The Carpenter's Children Read Online Free PDF Page A

never knew how long a job was going to take, so might be early or late. Joy Cooper dreaded being alone in the house, fighting off the craving that gripped her like a physical ache, making her groan out loud and long for some distraction – anything to keep her from going to her secret hoard in the loft, the hoard which Eddie didn’t know about; he would have had a fit to see her climbing the loft ladder. Just to know that it was
there
helped her through the day, but sometimes the urge to take a tot of brandy was uncontrollable, and she’d promise herself that it would only be one little tot.
No
! She dared not go home, but retraced her steps to the post office.
    ‘Most kind of you, Mrs Cooper. I’m sure MissMunday’s mother appreciated your care for her daughter,’ smiled Mr Teasdale. ‘Now, what was it you came in for?’
    Having purchased the stamps, Joy Cooper forced a smile, and engaged the postmaster in conversation – anything to delay going home to an empty house and the temptation in the loft. Mr Teasdale was always happy to exchange a word or two with his customers when not under the pressure of work, as on pension mornings. The thought led him to mention Mr Cox’s absence this week.
    ‘Oh, I see – and you’re wondering if he’s all right, Mr Teasdale? Hasn’t his daughter been in?’
    He shook his head. ‘Not a sign of either of them, Mrs Cooper.’
    ‘Would you like me to call on him to see if anything’s the matter?’ she asked, grasping at anything that would take up a bit more of her time.
    ‘Why, yes, if you’d be so good, Mrs Cooper, and I’m sure he’d be glad to see you,’ said the postmaster, who had been wondering if he should check on Mr Cox. ‘I expect there’s some perfectly good reason for him staying away.’
    ‘Very well, Mr Teasdale, I’ll go round there and let you know if there’s any sort of trouble,’ she promised.
    But by the following morning all of North Camp knew that old Mr Cox had suffered a stroke, and had lain on his kitchen floor all day. His daughterMrs Blake found him at five o’clock, having spent the day shopping in Everham with her sister. When Joy Cooper arrived she found that the old man had regained consciousness, but was unable to speak or use his right arm and leg. Mrs Blake was hysterically accusing herself of not having checked on her father that morning, and Mrs Cooper calmed her as well as she could, saying that she would go at once to Dr Stringer. Mr Cox was taken to Everham Hospital where after three weeks he had recovered sufficiently to be allowed home under the care of Mrs Blake, helped by the district nurse and Mrs Cooper who promised to look in on him every day, privately thanking God that Mr Cox’s misfortune had turned out to be her salvation.

    ‘How
very
unfortunate that this should come on while you were at the post office!’ exclaimed Mrs Munday in a tone of mixed annoyance and self-reproach . ‘
So
embarrassing for you, dear, with only Mr Teasdale there. I’m very sorry that it’s happened this way.’
    She had made Isabel strip off her clothes and put on a wool dressing gown. The stained garments were soaking in a pail of cold water, and a white-faced Isabel sat with a folded linen square between her legs, secured by safety pins to a narrow cotton belt; so now she knew what wearing a diaper felt like.
    ‘But it was lucky that Mrs Cooper was there tobring me home and lend me her long jacket, Mum,’ she pointed out. ‘I don’t know how I’d have got home else, with that awful bloodstain at the back.’
    ‘Yes, well, it was unfortunate,’ repeated her mother with a frown. ‘And…er…I suppose you knew where the blood came from…comes from, Isabel? You do understand that this is your first monthly period, and it means that your body is ready – it means you’re a woman now,’ she added awkwardly, annoyed with herself for blushing.
    ‘Yes, Mrs Cooper told me that on the way home, and said that when it comes