The House of New Beginnings by Lucy Diamond

Author:Lucy Diamond [Diamond, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Chapter Fifteen

All Rosa could think about as she walked home on Saturday night were her feet. Her poor, aching, tired feet. She had just worked a fourteen-hour shift which had included a seven-course wedding breakfast plus evening buffet for two hundred and fifty people. She’d barely sat down once in that time. It was nights like this when she missed having a bath, easing herself into a tub of hot scented water and letting her tired limbs relax. She wasn’t sure she could stand up long enough to manage a shower.

The moon was hidden, the sky dark as she picked her way along the seafront, the salty breeze fresh and cooling. And then over the rushing of the waves, she heard the unmistakable sound of male voices ahead, catcalling and jeering. She tightened her grip on her shoulder bag and felt in her pocket for her key, holding it ready to use as a weapon if need be. You could never be too careful.

Approaching Dukes Square, she could see a group of people had spilled out of the pub on the corner, including a woman who was slumped over the back of a parked Land Rover. One of the men was behind her making obscene thrusting motions and his mates all roared their approval. Oh no. Was the woman okay? Should she be calling the police?

‘Hey,’ called Rosa, drawing nearer still and seeing that the woman seemed oblivious to the mob behind her. Her head was resting on the spare tyre as if it was a pillow, her long brown hair fanning around her shoulders. ‘What’s going on?’

The men turned towards her, their faces half lit from the street lamps and the pub behind them. There was something menacing about them all standing there with the woman so vulnerable in their sights. ‘Lady’s had a bit much to drink,’ one of them offered, to a chorus of sniggering.

The woman, as if registering them at last, raised a hand in the air. ‘Jush having a resh,’ she slurred. ‘Jush a liddle resh.’

Ignoring the men, Rosa went over to her. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked. ‘Do you want me to help you get home?’

The woman stared unseeingly at her. There was mascara on her cheeks and even though the light was dim, Rosa could tell she’d been crying. ‘My hushband,’ she said haltingly, her breath sour as if she’d been sick, her voice small.

Rosa made shooing motions at the men then turned back. ‘Your husband?’ she repeated encouragingly. ‘Do you want me to call him?’

The woman’s mouth quivered and Rosa stepped back instinctively in case she was about to throw up again. ‘Heesh . . .’ she said, tears filling her wide brown eyes. ‘Heesh met someone else. And . . .’ One tear plopped onto the spare tyre where it glistened in the streetlight, then her gaze met Rosa’s, anguished and broken. ‘And they’re having a baby.’

Oh God, the despair on the woman’s face, the misery. ‘They’re having a bay-bee,’ one of the men behind them mocked, and Rosa swung around, fists clenched, fierce with rage.

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