Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection. Josephine Cox

neither is Jack.’

      Carson was suddenly alert. ‘And who might Jack be?’

      Roy thought he might have touched on a jealous streak. ‘Jack and Amy are seeing each other,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how serious it is, but I have to say, they do seem to have hit it off together.’

      There was another moment of silence, before the other man remarked softly, ‘As long as he looks after her, it’s none of my business.’ Looking Roy straight in the eyes, he explained, ‘Like I say, we were engaged to be wed. In fact, we got as far as booking the church and all that stuff.’

      ‘I see. And what happened then? Why did you never get wed?’

      ‘I hadn’t told her I’d been in prison, and it got as I couldn’t tell her. I was trying so hard to go straight when I met Amy, and she was part of that – something good to aim for and live up to. But I set my sights too high. I got to realising I could never keep it up, and one day my grubby little past would all come out, or I’d let her down and fall into my bad old ways. I’ll allus be a drinker and a two-timer and a ruffian – I know that now. I liked her mam and dad too. I couldn’t hurt them all. I kept putting off mekking the break. Then suddenly the wedding was just a few days away and I had to do it before it was too late.

      ‘Luckily they all work long hours so I know they’re not around Blackburn much during the week, but I’ve been very careful to avoid anywhere I might bump into them.’

      ‘Crikey!’ Roy thought it must have taken some guts to back out of a wedding as close as that. ‘And have you no regrets?’

      ‘Well, of course I have! Amy’s a lovely person, as good and kind as the day’s long. I hurt her bad by trying to avoid hurting her even worse.’ He took a minute to remember. ‘That’s what I regret most.’

      Suddenly he was on his feet, and demanding in a harsh voice, ‘So what’s this Jack like?’

      ‘He’s all right,’ Roy told him. ‘He won’t hurt her. You’ve no need to worry on that score.’

      Roy’s answer seemed to calm him. ‘How did they meet?’

      ‘Me and Jack were out on the town when we just sorta met up with Amy and Daisy. Then another time, we met up again.’ He wisely made no mention of his own shameful part in that first meeting. ‘Me and Daisy get on like a house on fire. In fact, we’re even talking about getting wed.’

      Don laughed at that. ‘You didn’t mention me to Amy, did you?’ he asked then.

      ‘Nope.’

      ‘Don’t!’

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘Because there’s no point. When I left her in the lurch it was a cruel thing. I’m not proud of what I did. What’s done is done and can’t be undone, so keep your mouth shut.’

      ‘Don’t worry, my lips are sealed.’ And he meant it.

      Carson glanced at the clock. ‘You’d best soon make tracks,’ he said. ‘I need to get washed and changed.’

      Roy understood. ‘Got a woman coming, have yer?’

      ‘I might have,’ Carson admitted, ‘so you can bugger off and make yourself scarce.’

      ‘Helen, is it?’ Roy licked his lips teasingly. ‘I might like to introduce myself.’

      Carson laughed. ‘I thought you were already gone, on your new girlfriend?’

      ‘I am. I’ve met the one I want, and she’s more than enough.’

      ‘Just as well then, because Helen’s a different kettle of fish altogether. I doubt if you could even move in her circles.’

      ‘Oh, I see … a rich bitch, is she?’

      Smugly, Carson nodded. ‘Rich, handsome, and needing to be satisfied on a regular basis, if you understand my meaning?’

      Coming across the room he threatened to manhandle Roy out of the door. ‘I’ve told you, I need to get washed and changed. Sometimes she gets here too early and catches me in the rough. I don’t like that. I have my pride like any man.’

      ‘All right, keep your shirt on. I’m leaving, I’m leaving.’

      As he went he told Carson from a safe distance, ‘Enjoy yourselves, and don’t worry about me. I’ll call round tomorrow and you can give me a full account.’

      ‘Sod off!’ Carson gave him a final shove out the door. ‘Get and find your own entertainment,’ he suggested with a sly little chuckle.

      As Roy crossed the street he was almost run down by a cab in a hurry. ‘Watch where you’re going!’ Roy yelled as the taxi passed by. ‘You nearly ’ad my bloody feet off then!’

      When the taxi slowed down, Roy considered tackling the driver for his carelessness. Instead his curiosity was aroused when the taxi came to a halt outside Carson’s place.

      The woman who stepped out of it was exactly as Carson had described: well-dressed and well-built in all the right places, she was more than a cut above the rest.

      But there was something else about her that intrigued him, yet for the life of him, he couldn’t think what it was.

      He watched her walk up the path, and he saw her knock on the door, and now, as she seemed to sense him there, she turned and smiled at him.

      It was then that he realised who she was, and he could hardly believe it.

      ‘My God!’ Excitement coursed through him. ‘It’s Luke Hammond’s sister-in-law!’

      He had seen her twice; once when she came to bring Hammond some documents from the house, and once when she came to collect her sister, Sylvia, who had come looking for her husband and thrown a tantrum when he was out on business.

      He continued to watch her. Even before she had turned back towards the door, Carson was there to usher her inside.

      Still reeling from the shock, Roy hurried away. ‘It’s just as well Carson doesn’t know who she is,’ he decided. This rich bitch really was roughing it.

      He gave a whistle. ‘I wonder what Arnold Stratton would say if he knew Carson was mixing with a Hammond?’

      As he walked on, shock soon turned to amusement. ‘Luke Hammond’s sister-in-law, roughing it with a man like Carson!’ He rolled his eyes. ‘By! It’s a turn-up for the books, and no mistake!’

      Unable to contain himself, he made his way straight to Jack’s place. The small house in Penny Street was furnished better than he himself could afford, a step up from his own humble abode.

      ‘I thought I’d seen the last of you till tomorrow.’ Jack was just beginning to settle down for an hour of music on the wireless, before getting an early night. ‘Tea or coffee?’ he asked, inviting him inside.

      ‘Ain’t you got nothing stronger?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Coffee then. I can’t abide tea … especially not when you make it. I put up with enough dish-water at the factory,’ he grumbled, ‘I don’t see why I should put up with it in my own free time.’

      ‘That’s where we differ, you and me,’ Jack informed him.

      ‘Is that so?’ Always at home in Jack’s place, Roy sat himself down. ‘And how d’you mek that out?’

      Turning to answer, Jack paused at the kitchen door, ‘Because you tend to see your time at the factory as being forced on you, in order to earn a living.’

      ‘Too bloody right I do!’

      Understanding Roy’s point of view, Jack admitted, ‘There was a time early on, when I felt like you … hated getting up in the morning and seeing it as precious