Lily returned to the bedroom from her thoughts, and it seemed to her that it was getting too noisy downstairs. Straightening her dress, she stifled her curiosity and slid down. In the living room, Thomas sat in an armchair, legs spread wide, dressed like a gentleman in a starched white shirt, black trousers, and polished shoes. Shulman could boast of cleanliness and neatness, and this was very much in keeping with Lily's neatness. Grey eyes, furrowed brows, and a short, well-groomed beard. He didn't look like a teacher. The girl slid inside.
«Do you drink? Oh, my God!» she said as she watched her father pour brandy for the man and himself. Tom clearly didn't belong to this group, and her parents didn't even like «the groom.» His older brothers also looked at him askance. The situation was tense.
«Tommy, did you come to visit my parents?» Lily asked a little resentfully, sitting down on the edge of the Jew's chair.
«Why not?» the man said, putting his arm around her slender waist and running his hand over her several times, then yanking her over and sitting her on his knee. Mr. Yung grinned maliciously, but the man did not remove his hand from the small of Lily's back and pulled her closer.
«Lily, you didn't tell me that Mr. Shulman has his own pubs and pharmacies…» The girl looked at Thomas in surprise, and he nodded.
«Yes? I completely forgot!»
Lily first heard about it, thinking that Shulman was just trying to impress her and her parents because of his own cunning. The girl's father was clearly encouraged by this news and considered the candidate less strictly, adding to the points for excellent brandy and a good sense of humour, as well as the fact that Thomas was already firmly on his feet.
For Lily, that meant only one thing: she couldn't leave Thomas now, no matter how much she wanted to. More precisely, Thomas will not let her out of the clutches of the owner.
«The fall-back is to tell my father that Shulman is Jewish,» she decided. They were all sitting at the big table, looking at each other. Thomas seemed a little pensive and distant.
He looked at her brothers. The two big men, two years apart, stared at Thomas. «Puppies,» thought the Jew, turning his attention to her father. A tall man with jet-black hair combed to one side, black eyes, and ulcers and boils on his hands. Still strong enough for his age. Tom looked at his face and couldn't help remembering that he had once served in the same regiment with him. Who would have thought that in a few years ' time Thomas would be sitting here nursing Sergeant young's only daughter? Mr. Yung also recognized Thomas. It is rare to find a live colleague who did not get drunk after the war, where they were taught only to beat and kill. Only a quarter were able to adapt to peaceful life. Jonathan Yung has always been particularly violent. Tom was afraid of Jonathan's mad idea of taking gold teeth, ears, and other parts of a dead opponent's body as a trophy. But Jonathan's particular passion had always been strangulation. A tenacious grip, a couple of minutes, and the man died without bruises or abrasions on the neck.
«And this man created a whole gene pool! It's crazy, that's all,» Shulman thought.
«Lily, Thomas and I went through the war together!» said the man, taking a bottle of spirits from the cupboard, which was made even heavier by the Jew's whisky. Thomas remembered how they had nearly killed each other in a drunken brawl.
«Really?» Lily exclaimed, looking at Shulman. «It's a small world.» Thomas would have preferred not to mention their «friendship.»
The Jew nodded, watching as Lily's father poured him a glass of alcohol. The most interesting thing is ahead, because Thomas doesn't drink.
«Go ahead, drink!» Shulman shook his head.
«Are you a man or not?»
He knows what a person is, knows how they drank such glasses after a fight, and sometimes before. It was like a cheap demonstration in front of his sons that made Thomas sick.
«I don't drink because I'm Jewish.»
The old man grimaced questioningly.
«Dad, what Tommy means is that he's Jewish.»
«Thank You, Lily.»
«What difference does it make to me? Drink this!» This pleased Thomas, and he drank it without flinching, then tossed the empty glass to Lily's father. His oesophagus burned from cheap alcohol, just like in the war.
«That's what I mean, a real man! Give young people a drink and you won't find them under the table for five minutes.»
Tom didn't care, and he watched Lily fail one by one with a straight face.
«Lily, can I talk to you for a minute?»
The girl nodded and rose from the table.
«Excuse me» he muttered, disappearing into the corridor and following her.
They went to the door and went out under the old porch.
Tom took two plane tickets to Jerusalem from his pocket.
«Tommy! You what? My father will blow your head off! He won't let me go anywhere!» the girl stood nervously in the doorway.
«We'll see about that,» he finished, returning to his seat.
A couple of hours later, Thomas and her father were sitting in the living room, preparing to talk.
«You know she's my only daughter!» Yung muttered, twirling an aluminium lighter in his hand and twirling a cigarette between his teeth.
«I noticed,» Thomas said. Of course, he saw that Lily was the only girl of six children. He wasn't blind yet.
«Then listen! If you touch her before the wedding, make a baby, and then run away, I promise I'll find you, do you hear?» Lily's father said through clenched teeth, so that no one in the house would hear.
Tom groaned in a smile as he remembered how he had paid three hundred pounds for her in a brothel. Yes, she didn't sell herself cheap. Could he tell her father?
«That won't happen» Thomas asked, looking at Lily, who was sitting in the kitchen with her mother, playing with a napkin and helping her dry the dishes.
These empty threats are like the wind to Shulman. Even so, the old man wouldn't have done anything to him. Yes, John would have found him, Yes, he would have clung to the Jew. So I'm going to punch Thomas in the face, and then what? Oh, these empty threats of typical empty-headed people. Abomination. Yung unbuttoned his grey shirt, revealing a small tattoo on his chest that said only one thing: the killer. He's an attaché at large and in the world, so let him sit on his criminal ass straight. Because a prison is a prison, and there are other laws that don't stop Thomas from sticking a knife between his ribs. Tom doesn't care that he's Lily's father. Yung saw through the Jew as soon as Shulman entered, setting priorities. Like, all of them are made of criminal test, one dick!
«Let her go abroad with me,» Tom interrupted. I'll pick her up today and bring her back safe and sound on Monday morning.»
«Where is it?» John was wary.
«On a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.»
Yung swayed in his chair.
«What are you, exactly? No!» The old man barked the last word with a grin.
As far as Thomas could tell, it was politics.
«Dad! Oh, my God!» Lily exclaimed as she entered the living room. There was silence. «I'm almost twenty years old, but all I've seen in my life is dirty London and my village!»
From the look in his eyes, it was clear that the girl was Jonathan's favorited child, which immediately subsided, replaced by anger and pity. His gaze slid over the body and face of his daughter, who stood before him like a naive lamb.
«Okay, good.»
Lily was overjoyed, kissed her father on the gray temple, and ran to her room to collect her thoughts.
«Where can I get a kiss?» Thomas looked envious.
The girl's father returned to Shulman, pointing at him.
«You owe me!»
«Oh, the auction is starting!»
