Ella was obviously flustered. Her set expression and pale face indicated how alarmed she was by her sister’s behaviour, and Dougie wasn’t really surprised by her obvious desire to do something about it.
How awful of her to be so rude, but she had to stop what was going on, Ella comforted herself as she hurried over to her sister. She came to a halt, standing determinedly in front of Janey.
‘It’s time for us to go, Janey.’
Janey, who had been struggling to stop Larry’s hands from roving far more intimately over her body than she welcomed, greeted her sister’s arrival with relief–not that she intended to let Ella know that–and extracted herself from his embrace.
‘Where’s Rose?’ she asked Ella.
The honest answer was that Ella didn’t know, but she could hardly say that unless she wanted to risk Janey accusing her of pretending she wanted to leave. The last thing she wanted was a row with Janey, which would result in her impetuous sister going straight back to the man Ella had just prised her away from.
To her relief Janey announced, ‘Oh, there she is, over there.’
‘Look, I meant what I said about wanting you to come and take a look at my salon,’ Josh was saying to Rose.
There was more space around them now and she had been able to step back from him. She started to shake her head, but he stopped her, reaching into his pocket and producing a business card with a theatrical flourish.
‘Here’s my card. Think about it.’
Rose could see Ella beckoning her urgently, Janey beside her, so she took the card and slipped it into her handbag.
‘I must go,’ she stammered hurriedly, before making her way to Ella’s side.
‘Look, leave it out, will you, Ollie? I know what I’m doing.’
The stubborn look on his cousin’s face as he pulled his arm free of Oliver’s restraining hand told Oliver all he needed to know about Willie’s frame of mind.
They were in their local East End pub, the Royal Crown, standing at the bar with their beers.
‘I thought like you meself once, Willie. In fact I was all for making meself a career in the boxing ring, but then I got to thinking—’
‘You mean that your ma got to thinking for you,’ Willie interrupted him. ‘Well, I’m not being told what to do by you, Ollie. Harry Malcolms reckons I’ve got a good future ahead of me, and that there’s bin talk of either the Richardsons or the Krays tekkin’ an interest.’
The mention of two of the East End’s most notorious gangs made Oliver frown.
‘If you go down that route you’ll be expected to throw matches as well as win them, Willie,’ he warned.
His cousin gave a dismissive shrug. ‘It’s only them lads that aren’t good enough that get told to lose, and that ain’t going to happen to me. Reggie came down to watch me sparring the other night, and he wouldn’t do that if he didn’t fink he wanted me on board.’
Willie might think he had what it took to make the big time but Oliver had asked around and the word on the street was that he was more boxing ring fodder than a future champion, and would end up merely as a sparring partner for more skilled boxers, working for a pittance in a boxing club rather than earning big money in prize fights.
The trouble with Willie was that he was easily led and just as easily deceived.
‘You’re a fool, Willie,’ Oliver complained, beginning to lose patience. ‘Throw in your lot with them and my bet is that you’ll end up with your brains turned to jelly, or working as one of their enforcers.’
‘You’re just jealous,’ Willie accused him, his cheeks flushed. ‘You know what your problem is, don’t you? It’s that mother of yours. My dad reckons—’ He broke off suddenly, looking self-conscious and scuffing his shoe on the ground.
Oliver froze. This wasn’t the first time there’d been dark hints thrown out about his mother.
‘Go on, Willie. Your dad reckons what exactly?’ he challenged, his voice hard.
‘Oh, leave it out, will you, Ollie? I didn’t mean nothing. It’s just that your ma always carries on like nothing’s good enough for her. Me ma reckons that it’s rich, her coming on the way she does when she works as a ruddy cleaner, but me dad—’
He broke off again, his face reddening whilst Oliver’s mouth compressed into a thin line of fury.
He should be used to it by now. After all, he’d pretty much grown up shrugging off the whispers and sly looks that people exchanged when they talked about his mother. The gossips whispered that the rich widower for whom she cleaned was
responsible for her good figure and her smart appearance.