Cockney Orphan Read Online Free PDF Page A

dropping his hammer on the floor with a clatter when he saw her. ‘Thank God you’re safe, love!’
    She melted into his open arms. He hugged her, squashing the baby between them.
    They were both tearful and Connie swallowed. ‘Oh, Dad, what a night! I’m so pleased to see you.’
    ‘Where have you been? You wasn’t in the Anderson when your mother got back from the shelter this morning. She thought you and Billy would be waiting for her.’
    ‘It’s a long story, Dad.’ She hoped that Billy would turn up quickly this morning and put everyone’s mind at rest.
    Her dad lowered his bright blue eyes to the bundle she was carrying. ‘What, or rather who, is this?’
    Connie placed the baby gently in her father’s arms. ‘I’ll tell you all about it when we go inside.’
    Ebbie Marsh gazed down at the child in his arms. Connie watched in silence as her father bent his head, displaying a thick cluster of straw-coloured hair identical in colouring to her own.
‘My, my, there’s a big smile to brighten my day.’ He looked up at his daughter. ‘Your mother is going to be relieved to see you walk in that door, Con.’ He laughed at
his own joke. ‘Well, walk over it anyway.’
    As Connie went in Olive Marsh raced out of the kitchen. ‘Constance! Where on earth have you been? I was so worried!’ As usual, her appearance was immaculate, Connie noted as she
embraced her mother, hugging the slim, slightly stiff shoulders covered in a smart green blouse. Not a hair was out of place, the glossy brown pleat at the back of her head secured by an army of
pins. ‘I would never have asked you to look for your brother if I’d known what was ahead of us.’
    ‘He’ll be home soon,’ Connie replied and, before her mother could ask more, she nodded to the bundle in her father’s arms. ‘Look what I found.’
    ‘A baby? You
found
a baby?’
    ‘Yes, a little boy.’
    ‘When? Where?’
    ‘Last night, as I was . . . er . . . looking for Billy,’ she fibbed. ‘Some houses had been hit in Haverick Street. I found this poor girl in the ruins, but she was trapped and
before I could help her, she died.’
    Olive gasped. Her father frowned. ‘And this baby survived?’
    Connie nodded. ‘Goodness knows how. He was shut in a coal scuttle under a table. A warden came along and helped to dig him out. Well, he’s only a temporary warden, a boy I knew at
school called Vic Champion. Luckily his gran lives just round the corner and we had to run with the baby and take shelter there. This morning Vic’s gran and his sister Pat gave me
breakfast,’ she ended breathlessly.
    ‘Vic Champion?’ her father repeated. ‘I remember him! He stood out, that lad did. Smashing little footballer. Faster than all the rest of the lads put together. He could
dribble a ball like no one’s business.’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ nodded his wife impatiently, ‘but what happened to your brother, Constance?’
    ‘You know our Billy, Mum.’ Connie shrugged lightly. ‘He was off with some pal when the warning went.’
    ‘I’ll bet it was with that Joey Donelly!’ her mother exclaimed. ‘Messing about on the river again. One day he’ll fall in, I know he will. I’ve forbidden him
to go near those barges yet he still does exactly as he likes. Ebbie, you’re going to have to put your foot down with your son, and that’s a fact.’
    ‘Calm down now, love,’ her husband soothed. ‘It was pandemonium yesterday. None of us knew what we was doing, especially as you insisted on going to the public shelter when
I’d set up the Anderson especially.’
    ‘That contraption is a death trap,’ Olive Marsh pronounced shortly. ‘How you can stand there and advise your family to use it, I really don’t know.’
    ‘Is there a cup of tea going?’ Connie broke in as she took the baby from her father. He gave her a wink.
    ‘Of course.’ Her mother nodded. ‘Go in the front room and sit yourself down. Dad’s made a fire and lit the paraffin stove.