. He sent his deepest sympathy to you.’
    Millie sniffed into her handkerchief. James and Pete had not got on well, but Pete had been two years older and head of the family. Because James was a virtual invalid and had hardly come to the office in recent years, Pete had run the business and they’d all relied on it to earn them a living.
    ‘He’s quite worried, Millie, about how the firm is going to manage without Dad.’
    That thought was like a kick in the stomach to Millie. Pete was going to be missed both at home and at work. She was reminded that it was very much a family business. This was a total calamity, she couldn’t face it. ‘How’s Sylvie?’
    ‘Her hands were raw and bleeding from pulling on the rope. The doctor dressed them.’
    ‘Where is she?’
    ‘She hasn’t woken up from the sedative yet.’
    ‘Yes I have, well, I’ve half woken anyway.’ Sylvie staggered in and slumped down on the sofa. ‘I know Dad isn’t all right,’ she choked, ‘but what’s happening?’
    Helen started to repeat the sad tale. Millie couldn’t bear to hear it all again and