Lime Street Blues (49 page)

‘I know, darling,’ Jeannie soothed. She didn’t ask why he’d been driving away from Liverpool – he must have, if he’d come across the accident. Or how he’d known Sean had a Mercedes. If he hadn’t known, he wouldn’t have stopped. She suspected that, if it hadn’t been for Sean, Lachlan would be miles and miles away by now, driving to who knows where.

He was still shivering and she realised his clothes were damp. She gently removed herself from his arms and fetched dry ones from the wardrobe where they’d been kept in the hope that one day he would return. ‘I’ll make coffee. Come into the kitchen when you’re ready. It’s warmer there.’

The kitchen gave no sign of there having been a party. Her mother had tidied up. The leftover food had been put in the fridge, the tins and bottles were outside to be collected, the surfaces gleamed.

She was plugging in the kettle when Lachlan came in wearing the jeans and thick sweater she’d given him, looking more his old self. She noticed the jeans were too big, that he’d lost weight.

‘By the way,’ he said, ‘the police asked me about
Sean’s next-of-kin, but I couldn’t remember Sadie’s new name, or where she lived in Ireland.’

‘Sadie’s here. Rita too. I’ll tell them later, let them sleep in peace a little while longer.’

‘We’ll tell them together.’

Jeannie nodded, grateful. ‘Yes, I think that would be best. Mavis is here as well, Fly and Stella, Zoe and her boyfriend. The house is full.’

‘Fly’s here!’ His face brightened. ‘I wonder . . .’ He stopped.

‘Wonder what?’

‘Nothing. It doesn’t matter.’ He shook his head irritably. ‘I was thinking about the future, but it doesn’t seem right, not yet, not when Sean no longer has one.’

The door opened and a drowsy Chloe came in sucking her thumb. ‘Had a bad dream, Daddy.’ She climbed on to Lachlan’s knee and immediately fell asleep. He gazed at Jeannie in astonishment. ‘You’d think I’d never been away.’

‘She’ll remember in the morning when she’s properly awake.’

The kettle boiled and she made coffee. They drank it in silence, Chloe’s dark head tucked in the curve of Lachlan’s neck. Jeannie felt as if death was in the room with them. Sean was the first member of the gang to die. He was part of that exhilarating time when they were young and the only thing that mattered was rock ’n’ roll. With his death, that dazzling era had finally ended.

‘It seems wrong,’ Lachlan said soberly, ‘that I’ve got his kids. That he never knew he was a father.’

‘I would have thought you’d be pleased.’ He sighed. ‘I am, but it still seems wrong. I’m glad we can talk about him like this, but there’s one thing, Jeannie.’ His eyes glistened. ‘That day, the day I left,
when we had the row, you said being with Sean was wonderful. Did you mean it? Or did you just want to wind me up?’

‘I just wanted to wind you up.’ The years ahead would be made much easier with that one, last lie. ‘Are you back for good, Lachlan?’

His lips twisted in a wry smile. ‘If you’ll have me.’

‘You know I will.’ Her voice broke. ‘You left a great big hole in all our lives.’

‘It seems daft to stay away, make everyone miserable, including myself. We only have one life. Until a few years ago, it was perfect. Only a fool would expect it to stay like that for ever.’

‘I never claimed to be perfect, Lachlan.’

‘I know, Jeannie. The trouble was, I thought you were.’ He got carefully to his feet, trying not to disturb the child in his arms. ‘I’ll put Chloe down, take a look at Ace, then I think we’d better wake Sadie and Rita.’

‘We’ll wake everyone. They’ll all want to know.’

She heard him say, ‘Shush, sweetheart,’ as he carried Chloe back to bed. A minute later, the door to Ace’s room opened. From now on, she thought, their marriage would be very different and she prayed it would be for the better, not the worse. They’d grown up, learnt some very harsh lessons, acquired an awful lot of baggage over the last three years. There was more to life than rock ’n’ roll.

He was back, standing in the doorway, holding out his hand; older, wiser, but still the man she loved with all her heart. His face was grim. It was an awful thing they had to do.

‘Are you ready, Jeannie?’

‘Yes, Lachlan.’ She got up and took his outstretched hand. With this simple gesture, she had the strongest feeling that, once they’d got over this terrible, tragic period, everything was going to be just fine.

MAUREEN LEE IS ONE OF THE BEST-LOVED SAGA WRITERS AROUND. All her novels are set in Liverpool and the world she evokes is always peopled with characters you’ll never forget. Her familiarity with Liverpool and its people brings the terraced streets and tight-knit communities vividly to life in her books. Maureen is a born storyteller and her many fans love her for her powerful tales of love and life, tragedy and joy in Liverpool.

Born into a working-class family in Bootle, Liverpool, Maureen Lee spent her early years in a terraced house near the docks – an area that was relentlessly bombed during the Second World War. As a child she was bombed out of the house in Bootle and the family were forced to move.

Maureen left her convent school at 15 and wanted to become an actress. However, her shocked mother, who said that it was ‘as bad as selling your body on the streets’, put her foot down and Maureen had to give up her dreams and go to secretarial college instead.

As a child, Maureen
was bombed out of
her terraced house
in Bootle

A regular theme in her books is the fact that apparently happy homes often conceal pain and resentment and she sometimes draws on
her own early life for inspiration. ‘My mother always seemed to disapprove of me – she never said “well done” to me. My brother was the favourite,’ Maureen says.

I know she would
never have approved
of my books

As she and her brother grew up they grew apart. ‘We just see things differently in every way,’ says Maureen. This, and a falling out during the difficult time when her mother was dying, led to an estrangement that has lasted 24 years. ‘Despite the fact that I didn’t see eye-to-eye with my mum, I loved her very much. I deserted my family and lived in her flat in Liverpool after she went into hospital for the final time. My brother, who she thought the world of, never went near. Towards the end when she was fading she kept asking where he was. To comfort her, I had to pretend that he’d been to see her the day before, which was awful. I found it hard to get past that.’

Maureen is well known for writing with realism about subjects like motherhood: ‘I had a painful time giving birth to my children – the middle one was born in the back of a two-door car. So I know things don’t always go as planned.’

My middle son was
born in the back of
a car

The twists and turns of Maureen’s life have been as interesting as the plots of her books. When she met her husband, Richard, he was getting divorced, and despite falling instantly in love and getting engaged after only two weeks, the pair couldn’t marry. Keen that Maureen should escape her strict family home, they moved to London and lived together before marrying. ‘Had she known, my mother would never have forgiven me. She never knew that Richard had been married before.’ The Lees had to pretend they were married even to their landlord. Of course, they did marry as soon as possible and have had a very happy family life.

Despite leaving school at fifteen, Maureen was determined to succeed as a writer. Like Kitty in
Kitty and Her Sisters
and Millie in
Dancing in the Dark
, she went to night school and ended up getting two A levels. ‘I think it’s good to “better yourself”. It gives you confidence,’ she says. After her sons grew up she had the time to pursue her dream, but it took several years and a lot of disappointment before she was successful. ‘I was
determined
to succeed. My husband was one hundred per cent supportive. I wrote lots of articles and short stories. I also started a saga which was eventually called
Stepping Stones
. Then Orion commissioned me to finish it, it was published – and you know the rest.’

‘I think it’s good to
“better yourself”. It
gives you confidence’

Of being poor, but not poverty-stricken. Of women wearing shawls instead of coats. Of knowing everybody in the street. Of crowds gathering outside houses in the case of a funeral or a wedding, or if an ambulance came to collect a patient, who was carried out in a red blanket. I longed to be such a patient, but when I had diptheria and an ambulance came for me, I was too sick to be aware of the crowds. There were street parties, swings on lamp-posts, hardly any traffic, loads of children playing in the street, dogs without leads. Even though we didn’t have much money, Christmas as a child was fun. I’m sure we appreciated our few presents more than children do now.

The late fifties were a wonderful time for my friends and me. We had so many places to go: numerous dance halls, The Philharmonic Hall, The Cavern Club, theatres, including The Playhouse where you could buy tickets for
ninepence. We were crushed together on benches at the very back. As a teenager I loved the theatre – I was in a dramatic society. I also used to make my own clothes, which meant I could have the latest fashions in just the right sizes, which I loved. Sometimes we’d go on boat trips across the water to New Brighton or on the train to Southport. We’d go for the day and visit the fairground and then go to the dance hall in the evening.

We clicked instantly
and got engaged two
weeks later

I met Richard at a dance when he asked my friend Margaret up. When she came back she said ‘Oh, he was nice.’ And then somebody else asked her to dance – she was very glamorous, with blonde hair – still is, as it happens. So Richard asked me to dance because she had gone! We clicked instantly and got engaged two weeks later. I’m not impulsive generally, but I just knew that he was the one.

In some ways. In the late fifties, when I was 16, Margaret and I hitchhiked to the Continent. It was really, really exciting. We got a lift from London to Dover on the back of a lorry. We sat on top of stacks of beer crates – we didn’t half get cold! We ended up sleeping on the side of the road in Calais because we hadn’t found a hotel. We travelled on to Switzerland and got jobs in the United Nations in Geneva as secretaries. It was a great way to see the world. I’ve no idea what inspired us to go. I think we just wanted some adventure, like lots of my heroines.