A Daughter’s Sorrow
Heartache and hardship in London’s East End, from the bestselling author of The Orphans of Halfpenny StreetBridget has always been the one to take on the responsibility for looking after her family. With a drunken, violent mother, an unemployed brother who can't stay out of pub brawls and a wayward sister vulnerable to the smooth talk of shady men, it's hardly surprising when she falls for cheeky local lad, Ernie.But when he breaks her heart, she is drawn to the kind figure of Joe, despite the bad boys of the criminal underworld who lurk in the shadows and seem to have him in their sights.Bridget and Joe try hard to keep a hold on their livelihoods and to keep to the straight and narrow path, but misfortune dogs them and it seems that happiness is always just out of reach…
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Harper
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London SE1 9GF
First published as âBridgetâ in Great Britain by Severn House Large Print 2003
Copyright © Linda Sole
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
Cover photographs © Jeff Cottenden (girl); Heritage Images/Getty Images (background).
Linda Sole asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008168582
Ebook Edition © January 2017 ISBN: 9780008168599
Version: 2016-12-08
Contents
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Keep Reading â¦
About the Author
Also by Cathy Sharp
About the Publisher
The sound of a foghorn somewhere out on the river was almost lost in the noise of chucking-out time at the Cock & Feathers, known locally simply as the Feathers. Lying in my bed in the little room at the back of the house, I heard the usual screams, yells and scuffles from the pub at the end of the lane. I was used to it and it was not the petty squabbles of my neighbours that had woken me. No, this was something much closer to home.
âCan I get into bed with you, Bridget?â
I smiled at the sight of my six-year-old brother dressed in a worn flannel shirt that was three sizes too big for him and reached down to his ankles. Beneath that ridiculous shirt was a painfully thin body; he was hardly more than skin and bone and worried me more than Iâd ever let on to him or anyone else.
âOâ course you can, Tommy. Was it them villains from the pub that woke you?â
âItâs our mam,â Tommy whispered, and coughed as he tugged the thin blanket up to his chest and burrowed further down into the lumpy feather bed my sister and I usually shared. âSheâs having a right old go at Lainie again.â
No sooner had he spoken than there was an almighty crash downstairs in the kitchen. Tommy shivered and I folded my arms about him protectively as our mother suddenly screamed out a torrent of abuse.
âYouâre a slut and a whore â and âtis after throwing you out of the house, I am.â
The spiteful words could be clearly heard by us as we lay in bed, Tommy shivering against my side as he always did when Mam was in one of her rages.
âWhatever I am, itâs what you made me, and if I go youâll be the one to lose by it, Martha OâRourke. Itâs four shillings a week youâll be missinâ if I leave,â Lainie shrieked, full of anger. âYouâre a cold-hearted bitch and Iâll be glad to see the back of this place, but youâll not take too kindly to going without your drop of the good stuff.â
âAnd we all know where the money comes from! Youâve been down the Seamenâs Mission again, selling yourself to them foreigners.â
âHans loves me and one day heâll be wedding me. You know heâs the only one, Mam. I donât know why you take on so. Our da was working the ships when you met him â and our Jamie was on the way before the weddââ
There was a scream of rage from downstairs and then more crashing sounds as furniture was sent flying. Our mother and sister were having one of their frequent fights, which always upset Tommy. They werenât the only ones to indulge â similar fights went on in houses up and down the street, especially on a Friday night â but Martha OâRourke could be vicious and I was anxious for my sister.
âIf your father was here, heâd take his belt to you!â
âGive over, Mam â¦â Lainie gave a little scream.
I jumped out of bed and hastily pulled on my dress. I was worried about my sister leaving. Lainie wasnât going to put up with much more. She would walk out, and then where would the rest of us be?
âWhere are you going?â Tommy said, alarmed.
âYou stop here. Iâm going to creep down and see what Mamâs doing to our Lainie. Sheâll kill her one of these days if no one stops her.â
