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Mr Radcliffe kept the rent and paid her a little over, just enough to cover food and household expenses She had bought herself a new pair of shoes, and her mother a cream blouse with pale blue eine a different sort of ratitude, proiven a little tio away to college, perhaps, like May had pro hole

But then, freed of the responsibility of earning and even of keeping house, her un to drink more heavily Occasionally she would come to the hotel bar and lean over the counter in her low-cut dresses Inevitably, late into the evening, she would harangue the irls orked there; she would swat at non-existent flies and shriek for Frances in tones that were both critical and self-pitying Finally she would clatter into the kitchens to attack her daughter verbally for her failures – to dress nicely, to earn her keep, for allowing herself to be born and ruining her e arms and threw her out Then he would scowl at Frances, as if her mother’s failures were her own She didn’t attempt to defend her: she had worked out years before that there was little point

In the face of their poverty, Frances could never work out how her et as drunk as she did

And then, one night, she disappeared – with the evening’s takings

Frances had been taking a five- a couple of slices of bread and arine that Hun Li had left for her, when she heard the commotion She had already put down her plate and stood up when Mr Radcliffe stor whore?’

Frances froze, wide-eyed She already kneith a fa about

‘She’s gone! And so has my bloody cash! Where is she?’

‘I – I don’t know,’ Frances had staentleed, puce-faced creature, his body soe fists balled as if in an effort to contain himself He had stared at her for what see up the possibility that she was telling the truth She had thought, briefly, that she one, the door sla behind him

They had found her two days later, unconscious, at the back of the butcher’s There was noOne evening that same week, Mr Radcliffe went round ‘to have a ith her’ then came back to the hotel to tell Frances that he and her ht be best if she left town for a while She was bad for business Hardly anyone would give the Lukes credit He had personally helped her out ‘Just till she straightens herself out a bit,’ he said ‘Though God only kno long that’ll take’

Frances had been too shocked to react When she arrived ho, took in the heavy silence of the little house, the bills sitting on the kitchen table, the note that failed to explain exactly where her , she had laid her head on her arms and stayed like that until, exhausted, she slept

It had been almost three months later that Mr Radcliffe had called her in Her mother’s shadow had di to each other as she passed – some even said hello Hun Li had been conciliatory – had made sure that there were scraps of beef and ular breaks Once he had left her two oranges, although he later denied it and raised his cleaver in irls in the bar had asked if she was doing all right, had tweaked her plaits in a sisterly manner One had offered her a drink when she finished her shift She had refused, but was grateful When another had popped her head round the kitchen door and asked her to nip up to his office, she had flinched, afraid that she was about to be accused of theft too Like hter – that hat they said in the town Blood would always out But when she knocked and entered, Mr Radcliffe’s face was not angry

‘Sit down,’ he said The way he looked at her see to have to ask you to leave your house’

Before she could open her e things in Queensland We’ve got troops headed up here and the town’s going to get busy I’ in who can pay me a much better rent on it Anyway, Frances, it doesn’taround in it alone’

‘I’ve kept up to date with my rent,’ said Frances ‘I haven’t let you down once’

‘I’m well aware of that, sweetheart, and I’m not the kind of man to turf you out on the street You’ll move in here You can have one of the rooms at the top, where Mo Haskins used to sleep – you know the one And I’ll take a reduced rent for it, so you’ll have more money in your pocket How’s that sound?’

His confidence that she would be pleased with this arrange that she found it hard to say what she felt: that the house on Ridley Street was her home That since her mother’s departure she had started to enjoy her independence, that she no longer felt as if she was teetering on the brink of disaster And that she did not want to be indebted to hiested

‘I’d really rather stay in the house, Mr Radcliffe I – I’ll work extra shifts to hed ‘I’d love to help you there, Frances, really I would But when yourhole in– hole A hole that I’ to have to fill’

He stood up, and walked over to her His hand on her shoulder felt immensely heavy