The Lost English Girl by Julia Kelly

Author:Julia Kelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2023-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The destruction across the city was incredible.

All over Liverpool, people awoke to a city that had been changed—horribly.

Viv knew that she and her parents were lucky. Dad had been transported to the hospital for his concussion and his head wound and, after the all clear had sounded, Viv quietly took Mum’s arm and walked her to Kate’s house.

Kate had opened the door, blurry-eyed and disheveled from her own night in a public shelter, taken one look at the pair of them, and immediately put breakfast on, using up all of her remaining bacon and powdered egg rations in one go.

They managed to coax Mum, who had simply stared at her food, into bed a short while later. Viv and Kate were just pulling up the covers when Mum opened her eyes, looked straight at Viv, and said, “It should have been you.”

“Mummy, what are you talking about?” asked Kate.

“It should have been you. You took his seat,” said Mum.

Viv pinched the bridge of her nose hard. She had no fight left in her any longer. Not when it came to her mother.

“Viv, what is Mum talking about?” Kate asked.

“Just before the bomb fell, I switched seats with Dad. He asked me to,” she said.

Kate stared down at their mother, horror on her face. “Mummy, Viv didn’t drop a bomb on your house! The goddamn bloody Germans did!”

“Katherine, you know better than to take the Lord’s name in vain,” Mum chastised.

“It’s my bloody house, and I’ll bloody say whatever I want in it!” Kate shouted, going red in the face.

Mum turned to face the wall.

Viv took her seething sister’s elbow and steered Kate out of the room. As soon as the door was closed, she said, “It isn’t worth it.”

“Yes, it is! She has spent the last five years punishing you for something you’ve paid for over and over again. When does it stop?” Kate asked.

“It’s always been like this. You know that.”

Kate seemed to deflate. “But I didn’t know it was that bad. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Viv stared at her sister. “I did tell you, Kate. I told you on my wedding day.”

“I—”

“You didn’t listen because you have always been the good daughter. It came easily to you,” she said.

Kate was the proper wife with a real husband she’d married in a church and children who’d come more than nine months after the wedding. Kate was respectable and could show her face in the community without wondering if someone would snub her. Mum never had to cringe when Kate walked next to her.

Kate had done everything right, and Viv nothing.

Kate hung her head. “I’m so sorry.”

Viv squeezed her sister’s arm. “Take care of Mum. I’m going to go to work.”

Kate’s head shot up. “What? You can’t deliver the post today.”

Viv rolled her shoulders. They ached from bearing Dad’s weight, but nothing was going to keep her in the house today. “I can’t miss the shift. I need the money.”

“Train tickets to see Maggie can’t be that expensive,” said Kate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.