Free A Sixpenny Christmas by Katie Flynn Page A

kid makes all the difference. They say a feller what falls out wi’ the mother of his child has to bite on the bullet and stay away from the house till he’s conquered his temper. That’s wharr I mean to do now I’m a dad.’
    ‘If you mean it then I’ll do everything I can to help you,’ Ellen said. She indicated the parcel between her hands. ‘Can I – can I open it now?’ She took Sam’s grunt for agreement and unwrapped the newspaper slowly, half expecting to find something horrid inside. She remembered being told by one of the men on Sam’s shift that he had found a bird-eating spider, its body six inches long and its legs twice that length, still alive and kicking after its journey in a crate of bananas. There had been other incidents as well, but common sense told her that Sam was just as frightened of snakes, alligators and other such creatures as she was herself, so she tried to look excited and not apprehensive. Inside the newspaper was a white leather case and when she opened it she saw a truly beautiful necklace made up of crystal drops. She guessed that it had once been part of a cargo intended for a jeweller’s shop, possibly in Liverpool, but more probably further away. Sam’s nickname on the docks was ‘Snatch’ and often he would return from work with goods which he had managed to get past the dock police. But right now his eyes were upon her so she gasped with real delight, picked the necklace out of its white satinbed and tried it on, then gave Sam a chaste kiss upon the cheek. ‘It’s beautiful; thank you so much,’ she breathed, carefully replacing the necklace in its case. ‘And now, if you’d like to have a wash, we can start our meal.’
    As he ate, Ellen told Sam about their neighbours, stressing the fact that both women had offered help. She thought that if Sam knew she had support, he might think twice about coming home drunk and attacking her. He had looked at the baby as she lay cuddled in her blankets and Ellen thought she had detected a slight softening of his grim and deeply seamed face. She thought she could put up with any amount of bad treatment herself – she had grown good at dodging drunken blows – but knew she must make it clear that Lana must never so much as hear Sam’s voice raised in anger, far less feel the touch of his huge fists.
    But judging by the present he had given her and his whole attitude, perhaps he really was going to change, to become a husband who supported his wife and did not merely take it out on her whenever he was in a bad mood. Crossing her fingers that this would prove to be so, Ellen began to eat.

Chapter Three
    MOLLY WOKE EARLY because her feet were cold, and her feet were cold because Rhys, sliding silently out of bed in an endeavour not to wake her, had not tucked the blankets at the bottom in properly, leaving a small gap through which an icy draught whistled.
    Molly curled into a tight little ball and began trying to rub some warmth back into her cold feet, but after ten fruitless minutes she sighed and gave up. She might just as well get up; heaven knew, with Christmas only days away, she had plenty to do. Now that the children were older – Chris was seven and Rhiannon just five – she and Rhys had saved every penny they could so that the children might have a really good Christmas. Last year both Chris and Rhiannon had had the measles and Molly still remembered that Christmas Day if not with revulsion, at least without much pleasure. Scarlet-faced and feverish, Chris had been cross and aggressive and Nonny had cried every time things did not go her way, which was often. Toys which had been urgently desired were greeted with lethargy, and the thing Chris wanted most – a bicycle – had been sought for all over the house, for Chris still believed in Father Christmas and was sure that his careful note, written some days before, had sailed up the chimney on its way to the land of snow and reindeer, so there was no possible