My Beloved Son by Catherine Cookson

Author:Catherine Cookson [Cookson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780360744
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

There had been laughter and one of the men had said, ‘But you’re not far wrong.’

‘No,’ the former speaker had replied, ‘I know I’m not, because you don’t hear a voice like hers every day. And she’s got it up top, an’ all. There’s nobody readier with her tongue than our Lemon.’

Another voice had said, ‘Then why don’t you have a go?’ and the answer had been a bit of a scuffle and more laughter.

And now here, this very minute, her aunt was saying almost in as many words to him, Why don’t you have a go?

‘Marriage is a funny thing, Joe. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve had three goes at it, and I can tell you that looks are the last thing to be considered; it’s what’s underneath that matters in the long run. I married me first for looks, and my God, didn’t I pay for it! If he hadn’t had the business I would have left him within a month. Oh, I’m being honest.’ She nodded her head at him from where she sat to the side of the fireplace in the sitting room. ‘Anyway, I thought I was entitled to my share of what he had, for from the time I’d gone there five years before, I’d pulled the business up out of nothing. He hadn’t as much in his head, that one, as an addled egg. His dad had died long before his time, and that’s how he came into it…the business. And you know another thing, Joe? Marriage is a business, and after the bed business is over you’ve often got twenty-three hours in the day to live with your partner; especially, that is, if you’re working together like I was with him. Me second one wasn’t bad; he had a business head on him. It was when I married him that we bought this house here, just to escape to at the weekends, you know. But me third was the best of the bunch. He had a face on him like a battered pluck; he was gangly, you know’—she shook her arm—‘loose-limbed; but he was the kindest, most considerate man you could ever wish to meet. But life plays you dirty tricks. I’d spent most of it with the other two, one bad and the other indifferent, now I’d come across a good one and fate gave us four years together, that’s all. But looking back I think of them as compensation for the rest of me life before, and what’s to come…Maggie’s a fine girl, Joe; she’s one in a thousand.’

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