Life and Love at Mulberry Lane

LIFE AND LOVE AT MULBERRY LANE ROSIE CLARKE CONTENTS Author’s Reminder Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 More from Rosie Clarke About the Author Sixpence Stories About Boldwood Books AUTHOR’S REMINDER This is book number nine in the Mulberry series so we thought it might help to have a little recap for readers. Some of you won’t need it, others might find it helpful. Main Characters Peggy’s family: Peggy and Able Ronoscki and their twins, Freddie and Fay. Peggy’s eldest daughter, Janet, and her brother, Pip, by her first husband, Laurie. Peggy is now in her sixties, Able is a couple of years younger. The twins are now 19. Janet is 39 and Pip is 37; they both have children. Maggie is Janet’s daughter by her first husband and Peggy’s first grandchild and is now 21. Janet and Ryan, her second husband, have a son, Jon. Pip is married to Sheila, they have two children, Chris and Cathy. Pip works as an aeronautical designer. Peggy has always run the Pig & Whistle pub in Mulberry Lane in the East End of London, apart from a period when she went away to the seaside and Sheila ran the pub. However, in 1958, Maggie and Fay started to take over. Peggy also has a boarding house, which is managed by Pearl. Pearl’s mother, Mrs Maggs, helps at the Pig & Whistle washing up. Able has a partnership with Tom Barton in the building trade. * * * Maureen’s family: Maureen is in her late forties and Gordon is slightly older. Gordon’s daughter, Shirley, is in her late twenties now and Maureen and Gordon’s son, Gordy, is a teenager. Maureen also had a son, Robin, (not Gordon’s) but he died of a childhood illness. Gordon is suffering from a weakness of a heart muscle but is better than he was in the last book. He still manages the grocery shop that came to them through Maureen’s family, but it is much bigger now, though he only goes in for an hour or two and has a youthful manager. Maureen still helps out in the pub and the restaurant kitchen sometimes. Shirley is a doctor and married to Ray. * * * The Barton family: Tom and Rose Barton have two children, Molly and Jackie or these days, Jack. Tom and Able are now partners in a building business and doing well. Rose sometimes helps out in the pub kitchens. She and Maureen are Peggy’s best friends and they’ve always done things together. They are several years younger than Peggy and Maureen and in their thirties. All the characters are well and continuing to thrive now that life is so much better after the long years of war. This is a time when things aren’t too bad for folk in Mulberry Lane, but, of course, life always has surprises round the corner… 1 It was really happening at last. Peggy looked around the Pig & Whistle’s old-fashioned bar, which was about to be pulled out as part of the refurbishment she’d promised Maggie would happen if her business warranted it. The downstairs parlour, which was never used, would become the bar for the regulars of the pub and this would form part of an extended restaurant, using some of the back yard. It was a big change, but the delicious meals that her daughter and granddaughter were now serving brought in too many customers to fit into the bar as it stood. ‘We’ll have to do it, hon.’ Able, Peggy’s easy-going and much-loved husband, put his arm around her waist. ‘We promised we’d come up with the money if their business expanded and it most certainly has.’ He’d done his part by purchasing the building from the brewery in order to let their dreams happen. ‘I can’t believe it’s more than two years since they started to take over,’ Peggy admitted with a sigh. ‘I never imagined they would stick to it the way they have, especially Fay. You know what she is like for changing her mind.’ Fay was their daughter and Freddie’s twin, but Maggie was that bit older and the child of Peggy’s eldest daughter Janet, who was her first husband’s offspring. Laurie had been long dead now and was a part of Peggy’s memories that centred here in the bar of the Pig & Whistle in Mulberry Lane, but there were so many more memories – so much love, laughter and pain. Especially during the war years when she’d taken people down to her cellar for safety as the bombs fell. The pictures flitted through Peggy’s mind as she let her eyes travel the room and she saw her friends as they had been so many times, drinking, talking, sharing their lives with her, some of them still enjoying life, others gone now but not forgotten. She shook her head. Life moved on and it was foolish to cling to the past. The Pig & Whistle was a thriving business and she must celebrate that, not feel regret for what had gone before. ‘Are you ready, hon?’ Able’s voice broke Peggy’s reverie and she met his eager gaze and nodded. ‘All packed? Got everything you need?’ ‘Yes, I made a list,’ Peggy replied, a lift in her voice as she felt a flutter of excitement. ‘And I know the taxi will be here in fifteen minutes.’ ‘Good. I’d hate for us to miss our plane.’ * * * It was the spring of 1961, and Peggy had more or less handed over the reins, leaving the business of running the Pig & Whistle to Fay and Maggie. Now,