My Secret Sister: Jenny Lucas and Helen Edwards' Family Story Read Online Free PDF Page A

look at my knee and guided me indoors. ‘Aahh, haaway hinny. Let’s put a plaster on that knee.’
    She gave me a big hug as she set me down and carefully cleaned the wound. I always loved Grandma’s hugs. She radiated warmth. Hers were the only hugs I ever had from an adult. Grandma took off my shoe, unrolled my blood-stained sock and removed it. ‘Don’t you fret about that. I’ll give it a soak, shall I? It’ll be right as rain in a jiffy.’
    ‘Yes, please,’ I said, wiping my eyes. I knew she understood. Grandma always understood.
    ‘I made some shortbread today. Do you want to stay and have a piece?’ She always baked the best biscuits and cakes. The shortbread was soft and still warm. It melted in my mouth and cheered me up as she showed me the new pink bed-jacket she had made herself. ‘I’ll teach you to knit if you want, pet,’ she smiled. ‘But you’ll have to grow your hands a bit first.’
    I reached for another shortbread, but Grandma pulled the plate away. ‘Oh no you don’t!’ she said with a mock-stern expression. ‘You don’t want to spoil your tea.’
    When it was time to go home, Grandma put the damp sock back on my foot and did up my shoe. ‘Look. White as snow,’ she said. ‘No one will know.’
    She waved me off out of the door with some shortbread pieces wrapped in greaseproof. ‘Give those to your Mam.’
    I walked the short distance back to our house, my feet heavier with each step.
    As soon as I opened the kitchen door, I could feel a chill in the atmosphere.
    ‘You’re late,’ said my mother. ‘Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick.’ She had her back to me. ‘Just you wait till your father comes home.’ She clanged a frying pan onto the stove. Not a glance at me.
    ‘I was at Grandma’s house. She gave me this for you.’ I put the greaseproof parcel on the table. ‘I fell over and hurt my knee.’
    ‘Well, you should have been more careful.’ She still had her back to me.
    The door opened and my father came in.
    She turned towards him. ‘Helen’s been out all afternoon. She’s only just come in. I told her she’d be in trouble.’
    ‘Why are you late?’ my father barked at me. ‘Your mother’s slaving away to make you some tea. If you can’t be bothered to be on time, you can do without.’ He pulled me by the arm through the door to the stairs, slapped the side of my head and pushed me up the first couple of steps, so that I landed on my bad knee. ‘I am master of this house. You do as I say.’
    I sat still on the step, not daring to move. He went back to get Grandma’s shortbread and threw it at me. ‘We don’t take charity.’ The paper fell apart and the treasured biscuits crumbled everywhere. ‘Go up to your room. I won’t have you treating this house like a hotel.’
    I didn’t know what he meant, but I scrambled up the stairs as fast as I could. Would he follow me? I ran into my room, the room I shared with George, but he wasn’t there to protect me that evening. I sat behind the closed door and listened, breathing a sigh of relief as I heard Tommy go back to the kitchen. Now he and my mother were having a shouting match. I couldn’t hear what it was about, but even at that age I was sure it was my fault. It was always my fault, whether I knew what I’d done or not.
    I put myself to bed, but still they were raging at each other downstairs. I hid my face in the pillow, to block out the noise, but it didn’t stop me hearing a scream, followed by silence. I wanted to go down and see if my mother was all right, but I feared he was still there, so I didn’t dare. What would happen to me if . . .
    Then I heard her voice again. ‘You brute!’ she yelled, and the row continued.
    I was hungry and couldn’t get to sleep. I curled up with my fingers in my ears and thought back to my happy afternoon with the cousins, playing games down the street. I think the only time I felt safe was when I was playing with them. I was a part of