Christmas Wish by Lane Lizzie

Author:Lane, Lizzie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

Chapter Twenty-seven

The Twins 1935

Anna Marie was forking hay when Venetia raced up to her, apron flapping and her boots thudding into the muddy ground.

‘Guess what? The Caseys are coming out to fix the stone wall that fell down in the gale. Isn’t that marvellous, Annie? Isn’t that just plain marvellous?’

Anna Marie looked at her sister’s excited expression and felt that perhaps she didn’t know her sister’s mind at all.

‘He let you down. He wouldn’t go to America with you. And he told on us. I didn’t think you were ever going to forgive him.’

It was true. Her sister had declared again and again that she would have words with him when she could. However, the chance to have words with him had never quite come about. There had been no chance to meet alone; their grandparents saw to that. The only time either of them had seen Patrick Casey was from a discreet distance. Either he was with his father doing a building job in the town, or on the rare occasions that Patrick attended mass. The Caseys were known to be a bit lax in their churchgoing, keeping their attendance to a Sunday, the day they considered was the Lord’s and his alone.

‘He’ll never leave here,’ Anna Marie stated. ‘Surely you should know that by now.’

Venetia’s eyes flashed and she adopted a coquettish pose to her body, looking at her sister sideways, hair held with one hand and piled on top of her head.

‘He won’t be able to resist. All I need is a little time alone with him and we will be leaving – together!’

‘Are you going to get him to marry you?’ Anna Marie looked shocked and incredulous.

‘Why not? He’s who I want anyway, and let’s face it he’s about the only good-looking fellah around here.’

Anna Marie looked away. She rarely disagreed with her sister, mainly because it was easier to go along with everything she said. What she was certain of was that Patrick Casey would never leave his father’s employ. If he had been willing to leave and loved her enough, wouldn’t he have boarded the ship with them at Queenstown?

Her views on her sister’s relationship with Patrick were not new. She’d had this opinion for a while, but had never dared point it out to Venetia who was as head-over-heels in love with Patrick as he was with her. Or was he? Anna Marie blushed at the memory of the way he’d looked at her in Queenstown. There’d been something in his eyes that had caught her breath.

Venetia caught sight of her dreamy look. ‘What are you going sheep eyed for?’

Anna Marie thought quickly. ‘I was thinking, what about us not mentioning Magda but saying that we’d like to go to England to find Michael?’

Venetia shook her head. ‘Michael’s been adopted. Da told us that didn’t he? You can’t go looking for kids that have been adopted.’

‘But Magda …’

‘Oh for heaven’s sake! Our sister’s a whore. Do you really think we’d be allowed to cross the water to look for her? I heard Gran and Granfer talking about it.

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