Love or Duty--A saga set in 1920s Liverpool Read Online Free Page B

to balance. As she put her weight on her injured leg she let out a yelp of pain the moment her foot touched the ground. Tears rolled down her cheeks but she brushed them away with the back of her hand.
    â€˜Come on, I haven’t the time to stand here all day,’ Ellen muttered, hitching the baby higher in her arms and grabbing hold of Kelly by one shoulder and half lifting, half dragging her. ‘Into the kitchen with you and I’ll find you a crust. You’d better come along as well and I’ll make us both a cuppa and we can have a talk,’ she added looking over her shoulder at Penny.
    The kitchen was at the far end of the passage. It was a narrow room with an oblong table in the centre of it. On one side of it, under the window that looked out on to a yard that was cluttered with a miscellany of junk, there was a wooden bench seat. On the other side were three wooden chairs. The centre slat was missing in the back of one of the chairs and the seats of the other two were stained with spilled food and drink.
    A tousled-haired little girl who looked about two years old was tied into a rickety high chair. She was picking up food with her fingers from an enamel bowl that was on the tray in front of her. Another child, a boy who appeared to be a couple of years younger than Kelly, was sitting on the floor pushing a battered tin car backwards and forwards and making zooming noises as he did so.
    Ellen Murphy pushed Kelly towards the bench and left her to struggle on to it. She dumped the baby she was carrying into a dilapidated wicker clothes basket on the floor. Then, delving into the pocket of her skirt, she brought out a dummy and jammed it into the baby’s mouth. Picking up a box of matches she lighted the gas ring that was standing on top of a low wooden cupboard and put a tin kettle on top of it to boil.
    Kelly was whimpering in a high-pitched whine and the small girl banged her metal dish on the tray to try and attract attention.
    â€˜Shut up the lot of yer,’ Ellen Murphy yelled at them. ‘Let’s be having a bit of quiet while I talk to this lady. Sit yourself down,’ she ordered, wiping crumbs from the seat of one of the chairs with her skirt before pushing it towards Penny.
    Penny hesitated for a moment because there was still a greasy patch on the seat of the chair but decided that there was nothing she could do about it so smiled politely and accepted.
    â€˜So you were the one who knocked our Kelly down, were you,’ Ellen Murphy stated triumphantly. ‘As you can see her leg’s broken and they says at the hospital that she won’t be able to walk properly for a month or more. She’s hurt her arm and shoulder as well and she’s bruises all over. How the hell I’m going to manage to look after her for that length of time I don’t know. Brian’s a little terror and I needs to be keeping my eye on him most of the day as well as Lily who’s into everything unless I keep her tied into the high chair,’ she rattled on as she banged a couple of chipped cups down on to the table in front of Penny.
    â€˜Takes me all my time looking after the new baby so I count on Kelly to keep an eye on Lily and young Brian. Now, the state she’s in she won’t be able to do so will she? Not that you’d understand what it’s like to be tied with four young kids; not you, a well-to-do young lady who’s dressed up and drives round in a big motor car all day.’
    Penny felt the hot blood creeping into her cheeks. Although Ellen Murphy hadn’t added ‘and knocks children down’ it was implied by the tone of her voice.
    â€˜I do understand you have problems, Mrs Murphy,’ Penny told her. ‘I’m a school teacher, so I do know how demanding young children can be, especially if they are not kept entertained or occupied.’
    â€˜Entertained? What’s that when it’s at home?’ Ellen asked with a shrill