Lizzie of Langley Street Read Online Free PDF Page A

selling from a Bath chair and a barrow. Danny had been in the war, too. He was just sixteen when he had enlisted
the year before armistice. He had done his bit for king and country.
    Danny was liked on the island, but Danny’s older bother, Frank, was not well regarded. Frank helped in the shop, but had once worked on the docks as a guard. He had been exempt from
conscription because of this. Tom Allen had once remarked that Frank Flowers must have a trunk full of white feathers by now.
    ‘How’s yer dad and Gertie?’ Lizzie asked as they walked together down Cox Street.
    Bill Flowers had been a widower since Danny was born nineteen years ago. His wife, Daisy, had died in childbirth. Danny and Frank were the reason Bill had given up his roving way of life. With a
new born baby and a little boy of three to look after, a shop was the only way he could earn a living.
    The barrow was all that remained of the old way of life. Gertie Spooner was Bill’s right-hand man. Bill had hired her to help look after the baby after Daisy’s death and Gertie had
been at his side ever since. As well as looking after the two boys, she knew the business back to front.
    ‘Dad don’t change,’ Danny grinned. ‘All work and no play, that’s me dad. Gertie still manages to get him down the Quarry on Saturdays though. Between you and me, I
reckon she wears the trousers. They should have got spliced those two. Might as well have, for all the time they spend together.’
    Lizzie liked Gertie, who always had time to stop and say a few words in the shop, even when she was busy. Kate had been a regular customer in the old days but not so much lately. Market prices
were all she could afford.
    When they reached the barrow the chestnuts were sizzling on the brazier. Their succulent aroma filled the air and Lizzie held her hands over the heat. The warmth penetrated her old green coat
and seeped into her cold bones.
    ‘Sit down, gel. I’ll do you some.’ Danny rubbed a tin plate clean on his elbow before tipping out some chestnuts.
    Lizzie hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She sat down on an upturned box. Her mouth was watering as Danny passed her the plate. She stripped them hurriedly, tossing the hot brown nuts quickly
between each hand.
    ‘You’re a sight for sore eyes, Lizzie Allen,’ he chuckled. ‘Blimey, if all my customers had your appetite – and a full purse – I’d be a
millionaire.’
    She licked her lips. ‘I could eat these all day long. They’re lovely.’
    ‘Like someone else I could name.’ Danny folded his arms and leaned against the barrow, tilting his cap over his forehead. ‘So when are you gonna say yes and marry me, then,
Lizzie Allen?’ Danny was always teasing her like this. She wondered what he would say if she answered, ‘Whenever you like.’ But she never quite had the nerve to spring that one on
him.
    ‘When you’ve made enough money to keep me like a lady,’ she said instead. ‘I’ve expensive tastes, you know.’
    ‘Blimey, hark at it. All right then. If you won’t marry me, when are you gonna let me take you out on the town?’
    ‘Oh, I’ve heard that one before, Danny Flowers.’
    Lizzie thought he probably said the same to all the girls. She wouldn’t mind betting all those girls had lovely clothes, too. He was so handsome, her Danny, his white shirtsleeves rolled
up to his elbows, his shirt open at the neck. There wasn’t anyone she’d ever met who made her feel this way, all sort of shivery inside. She’d rather die than let him know, of
course. He probably thought she was still a kid. He’d known her ever since she was small, seen her trailing round the market with her sisters in tow. But the way she felt about him
wasn’t the way a child felt.
    ‘How do you fancy a night up the Queens?’ he said, with a serious expression on his face.
    Lizzie stared at him. ‘The Queens? Up Poplar?’
    ‘Where else?’
    She almost died of shock. ‘You mean . . . just you and