Heart of the Cross by Emily Madden

Author:Emily Madden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Twenty

Rosie

November 1963

After all this time, Rosie was yet to come across the same November in Sydney. Balmy days often gave way to rain-soaked nights that would linger into the next day, or even till the day after. It really wouldn’t be until Christmas that summer would kick in properly. By then Tinahely would be well into winter, and sometimes by Christmas Day, there would be a hint of some flurries. Then, by the time Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit, the greeting for a new year could be heard, the streets would be transformed, glistening in white, bringing inches and sometimes feet of snow blanketing the village like bookends of the last year and the new one.

There were times when she missed Tinahely, especially at Christmas. One day, she would love to take Jimmy back to where he was born, to see her ma’s resting place, some of the spots from her youth, maybe see how Mrs O’Brien was going.

Her mother had passed not long after Tom had been sent to jail, and as much as it hurt losing her, at least she had been spared from the news that her daughter was a madam in a brothel.

Although, these days Rosie worked in the diner with Jack and left all the running of Rosie’s House, as the brothel had come to be known, to Mary, who turned out to be every bit of the businesswoman her grandmother had been.

Surprisingly enough, it had been Colleen Murphy, Sinead’s mother, to call Rosie with the news of Aoife’s passing. Colleen also mentioned that Sinead had married recently and was expecting her first child. The news took Rosie back to the day she saw her friend cross the road to avoid her. It was silly that it still hurt thinking about it after all this time.

While her mother had known about Tom and Jack, Rosie hadn’t had the heart to tell her she was a madam. Instead, she told her mother that she helped out in the diner, which wasn’t a total untruth.

It hadn’t been her intention to call it Rosie’s House. In fact, it was Mr Norris who had used the name when he mentioned that Rosie’s House was one of his most profitable ventures. A few months ago, he got rid of his tenants on the other side of Mary’s old house so that they could expand, and tonight, they were due to commence increased operation. Hopefully, the spring storm forecast for later wouldn’t eventuate. Mr Norris had made it clear he expected business to boom from the first night and rain would dampen things.

No one had expected Rosie’s House to be as successful as it had been. Once she had paid off her debt, the income had been a steady stream. Of course, Norris had taken every opportunity to squeeze whatever he could from her—from unscheduled increases in rent to upping his ‘vice protection fees’, which Rosie was paying anyway. Most of the local vice squad were her regular customers.

When Norris first came to her with the idea of expanding the business, he also had new terms.

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