Grabbing her daughter by the hair, Annie Kelly dragged Mary across the room. ‘You … you bloody, bloody little cow!’ she screamed, slapping at her head and face with all her might. ‘The minute I turn my back!’
Mary was close to hysteria, blood and mucus running from her nose to mix with the tears that streamed down her cheeks. ‘No, Mam – it’s not true!’
‘You lying little bitch! Where’d that come from, then?’ She shoved Mary, sending her sprawling into the coal from the newly delivered sacks. ‘I’ll give you a whipping you won’t forget, you little whore!’ She swayed drunkenly toward Henry. ‘Give me your bloody belt!’
Standing in the door to block his sister’s escape, Henry Kelly unbuckled the thick leather belt, then leaned back to watch with satisfaction as his mother wrapped it around her fist, leaving a two-foot strap.
‘I didn’t do anything, Mam! I didn’t!’
‘Don’t you lie to me!’ Annie lashed the belt across the small of Mary’s back, making her scream with pain.
‘It … it was a present, Mam! Don’t! It was a …’ Mary screamed again as the leather snaked across her shoulder.‘
She had that old feller from up the school,’ goaded Henry. ‘I caught ’em here together the other mornin’. I knew they was up to no good.’
‘You damned little whore!’ Annie Kelly lashed again, then again, but in her gin-soaked anger she missed her mark, and the blows struck the coals, sending small pieces skidding across the floor.
Seizing her chance, Mary flung herself from the fireplace and ran to the far side of the room, staring out from beneath her dishevelled hair like a hunted animal. ‘I’m not!’ she shrieked. ‘It was a present!’
‘Present, my arse!’ Annie wiped the spittle from the side of her mouth, and advanced on Mary.‘It was a present – a payment – for a drawing. That’s all! Go and…’ The leather seared across her left arm, and she dashed into the refuge of the corner. ‘Go and ask if you don’t believe me!’
‘Oh, you’d like that! Make me look a right bloody fool, wouldn’t it!’ Annie began lashing from left and right, swinging wildly and striking the walls more often than not, but still landing enough strokes to elicit screams of agony.‘You don’t think I have enough to contend with!’ She jerked her head toward the room where John Kelly lay. ‘It’s bad enough I’ve got a useless cripple for a husband – but to think that a daughter of mine would …’
Stung by the reference to her father, Mary’s eyes flared angrily, and she drew herself up, as though suddenly impervious to the lashes. ‘Would what? Follow your example? Two sacks of coal would be a good price, wouldn’t it? How much do you charge?’
Taken aback, Annie let her arm drop, the strap dangling by her side. ‘What do you mean?’ she hissed.‘Do you think I don’t know what you do when you go to Cardiff? Everyone knows!’
‘You know nothing … none of you! How dare you! You ungrateful little whore.’
‘You are the whore – you!’ Mary’s eyes filled with tears. ‘You bring the stink of it into our bed when you come creeping home – when you bother to come home!’
‘Don’t take that from her!’ shouted Henry, disappointed at the turn of events – but Annie had lost her momentum.
‘You keep out of it!’ She turned to Mary, staggering a little, reaching for the wall to steady herself. ‘You think I like it? What else am I supposed to do?’ No longer sobered by fury, Annie’s voice became slurred. ‘How else do you think we’ve managed all these years?’ She waved an arm toward the place where her husband lay befouled in his bed. ‘He’s been no good these past years – useless – a millstone, that’s what he’s been – a bloody millstone round my neck.’
‘Don’t you dare say that!’
‘Oh, don’t I dare? He’s been a millstone alright – dragging me down – and so have you – both of you – bloody great millstones.’ She turned to look at Henry, ‘What use have you ever been?’
But Henry had heard it all before. Snatching back his belt, he spat on the floor at her feet, then pushed his way through the door, making off to the fields and his snares.
Annie looked down at the spattered ground, trying to focus, her body listing precariously. ‘Just you and me, now, eh, Mary?’ she said, looking up with mocking affection. ‘Dear little Mary – clever little Mary – Da’s little pride and joy. Too good to go out to work. Da says little Mary must stay at school.’
‘It’s what he wanted,’ Mary protested bitterly. ‘He said I should …’
‘Better yourself?’ Annie tapped the side of her nose with her finger and leered. ‘I wonder what Da would say if he knew what his clever little girl had been up to, eh? Letting old men have her for a few bags of coal.’
‘That’s a lie – you know it is!’
But her mother was no longer listening. ‘Clever, pretty little girl you are, but I shall tell him – he won’t think you so bloody perfect then! Oh, dear me, no!’ She started towards the bedroom, but fell against the table, reeling backwards to slump on to a chair. For a moment she sat there looking confused, then she gave a lopsided smile. ‘I was pretty – once upon a time – had my pick in those days. Dances! Oh, such dances – such strong, handsome boys. Now look at me!’ She jerked up her head. ‘Well, you take a good long look, pretty little Mary. This is what you’ll be seeing in the mirror before too long. And there’ll be no presents of coal from gentlemen then!’
Mary’s lip quivered. ‘I know, Mam,’ she said quietly, seeing her mother for the pitiable creature she had become. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Sorry? I don’t want your sodding pity!’ Annie glared, her mood turning belligerent once more. ‘I do what I do because I have to, see? To put bread on the table! Because no one else will. Because I’m surrounded by a lot of damned millstones! God knows what I did to deserve this. Stuck with a cripple, and a wastrel – and a daughter that thinks she’s too good for the rest of us.’
Fresh tears brimmed in Mary’s eyes.
‘You? You don’t know the half of it!’ Annie went on. ‘You think I like doing it? Do you? Going out night after night – with all those men? All those … those big, dirty men.’ Then she gave a little giggle. ‘Well – I’m entitled to a few drinks, aren’t I? A few little drinks and a bit of fun?’ She gave her daughter a lewd grin. ‘And I can still give them what they want.’
Horrified, Mary watched the crude accompanying gesture, her lips trembling – then choking back the sobs she ran from the house.