The Evacuee Christmas by Katie King

Author:Katie King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-one

Connie and Jessie were unhappy. Extraordinarily unhappy.

It was the third Saturday afternoon in a row that Tommy had made them go scrumping. If there was a word they now hated the sound of, it was scrumping.

Neither of the twins could see what all the fuss was about. It was simply a field of apple trees, and Tommy would make them all climb over a very high wall.

Privately, Jessie thought it was more to do with Tommy making them bend to his will than it being anything about what they were actually doing as such, but that didn’t make it any less horrid an experience for him and his sister.

The first time it had been enough that the three of them stole some apples from the trees nearest the wall.

The second time, Connie had said she and Jessie weren’t going to go scrumping. She added, with her bony chest thrust forward, that scrumping was silly, and there was no point in it.

Tommy’s eyes narrowed as he stared at her appraisingly.

Connie stood up straighter and looked at Tommy with a gimlet stare. Sometimes, back in Bermondsey, that had been enough to get the bullies backing down.

There was a knock at the door, and the tension in the room evaporated a degree or two as Roger could be heard telling someone where to find the children.

After a silence, Angela poked her head round the door. She looked wary, and rather shocked to find herself at Tall Trees.

Tommy tossed his head in Angela’s direction. Jessie thought it hard to tell if this gesture was inviting Angela into the room or telling her to go away.

‘Yer’re ’ere, an’ so we can all go now,’ said Tommy.

This was a surprise, thought Jessie, as he had had no idea that Tommy had even noticed Angela before.

‘We’re not coming,’ said Connie. ‘And Angela doesn’t want to either.’

Angela’s face looked pensive as she could feel there was something going on here that might be difficult for her to navigate.

Tommy stood stock still, and Jessie saw a muscle on the side of his face twitch, close to where the back of his teeth would be.

‘Jessie and me. We’re staying here. Along with Angela,’ Connie reiterated.

‘If yer don’t, when yer aunt’s babbie’s here, I’ll pull ’is arms off,’ Tommy growled with a sneer.

‘Get lost, Tommy.’ Connie’s tone was defiant, even though she felt anything but. To her ears, Tommy sounded very much as if he meant business.

He sidled up to her. He looked bigger and more threatening than Connie would have given him credit for. She thought of something. ‘It was you who beat up Larry, wasn’t it?’

A flicker in Tommy’s eye confirmed Connie’s suspicion, but he didn’t deign to give a response.

There was a horrible, twitchy-feeling silence.

Then, ‘Yer fuckin’ wan’ t’test me about Peggy’s babbie?’

Connie had heard swearing often before – and she could be potty-mouthed herself at times – but the shock lay in the quiet but immensely sinister way that Tommy spat these words in her direction.

She looked at Jessie, who shrugged with a defeated air.

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