Josephine Cox 3-Book Collection 2: The Loner, Born Bad, Three Letters

‘I just need to talk over my ideas with you, about colour schemes, shelving and layout – that sort of thing?’

‘Well, yeah, o’ course. I’d enjoy that. When were you thinking?’

His face lit up. ‘If you’re not doing anything right now, I’ve got the key.’ Digging into his pocket he took out a long iron key and waved it under her nose.

‘Wouldn’t it be better if you asked Judy?’ Annie said carefully.

‘Not yet, not until it’s all finished. I want it to be a surprise.’

‘I see.’ She could come and do the donkey work, but Judy wouldn’t have to lift a finger. But Annie didn’t blame anyone. It was only what she might have expected.

‘So, will you come with me now and look it over?’ he said eagerly. ‘Can I steal a few minutes of your time?’

Annie didn’t need asking twice. In fact, if Lenny wanted to ‘steal’ the rest of her life, it would be his for the taking.

They spent a full hour in the shop. ‘You were right,’ Annie said, stepping over a jutting floor-board. ‘It is a disaster.’

But the two of them had great ideas, and taking out a pencil, Lenny drew a plan on the wall. ‘I see it like this.’ He sketched out his ideas.

Annie then sketched her ideas, and together they worked out the perfect layout for the shop. Afterwards he took her for a bite to eat and coffee at the nearby Wimpy Bar and the ideas continued to flow, until he walked her to the tram-stop, where they waved cheerio.

With Annie safely on her way, Lenny went to the pub, where he continued making notes and plans, and before he realised it, the time had run away with him. In jaunty mood, grateful for Annie’s help and deeply satisfied with his day’s work, he made his way home under the stars.

As he came up the street, yawning and ready for bed, Lenny saw the figure of a man climbing out of a car outside his home; in the lamp light, he recognised the tall man in the long dark overcoat. What was he doing here?

Over the past few years – ever since he’d left school, really, he’d become aware of this man taking an interest in him. If they passed in the High Street, the man would nod and Lenny would acknowledge him. But they never spoke. It was strange, the boy thought. Almost as if he should know him, although he didn’t. Ron and Patsy (he no longer called them ‘Mam’ and ‘Dad’) had never mentioned him … Oh well, Lenny thought tiredly. It was one of life’s little mysteries. He had enough on his plate at the moment, to bother worrying about that.

However, as he came further down the street, a deeper memory was triggered from his boyhood. This same man had called round to the house once. He could hazily recall his mother arguing with the man, and another time he had found them whispering downstairs. He remembered how nervous his mother became, when he asked her who the man was. From that day to this, he had never again seen the man at the house. Until now.

Instinctively, he backed into the shadows. There was no mistaking him: it was the same man. Who was he? What did he want with the Reynolds family? Lenny’s curiosity was heightened. If he had come to see Ron, he would be unlucky. When the visitor was let into the house, Lenny carefully started forward. Ron was over at a mate’s house, helping him build a shed in the yard, and if he ran true to form, he wouldn’t be rolling home for ages yet.

Suddenly, though he did not know why, it was important to Lenny to know why the man was here.

Taking out his key, he slid it quietly into the front-door lock and turned it; with trepidation he pushed open the door and softly closed it behind him.

Already he could hear raised voices coming from the sitting room. ‘You’d best give me what I’m owed,’ his mother was saying angrily, ‘or I’ll shout thetruth from the roof tops – and then what will you do, eh?’ She gave a low, harsh laugh.

The man’s contemptuous answer was enough to stem the laughter. ‘You silly bitch! You can shout and yell all you like, and I won’t give a bugger!’

‘What are you talking about?’ Shocked by his defiance, she demanded, ‘I want my money. That was the agreement, and as far as I’m concerned, nothing’s happened to change it.’

‘You bloody fool, you’re not listening! Can’t you understand what I’m trying to tell you? She’s left me. Janette found the letters we exchanged and now she’s gone – and she’s taken young Charlie with her. Worse than that, she told her father and he’s pulled the rug from under me. He’s kicked me out of the family business, and taken back the house we’ve lived in all these years.’

‘You’re lying, Stuart. Now hand over my money!’

Lenny heard a scuffle. Then: ‘LISTEN TO WHAT I’M SAYING!’ The man’s voice broke in a kind of sob. ‘I’ve got nothing – no family, no home and without references, no job. So don’t ask me for money, because thanks to you, I’ve got none!’

There was the sound of another scuffle, and of furniture falling over. ‘GET OUT BEFORE I TAKE THE POKER TO YOU!’ Patsy roared. Her voice shaking with rage, she warned him, ‘You haven’t heard the last of this by any means. We had an agreement and by God, if you know what’s best for you, you’ll find what’s owed me. I don’t care where you get it. Just make sure you bring it before the end of the week.’

‘And if I can’t?’

‘Well, now …’ Her voice was slimy-wicked. ‘It isn’t just your wife and father-in-law who think you’re the worst kind of scum. There’s somebody else who might want to knock seven bells out of you when he knows the truth – or have you forgotten?’

‘No. I haven’t forgotten,’ the man called Stuart said tiredly. ‘In fact, that’s the other reason I’m here.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Lenny’s mother sounded suspicious.

‘It means I have to start again from scratch, and I don’t like the idea of doing it all by myself. And besides, I’ve been watching him. He’s a good strong fellow, with a clever head on his shoulders, and I understand he’s bought the old tailor’s shop on the High Street. Oh yes, I’m sure the two of us will work together very well.’

‘So that’s it. You’re still the same cunning bastard you’ve always been!’ Now, she was bundling him into the passageway; though as yet neither of them had seen Lenny standing there against the wall in the shadow of the hallstand. ‘It’s not Lenny you’re after at all, is it, eh? You’ve seen how he’s making good, and you want a piece of it.’ She laughed in his face.‘Once he knows about you, he’ll be so disgusted he won’t even want to shake your hand, never mind work with you!’ She gave him a mighty shove. ‘It were me as brought him up, wiped his backside and washed his smelly socks, and it’s me who’ll have first call on whatever fortune he makes. So bugger off, and don’t come back, or—’

She was shocked to her roots when Lenny stepped out. ‘My God, Len, it’s you. Christ – you gave me a fright. I didn’t see you there …’ Flustered, she took the man by the arm, and smiled her best. ‘This is Stuart Fitzwilliam, an old friend of me and your dad,’ she told Lenny. ‘He’s just leaving. I’ll see him out … you go inside, son.’

His face set sternly, Lenny blocked her way. ‘Who is he, Mam?’ His voice was ice-cold. ‘What is he to me?’

‘Nobody! Nothing!’ She had never seen Lenny look at her like that before, and she was shaken. ‘Like I said, he’s just a friend.’

Lenny addressed himself to the man. ‘Who are you?’

‘I think you know.’ There was a certain satisfaction in the man’s voice. ‘I’m your father. I’ve come to take you away from her, back with me. You don’t belong here, in this squalid dump. You never did.’

Lenny took stock of him, this respectable-looking, smartly dressed man with the sad eyes, and her, Patsy, beside him, bold as brass, her false smile hiding a multitude of sins. ‘Is that right?’ he asked of her. ‘Is this man really my father?’

‘No!’ She was screaming now. ‘Don’t listen to him. Whatever he tells you, it’s a lie – a downright lie!’

The man’s voice cut in. ‘We had an affair, and you were the outcome. Like Patsy, I was married, and though I’ve always regretted it, there was no place for you in my life. Since the day you were born, Patsy and Ron both agreed to keep you, as long as I paid. And my God, have I paid! I’vepaid through the nose to keep you in house and home, and more besides. Bled me dry they have, all these years. A few meaningless afternoons of sex with her, and I’ve been made to pay a million times over. But now, it’s finished. You are my son, and I want you with me.’

He smiled like the cat who had the cream. ‘We’ll do all right, son, you and me together.’

When he made to lay his hand on Lenny’s shoulder, the young man grabbed him by the wrist and held him off. For a long, revealing moment, he stared at the man, unable or unwilling to believe what he had just been told. And yet, deep down, he knew – and it was a blessed relief.

When he spoke, it was in a calm, collected manner. ‘All my life I’ve never felt that I belonged. Somehow, I knew I was not a part of this family. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been rejected, unloved and punished, for something that was not of my doing. While you played Happy Families, I was nothing, a nobody. Alone, and made to feel guilty for being alive.’

His eyes hardened like bright marbles. ‘You have no idea how it’s been … no idea.’

Stuart Fitzwilliam stepped forward, a look of alarm on his face. ‘But that’s all over now, son. I’ve come to claim you. I’ve always wanted you, but it was difficult. You have to believe me …’

Lenny’s confident smile belied the hurt he was feeling. ‘All those years, and you never once acknowledged me. And now, it makes no difference whether you want me or you don’t.’

Looking from one to the other, he informed them in a quietly controlled voice, ‘It’s too late, because I don’t want you – any of you.’

His accusing gaze lingered on the woman he had always believed was his mother, but who had never loved him in that way. ‘I came home tonight to tell you that I would be moving out in a week or so,’ he said. ‘But after what I’ve heard here this night, it’s best if I go now.’

He spoke with pride. ‘At long last I’m free of you – of all of you. From now on, there’s no need for me to feel guilty or unwanted. I can be my own man.’

His voice hardened. ‘As long as I live, I never want to see or hear from you again.’

‘You ungrateful little toe-rag!’ Patsy hit out, but when he caught her by the arm, she began to sob. ‘You owe me for taking care of you all these years. You owe me!’