Above the Harvest Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

he walked, and every so often he grinned to himself. He’d walk as far as Ryhope and then find a barn or something to hole up in for the night. Come morning he’d try to hitch a lift on a farmer’s cart to the next village and work his way down the country like that. If it was too slow-going with the weather and all, he might even take the train. He had never ridden on a train before but he was a man of means now, he had money in his pocket, and he intended to see it remained that way.
     
    He stood for a moment, raising his face to the starry snowflakes tumbling to the ground in their thousands, and it was like that, with his head thrown back to the heavens, that he laughed out loud. It was a joyous sound, without restraint, ringing in the dark night like the sound of bells on a Sunday morning.
     
    And then he began walking again.
     

PART TWO
     
    1925 - Entanglements
     

Chapter 4
     
    ‘Don’t be so gormless, girl.You’ve got eyes in your head, I shouldn’t have to tell you everything that wants doing. You know your aunt’s been bad this week and I’ve been run off my feet. I was banking on you coming straight home after church and helping me. Where have you been anyway? As if I didn’t know.’
     
    Hannah stared at her mother. It was on the tip of her tongue to say, ‘Why ask then, if you know?’ but she knew she would be playing into her mother’s hands. Her mam was itching for a row. She’d been the same for the last week, since Christmas Day in fact. Hannah felt her bad mood might have something to do with the bracelet her aunt and uncle had given her for Christmas. Her fingers instinctively felt for the silver charm bracelet on her wrist as she took off her coat and she moved it under the sleeve of her dress. She’d seen the way her mam’s face had changed when her uncle had put the little box in her hands. But her aunt and uncle had given her mam a lovely big box of chocolates with a picture of a thatched cottage on the ribboned lid, along with a pair of fine gloves, so she didn’t understand why her mam was vexed. Or perhaps it wasn’t that. There was no telling with her mam.
     
    ‘Well, miss, answer me.’ Miriam Casey’s thin face with its sharp-pointed nose displayed her irritation in deep lines either side of her mouth, making her appear far older than her thirty-six years.‘And none of your cheek, mind. Not unless you want to feel the back of my hand. You’re getting too big for your boots lately.’
     
    ‘I called in at Naomi’s for a few minutes,’ Hannah said flatly. ‘She wanted to show me the kittens.’
     
    ‘ Kittens? ’ It was disparaging. ‘There’s nine of them crammed in that place as it is and then the cat has kittens. I’d have thought Rose would have drowned them at birth.’
     
    ‘Naomi’s mam wouldn’t do that,’ Hannah said indignantly. ‘She’s already found homes for all the kittens but one.’
     
    ‘Has she indeed?’ Miriam’s pale blue eyes narrowed. ‘Well, don’t run away with the idea you’re having it, girl. I’ve told you before, there’ll be no cats in this house. Filthy creatures cats are, full of fleas and disease.’
     
    ‘Naomi’s cat hasn’t got fleas.’
     
    ‘No, well, it wouldn’t have, would it? Not with everything being so perfect within those four walls, according to you.’ Miriam glared at her daughter. Flapping her hand an inch from Hannah’s face, she said, ‘I’ve been waiting an hour for a scuttle of coal. Make yourself useful now you’re back. And you can see to the taties after. I’ve been in and out to your aunt all morning while you’ve been gallivanting. I’m fair worn out.’
     
    Fair worn out, that was a joke. Hannah turned on her heel and walked through to the bedroom she shared with her mother in the flat above the shop in Wayman Street, close to the Wearmouth colliery. She didn’t want to risk dirtying her Sunday clothes when she fetched the coal. She didn’t immediately begin to change