Spoils of War by Catrin Collier Read Free Book Online Page A

you mean. I’m dreading my brothers coming back from the Far East. We’ve only got two rooms and a boxroom. I moved into their room when they left. My father has the other bedroom and I can’t say I’m thrilled with the thought of going back into the boxroom. But there you are, I don’t suppose I’ll have any choice. I can’t expect three great big hulking men to sleep in a single bed in a space not big enough to twirl a cat with a short tail.’
    ‘Rooms, here?’ he reminded.
    ‘There are two but they’re taken on a weekly basis. Big nobs from the pits,’ she confided in an undertone.
    Tony picked up his pint, wondering why he’d ordered it. The room was already wavering around him. He’d eaten hardly anything of the meal he’d ordered in the restaurant and four pints mixed with family arguments on top of an almost empty stomach didn’t make for a clear head, but without thinking further than the next five minutes he took a long pull at the mug.
    ‘Do you know anywhere else I might try?’ he asked.
    ‘Surely your mother can put you up? I know it might mean sleeping on a sofa …’
    ‘I want a bed. I’ve slept in enough makeshift places the last six years to last me a lifetime. Leave is supposed to mean home comforts.’
    ‘See what you mean. Well, I suppose I could let you have our boxroom. Like I said it’s small but it’s clean and since the munitions factory closed I’ve nothing else to do but work here nights and look after the house during the day so I could do your washing and feed you. You have got a ration book?’
    ‘You live in Leyshon Street, don’t you?’
    ‘Isn’t that good enough for people from Danycoedcae Road?’
    ‘It’s perfect, not so far to stagger from here but I’ve got someone to see first. Give me the number and a key and I’ll leave my bag there.’
    ‘Fifteen bob a week all right?’
    He raised his eyebrows.
    ‘Including breakfast and tea,’ she added swiftly. ‘It’s number fourteen, the key is in the door because there’s bugger all to steal. My father works nights, but don’t worry about him, we’ve been short since munitions laid me off. He’ll be so pleased at the thought of extra to pay the rent, he won’t mind the two of us sleeping there alone.’
    ‘You sure?’ Tony asked, realising how it would look.
    ‘I’ll get us a bit of supper, shall I, from the chip shop?’
    ‘That would be nice.’ Thrusting his hand in his pocket he pulled out two shillings. ‘Here you go.’
    ‘Ta, Tony. Whoever you’ve got to visit don’t make it too late. Seeing as how neither of us has much to get up for in the morning we could have a bit of fun before hitting the hay.’ She gave him a broad wink as the landlord shouted at her to get on with serving the other customers.

Chapter Three
    The living room above Charlie and Alma’s shop was quiet, and so still that the tick of the mantel clock staccatoed into the chill air like rifle shots, fraying Alma’s ragged nerves to breaking point. Shivering, she hunched further into her cardigan. Hoping to get Charlie to bed early, and incidentally save on severely rationed coal, she’d banked down the fire just before their visitors had arrived. But with frost icing the February night air and coating the windowpane, it hadn’t taken long for the temperature of the room to drop below a comfortable level.
    ‘Do you think this woman could be Masha?’ she asked, shattering the silence that had closed in, enveloping each in their separateness since Charlie had broken the news.
    ‘I hope so.’
    Leaving her chair she walked to the fireplace and hooked the guard in front of the grate so if any coals fell out during the night they couldn’t roll further than the tiled hearth. She knew what she had to say, it needed saying, but above all she needed to convince Charlie that she meant every word.
    ‘Do you remember the night you told me about Masha?’
    He looked into her eyes with such love she might have been touched