Free The Cobbler's Kids by Rosie Harris

bones back on their plates. She stood up, moving away from the table and deliberately brushed against her husband’s leg as she did so.
    He woke with a startled grunt. ‘What the hell are you doing? I said no one was to move from the table until they’d cleared their plates.’
    ‘You don’t expect them to eat the bones as well, do you, Mike?’ she asked sarcastically.
    He sat up and looked across at the table, a smirk of satisfaction on his face. ‘No, they can leave those. Use them along with the carcass for that bloody stew or soup you said you were going to make. Remember to cut all the meat off the carcass for me first.’
    ‘Oh, yes, I’ll do that,’ she promised. I’ll slice it off, cover it with gravy so that it won’t dry out, and then I’ll warm it up for your meal tomorrow.’
    As he gave his approval and sank back into sleep, Annie picked up the gravy jug. She signalled to Vera to start clearing the table, then she carried the jug of meat and gravy out to the scullery.
    ‘There’s pudding and custard, so you can all fill up on that,’ she told them. ‘I’ll put it into dishes and you can take it up to your bedrooms and eat it there.’
    Benny was unable to understand what had happened to the chicken. In the days that followed he spent endless hours looking for it even after they tried to explain to him that it had flown away.
    Vera did her best to distract Benny by taking him out to the park as often as possible, as well as taking him with her whenever she had to go and deliver boots or shoes for her father.
    Although this saved her mother from having to look after him, it also meant that she wasn’t helping as much around the home as she felt she ought to.
    Anyone could see that Annie Quinn had lost weight. She was beginning to look as if a puff of wind would blow her away. Although she never complained, Vee couldn’t help noticing that she seemed to have no energy for tackling the everyday jobs, and very little interest in what was going on outside their home.
    Her mother’s main concern was making sure that Benny was all right, and keeping Eddy out of his dad’s way. Vera helped as much as she could on both counts, but it was Benny’s welfare that concerned her most. Eddy, she reasoned, was big enough to look out for himself, but Benny was too little to understand if he was being bullied or to do anything about it.
    To be fair, she had to admit that she’d never heard her dad raise his voice directly at Benny. For the most part he ignored him, as long as he wasn’t crying. And, now that he was older and able to ask for things, Benny didn’t cry anywhere near as much.
    She knew her mother spoiled him. He never went hungry, in fact he was always given the best bits of whatever they were eating. As a result he was growing into a very sturdy little boy. Vera often found that when Benny was with her when she was doing deliveries, with his huge blue eyes, thick blond curls and winning smile he was the one who was given a penny or two, not her.
    Usually she saw that he spent the money on a cake or a bun on the way home. She was afraid that if her dad saw him clutching his pennies he might take them off him.
    She enjoyed the way Benny prattled on about everything they saw when they were out, and she marvelled at his boundless energy. He never seemed to be tired, or ask to be carried, and his little legs somehow always managed to keep up with her, even when she was in a hurry.
    ‘You’ll never find yourself a boyfriend, Vee, as long as you’ve always got Benny in tow,’ her friend Rita told her.
    ‘I’d sooner have his company than that of most of the boys we know,’ Vera countered.
    ‘He’s lovely, but I’d rather go for a walk with his big brother than with him,’ Rita laughed.
    Eddy had matured a great deal since working at Cammell Laird’s and being in the company of older men who treated him as an equal. Since the episode with the chicken at Christmas he had avoided his father