Shelter from the Storm by Elizabeth Gill Page B

in the evenings and drink until late if they were on the late shift.
    The following Sunday afternoon he went back to Mrs Clancy’s for his lie-down and he had just taken his boots and his jacket off when there was a knocking on the door. When he opened it there stood Esther Margaret.
    Dryden didn’t know what to say. Had she no more sense than to come to him here? People would see her. Mrs Clancy would make sure it was all over the village by tomorrow. She didn’t look pleased.
    ‘You were supposed to meet me.’
    ‘Was I?’ Dryden couldn’t remember.
    ‘At the Cutting Bridge. I waited. I waited all last Sunday afternoon and I waited all this afternoon.’
    Dryden drew her into the landing. He didn’t want her there and he didn’t want her standing in the landing and neither did he want Ma coming up the stairs telling him how as she didn’t like females in her establishment, it only caused trouble. Dryden didn’t doubt she was right, if Esther Margaret’s sour face was anything to go by.
    ‘I’m sorry. I forgot.’
    ‘Forgot?’ She stared on him. ‘How could you forget?’
    ‘I just did.’
    ‘You’ve been drinking.’
    ‘Aye, I’ve been to the pub with Tom.’ How proud he was to say that. ‘And then I went to his house for my dinner.’ That wasanother milestone. ‘Look, you mustn’t come here. Folk will know.’
    ‘Then where?’
    ‘I don’t know right now.’ Dryden was tired. He wanted to sleep before spending the evening with his friends.
    She started to cry. Dryden hated this bit, when they cried. Women were like that, they couldn’t accept that you’d had enough, that you were tired of them. She was so serious.
    ‘You’re going to have to go.’
    She cried harder. She clung. She kissed him.
    ‘Look, it was nice, all right.’
    ‘No. No. Please.’
    He rather liked the way she begged but he pushed her gently along the landing and walked her down the stairs. He could still hear her crying even when he had put her outside and closed the door. He took off most of his clothes and lay down on the bed and was very soon fast asleep.

CHAPTER SIX
    Esther Margaret went to Vinia’s house when she began to feel unwell and to think that something was the matter. She had nobody else to talk to and she felt that Vinia was the one person who would understand. She had cried a great deal in the weeks after Dryden had stopped seeing her. Pride prevented her from going to him again. She was surprised that her parents noticed nothing, that she couldn’t eat, that she was tired, that she took no pleasure in anything and finally that she was sick, more tired, stopped bleeding, started worrying. She walked the streets with her head down so that nobody would notice her, and then she dived down the passage and into the yard. The door of the little house was standing open as usual and from there she could see the big fire which burned at the far side of the room even in good weather because it was used for all the hot water and cooking. She knocked and Vinia came to the door. Esther Margaret was shocked. She had not seen Vinia for some time, since she had become absorbed with Dryden and then with her misery. Vinia had lost a lot of weight. The dress she wore was big on her.
    The little house was very clean even by village standards. The brasses shone, the fire surround was bright. It occurred to Esther Margaret that Tom Cameron might be at home.
    ‘When the pubs are open?’ Vinia said with a tight smile, and she urged Esther Margaret to sit down and to pour out her tale.She listened with whitening cheeks and a dismayed face. Esther Margaret stumbled on about how she had been prevented from seeing Joe and how they had tried to make her see Billy and … The farther she went into the story the more stupid she sounded.
    ‘I’m so unhappy and so ill. There’s something wrong with me.’
    Vinia didn’t respond straight away; she sat for several moments before she said, ‘Esther Margaret, you aren’t ill,