Lily’s War Read Online Free PDF Page A

half-filled with eggs from near his hand.
    ‘My leg, damn you! Don’t come that with me, girl. I’m still your father and I’ll have some respect!’
    ‘I’m not telling you. If you haven’t got the sense to leave it off just a few days longer, then I’ll have to have the sense for both of us. You’ll have an accident one of these days and then you’ll be even worse off. It’s you I’m thinking of, Dad. I don’t want you suffering any more than you are already.’
    Some of the anger left his face and there was a placating note in his voice when he spoke. ‘Well, where’s me crutches then? I can use them, can’t I? I promised I’d meet someone in the cocoa house in Christian Street. That’s if you can lend your old father half a crown?’
    She looked at him cynically. ‘Sure you don’t want ten bob?’ His face brightened. ‘If you’ve got it, girl.’
    ‘I was joking, Dad.’
    ‘A florin then,’ he pleaded.
    ‘Sixpence.’
    ‘A shilling. You’ve got the money here.’ He clutched at the counter and reached for the small basket on the ledge under the counter but she moved swiftly and grabbed it at the same time as he did. There was a wobbly tussle.
    The doorbell jangled.
    ‘Give it me here,’ yelled Albert.
    ‘Not on your life!’
    ‘Is this man bothering you, Miss Thorpe?’
    The basket slipped from Lily’s fingers but she had no time to reply before Matthew had moved and seized hold of the back of her father’s jacket.
    ‘Get your bloody hands off me,’ gasped Albert, hopping around. ‘This is me daughter and I’ll thank you to mind your own bloody business!’
    ‘Is this true?’ Matthew stared at Lily with a rueful gleam in his eyes.
    ‘I’m afraid so,’ she said, wishing her father to Timbuctoo. ‘But thank you, anyway.’ She took the basket from Albert.
    Matthew carefully released him. ‘I’m sorry, mate. My mistake.’
    Lily said, ‘Dad, this is the preacher I told you about, so watch your language.’
    ‘I’ll say what I bloody like!’ Albert shook himself like a terrier that had been out in the rain. ‘He’s no better than me! A Holy Joe who knows nothing about real life and suffering. I’ve met your kind before,’ he muttered, glowering at him and rubbing his neck. ‘Live in the clouds, you lot do.’
    ‘Dad, shut up!’ Lily opened his hand and pressed a shilling into it. ‘Your crutches are behind the sofa. Watch you don’t break your neck,’ she whispered, opening the door to the living quarters. Albert arrowed Matthew a withering look before leaving the shop.
    ‘You’ll have to excuse him,’ said Lily, facing the preacher. ‘He says he doesn’t believe in God but blames Him for losing his leg.’
    ‘You don’t have to apologise. There’s a lot of people like that.’
    Her mouth curved into a smile. ‘There’s another kind. Those who won’t have anything to do with the church but who behave as if they believe everything it stands for.’
    He smiled. ‘I’m sorry I antagonised your father.’
    ‘Dad would be prickly with God himself. He was bad enough after the war but when Mam died that was the finish. Now he can’t settle to anything and drinks.’
    ‘It can’t be an easy life for you.’
    ‘If he could forget the war it would be easier.’
    His smile faded. ‘It wrecked a lot of lives in Australia.’
    Lily leaned forward over the counter. ‘I suppose you’re used to dealing with men with problems like Dad’s.’
    ‘Most men prefer to keep their pain inside them where I come from. They consider it more manly.’ He took an egg from the tray on the counter and rolled it between his hands. ‘My own father never spoke of his feelings after my mother died or of his pain when he was dying himself. Stiff upper lip and all that.’
    She was interested in this information which stirred her compassion. ‘Any brothers and sisters?’
    Matthew shook his head. ‘Mum went when I was three and Dad died a few years ago. It was when he was dying