Goodnight Lady by Martina Cole

didn’t say we - what did we do to you? - because the knowledge that she had eventually condoned what her husband had done would not allow itself to surface. She held Eileen while she cried and Kerry cleaned up the mess made by Rosalee’s broth.
    Henry Dumas stroked Briony’s hair. It was like stroking silky springs. Briony lay beside him and let him cuddle her. She liked this bit. After all the other business was out of the way, he cuddled her and whispered things to her. She didn’t always understand what he was talking about, but the tone of his voice always sent her off to sleep. She watched drowsily as he got dressed, saw him push his fat little legs into his trousers, and smiled to herself. He always looked funny undressed. But when he was dressed he was like a different person. Briony respected him when he was dressed, and didn’t answer him back or make as many jokes as she did the other times.
    She’d turned on her side and closed her eyes to sleep when there was a loud banging on the front door. She sat bolt upright in the bed and stared at Mr Dumas. Then she heard her father’s voice, loud in the hallway, and her heart sank. He was drunk, she could hear it in every word he said.
    ‘Where’s me girl? I want me girl this minute!’
    Briony heard Cissy’s and Mrs Horlock’s voices trying to quieten him. As Henry Dumas walked towards the door, Briony was off the bed and in front of him.
    ‘Stay up here. I’ll see to me dad.’ Instinctively she knew that as her father was, if he saw Henry Dumas, all hell would break loose.
    Paddy looked up and saw her walking towards him. She looked beautiful. In the white lawn nightdress and with her spectacular hair unbound, she was like a vision. Through his drink-crazed mind he realised exactly what he had done to her and to Eileen, and it made him sick inside.
    ‘I’ve come to take you home, Briony, my baby.’ His voice was drenched with tears.
    She flicked a glance at Mrs Horlock and then back at her father.
    ‘Come into the warm, Dad, you’re freezing.’
    She opened the door to the morning room and he followed her inside. Mrs Horlock lit the gas lamps and Briony pushed the poker in the fire to get a blaze.
    ‘What’s all the noise about then, Dad?’
    Paddy settled himself in a chair and stared at his daughter.
    ‘I’ve come to take you home, lovie. This is all wrong. Eileen’s been ... she’s accusing me something terrible... Your ma ...’
    He couldn’t get the words out to explain himself, but Briony understood him well enough.
    ‘But, Dad, I like it here. I don’t want to go home.’
    Paddy blinked his eyes as if to reassure himself he had heard right.
    ‘It’s lovely here, Dad. Mr Dumas is really nice to me and I’ve got Cissy and Mrs Horlock looking after me, and I go out to Barking Park every day ...’
    Her voice trailed off. Her mother must have caused all sorts of trouble for her dad to be here now. Even with a drink in him, he was aware of what the money meant each week. Now they’d all moved into the new house, how the hell did they think they’d pay the rent?
    ‘Why don’t you let Cissy get you a cab home, Dad? In the morning, when everything’s all right with me mum, everything will be better.’
    Paddy finally understood what Briony was saying. He hadn’t left her here like Eileen to make the best of it. She actually wanted to be here, and the knowledge hurt him far more than anything else she could have said. Even losing the house wouldn’t have hurt as much as what his daughter had just said. No wonder Molly was dead set against her. Here was a whore in the making all right.
    ‘You’re coming home with me now.’ His voice was harsh, and he was surprised when Briony shook her head.
    ‘I’ll not leave this house, Dad, I’m staying here whether you like it or not. You couldn’t wait for me to get here not three weeks since, and if you think that I’m going back to Oxlow Lane with you, you’re wrong. Dead wrong. If you