The Carpenter's Children by Maggie Bennett Read Free Book Online Page A

parents discussing his future prospects.
    ‘I’ll be quite happy to work my way up!’
    ‘D’you think you’ll miss us
lots
?’ persisted Grace.
    ‘Yes, but I’ll be home at weekends, so Saturdays and Sundays will be the same as now,’ he answered, smiling, and Isabel wondered if he was thinking about Phyllis Bird.
    ‘I want to get away from North Camp just as soon as I’m old enough,’ said Grace with a pout. ‘It’s a
boring
place, and nothing ever happens unless you count church fêtes and picnics.’ She wrinkled her nose at the mention of these tame entertainments.‘Everything’s always the same here from one week’s end to another.’
    But in this she was mistaken. Two days later old Mr Cox died in his sleep, leaving Mrs Cooper with nobody to call on and care for every day. She enquired in vain for some useful work, looking after some other old person or housebound invalid, anything to get her out of the empty house during the day, and keep her mind off the temptation up in the loft. She even offered her services free of charge.
    ‘That’s where she’s making a mistake,’ said the North Camp gossips. ‘People don’t appreciate anything they don’t have to pay for, and with
her
reputation…’ Heads were shaken and knowing looks exchanged.
    Until they were shocked into silence. For in the end Joy Cooper could not hold out against her enemy, and one afternoon she climbed the rickety ladder up into the loft, grabbing at the brandy bottle and drinking straight out of it. Within the next hour she had got on a bus to Everham which put her down at the railway station. She bought a platform ticket and waited for the express train for Southampton, due to come hurtling through before three o’clock; the brandy helped her to perform her last desperate act, and she threw herself in front of it.
    At the coroner’s inquest the train driver said that he’d had to make an instant decision whether to brake the train at full speed, putting at risk thepassengers in the carriages behind him, or go straight ahead and then slow to a stop, having run over the woman on the line. The coroner agreed that he had been wise to choose the latter course.
    The head shaking turned to gasps of horror on hearing the dreadful news, and Mrs Munday was not the only one to shed tears; in fact more of Joy Cooper’s neighbours turned out to mourn at her funeral than had ever shown her friendship in life. Eddie Cooper and Mary stood beside the grave while Mr Saville read the Burial Service from the prayer book, and after her body had been committed to earth, Eddie turned round to shake the hands of Bert Lansdowne and Tom Munday. Mary kissed Isabel and told her not to cry, and then the bereaved husband and daughter abruptly left the churchyard, cutting short the tentative expressions of sympathy.
    Violet Munday was unusually quiet and thoughtful as she walked home.

C HAPTER T HREE
1912
    Just what is that boy going to do with his life?
    Ernest was uncomfortably aware of his father’s unspoken question, though Tom Munday had not recently broached the subject with him. The final term at the commercial college would be starting after Easter, and the question of employment at the end of it loomed large; fellow students like Ernest’s friend Jim Quayle were applying for posts and going for interviews. Mrs Munday had always believed that Ernest would be in demand with his new qualifications, confirmed by a certificate of proficiency in basic business skills, but looking ahead to the end of that last term, there were not any obvious openings in the Guildford area for newly trained clerks. When Brights department store advertised for an assistant floor manager, the post had been quickly filled, andin any case Mrs Munday hoped for something better for her son. The college superintendent frequently told students that the best opportunities were in London, but country-loving Ernest had no wish to rent a room in the sprawling capital, and