Dream On by Gilda O'Neill

like a vice being tightened against his collar-bone.
    â€˜What the fuck?’ Ted demanded and spun round to confront her for daring to do such a thing. His face was contorted with anger at her presumption. But it wasn’t Lilly who had grabbed him.
    The next thing Ted knew was a knee slamming into his groin. As he crumpled to the frosty cobbled ground, cupping his testicles in an effort to protect himself from further agony, he squinted up through his pain to see one of the men who had been drinking with the girls at the bar.
    â€˜Billy Saunders,’ said the man, raising his hat in a parody of polite introduction. ‘Don’t forget the name, will you. You’ll be hearing it a lot round here. I’ve decided Limehouse might just be the place to start up a little business.’
    He turned, raised his hat once more and smiled magnificently at the two now ashen-faced girls. He pointed at Lilly and jerked his head towards where Ted was still squirming on the damp ground. ‘What’s his name?’
    She didn’t answer, but Billy noted that the girl shot an urgent, warning look at her friend.
    â€˜Scared of him, eh?’ said Billy with a disgusted shake of his head. ‘I wondered why you both went running over to the flash little bleeder.’
    Billy took a cigarette out of his case and waited for the other slightly taller man to light it for him, then he strolled the few steps over to Ted. ‘You fucking coward,’ he said simply, gave him another vicious kick and turned back to Lilly and Marge. He raised his hat again. ‘Ladies. Let me wish you both a very good night.’ With that, the man and his companion strode off into the shadows.
    The girls exchanged a terrified glance. What the hell were they meant to do? It was bad enough being stuck with a nutter like Ted Martin when he wasn’t even upset, but now . . .
    Lilly took a deep breath, put her handbag on the kerb and linked her arm through Ted’s. It was just a shame he wasn’t as pissed as the stupid kid he’d brought with him, then she and Marge could have cleared off and left them both to the dippers and cosh gangs from Chinatown and neither of them would have been any the wiser that the girls had abandoned them. Still, it was no good wishing; good things just didn’t seem to happen to the likes of Lilly. ‘Help us then, Marge,’ she gasped.
    Between them, the girls somehow managed to haul Ted to his feet. He staggered backwards and slumped against the car.
    â€˜Billy Saunders,’ Ted panted. ‘I won’t forget you, you bastard.’
    Al dropped down on to the kerb next to Lilly’s handbag and stared at the three people in front of him Even with all the alcohol fuddling his brain he was able to see that the girls were as scared of Ted as he suddenly realised himself to be.
    There was something in Ted’s expression, a strange, distant look in his eyes as though he were seeing something that was only visible to him. Something that Al felt genuinely relieved he couldn’t see, or even begin to understand.
    He had seen Ted turn to violence before, going berserk over the merest slight; smashing his fist into a woman’s face for just looking at him the wrong way; or giving a real whacking to an old night-watchman at one of the bonded warehouses, who had simply asked him what he wanted. In fact, in the months since Al had first met him, Ted Martin had proved himself to be a really vicious sort of bloke, especially where women were concerned, but Al had never seen that look before. And it really frightened him. Drunk as he was, Al knew that he was well out of his depth.
    He picked up Lilly’s handbag, clasped it to him like a comforter and vomited all over it.

Chapter 5
    WHEN GINNY WOKE up the next morning she was saddened, but not surprised, to find that the covers on Ted’s side of the bed were undisturbed and that his pillow had not been slept on again.