Free Christmas Wish by Lizzie Lane

had everything she wanted.
    Wiser than to leave it downstairs in case her aunt returned unexpectedly, she went upstairs and replaced the butcher’s paper beneath her pillow with some of the card.
    After cutting and folding a piece of card in half, she drew a fat robin on the front and wrote ‘Merry Christmas’ across the top.
    What to write inside took more thought. Whilst thinking about it, she coloured in the robin; brown feathers, a red breast, black dot eyes and little yellow legs. Making the white background look like snow was more difficult, but patches of blue crayon seemed to work.
    At last she opened up the card, picked up her pencil and wrote simply but sincerely.
    ‘To my sisters, Venetia and Anna Marie and my little brother, Mikey. I’m missing you very much. I can’t send this card today cos I have no stamps and don’t know where you are. I will keep it safe until I can give it to you. Love, Magda.’

Chapter Eight
Magda
    ‘You need to make a list,’ said Danny. ‘A list of the facts as you know them and the people connected with the last time you saw your family.’
    They were sitting on a bench in the middle of Victoria Square sharing Danny’s cheese sandwiches.
    Magda swallowed the very tasty piece of bread and cheese she’d been chewing.
    ‘The facts?’
    ‘Like your old man leaving you with your aunt. That’s a fact. Likewise ’im going off to sea. That’s a fact too. Then there’s the money he’s supposed to be sending – or not sending as the case may be. How does she receive it? Does it come through the post? Is there a return address? Or does somebody deliver it direct into her hands? Or does she collect it from somewhere or somebody? That’s the facts you’ve got to find out.’
    ‘That seems very wise.’
    Danny looked pleased. ‘It’s the way Bob Barton does it. Set out the facts and deduce the evidence.’
    ‘I see.’
    Danny passed her another sandwich.
    ‘Once we’ve sorted that out, we think about the people most likely to know the whereabouts of your sisters and brother – that’s besides the old witch you live with. Right?’
    She nodded. ‘There’s Uncle James. He might know. I’ve not met him yet.’
    ‘I’ll make a note of that.’
    Danny flicked the bread and cheese crumbs off the piece of paper on which he’d written his analysis of Magda’s situation.
    ‘Next I think we need to make enquiries at the workhouse you were in. They might have some idea.’
    Magda swallowed and set her sandwich down. Suddenly she didn’t feel like eating.
    ‘My mother died there.’
    He patted her hand then gave it a squeeze.
    ‘There were nice people there too. I remember a lady. Miss Burton. She was kind to us. She told me that normally we would have had to go to the orphanage, but seeing as it was Christmas she arranged for us to stay there until our father came to fetch us.’
    ‘And last but not least, we come to your father,’ said Danny after ticking off the former deduction. ‘Is there some way of finding out what ship he was on?’
    Magda shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’
    Daniel glanced around him as though afraid of some menacing presence overhearing what he was about to say.
    ‘I’ve had a word with somebody in the know,’ he said, tapping the side of his nose. ‘He reckons that if you know the name of the ship or even the shipping company, they will let relatives know the name of the ship said relative has signed on. This last course of action is only to be resorted to if all the others run up against the buffers. I mean, there’s a chance your aunt receives the money through a shipping company. If that’s the case, then we’ve got ’im cornered.’
    Magda sat quietly thoughtful, her sandwich lying untouched on her lap.
    ‘I’m not sure my father sends any money and I’ve heard Aunt Bridget say that she never knows from one week to the next what ship Uncle James is on, so it would be the same for my father.’
    ‘Ah!’
    ‘I need to go