Barbary-Wharf-Book-2-Battle-for-Possession by Lamb Charlotte

Author:Lamb, Charlotte [Lamb, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

THE following day, the weather was so fine that Gina and Roz

decided not to waste their lunch- break eating indoors. Instead, they bought sandwiches and fruit from the café-bar in the plaza, which sold a vast range of take-away food, from Indian

samosas, triangles of deep-fried pastry which held meat or

vegetables, to Arab couscous, and even soups in waxed cups

with lids to keep the contents hot.

The Torelli family ran it; they had another bar close to

London Bridge station, which Grandpa Torelli had opened just

after the Second World War, and they had collectively decided

to start empire- building when Barbary Wharf opened and

offered them the opportunity to expand. It was still a family

business, though, and today it was old Mrs Torelli behind the

counter.

She was nearly seventy, but still spry and quickwitted. When

one of the office messengers being served before Gina and Roz

gave her too little money she told him crossly, 'I may have white hair, but I still have all my wits! Where's the rest?' and repeated the amount he owed her while the boy, red-faced, fumbled with

a handful of change.

She gave Gina and Roz a friendly look; they had already

become faces she recognised. 'What will it be today, darlings?

Try my minestrone, I made it myself so I know it's good.' When

they said they just wanted sandwiches, she threw up her hands

and darted off to fill their order. 'No imagination!' she told them, handing over the food in brown paper bags saying, 'Recycled

paper!'

'Oh,' they said, startled. 'Thank you.'

They walked across the open square of the plaza, through

the exit to the riverbank, on Ratcliff Walk, and sat on a bench in the newly planted embankment gardens from where they could

watch the Thames.

'Did you know,' Gina said, biting into her egg salad

sandwich, 'that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a street running parallel with the Thames, called the Ratcliff Highway? It was full of prostitutes and their pimps, waiting for sailors, and thieves who got sailors drunk and stole their money, or even killed them.'

'Where did you hear about that?' asked Roz, staring at the

peaceful scene in front of them; the blue spring sky, yellow

daffodils and bright orange tulips in the gardens, barges slowly chugging past, tarpaulin hiding whatever they carried, a police launch speeding along with a great wake behind it, a few

battered old freighters bobbing at anchor.

'I read about it once,' said Gina, throwing the rest of her

sandwiches to some gulls which came screaming down to take

them.

Roz said, 'I suppose in those days, there were always dozens

of ships docking in the port of London, and thousands of sailors coming ashore with pockets full of money!'

'And plenty of vultures waiting for them,' Gina said with a

touch of bitterness. 'The Nick Caspians of this century had

ancestors!'

Roz gave her an amused look. 'You know, you're becoming

quite waspish. And you used to be such a good little girl!'

Gina smiled briefly, then her face relapsed into its usual look of weary sadness, and Roz frowned, watching her.

'You're so pale! Seriously, Gina, you really need—'

'I know! A holiday!' exploded Gina.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.