Jack, who arranged this with Mr Bailey. And if we do stay here we’ll have to pay rent. Your grandma and I have a bit of money saved from the washing but it won’t go far. We’ve lost our laundry business now, and your dad’ll need to find a job straight away.’
‘I know, Mum, but didn’t Brendan say Jack Fletcher has an ear to the ground and might come up with something? And Dad can start looking tomorrow. I know he’s been a bit … daft with the betting, and then this card game with Mr Hopkins, but mebbe he’s learned his lesson.’
‘I want to think so, love, I honestly do. But somehow I can’t see your dad changing, and that’s what’s worrying me. I’ve seen the road he’s been going down for a while. Mebbe it’s too late for him to be any different.’
Evie wanted to argue that their lives would get better now they had a chance to start again, all of them together in a new place, but they’d lost so much by running away – all their friends, not least – and she couldn’t bring herself to lie to her mother. In her heart she knew that Mum was probably right: Dad would never change. She only hoped he wouldn’t drag them down further.
She thought about Billy – how he had kissed her farewell and told her he’d wait for her to come back. Was it only this morning? It seemed like days ago.
Quietly contemplating their new lives, she felt furious with her father. Stupid man! Stupid and selfish. His selfishness had caused his family to lose everyone they knew and cared for, everything Mum and Grandma Sue had worked for, and their little home in the town where they belonged. Now they had only each other.
For a moment she stood breathing deeply until her anger subsided.
‘We’ve got each other and we always will have,’ she said, trying for a smile. ‘Together, who knows what we can manage?’
As Evie woke up very early in a strange room, the light streaming through the uncurtained window, and remembered the upsets of the weekend and her parting from Billy, she was comforted to see the familiar bulk of Sue in her own sagging bed close by.
‘Awake, Evie?’ Sue smiled. ‘New home, new life, lass. Shall we be up and at it? I’m keen to see what that shop part is like. I had a few thoughts about it in the night. Let’s get your dad busy taking down the boards and we’ll see better what’s what.’
‘Gran, you always know how to make the best of things,’ Evie said, feeling less anxious. ‘So much to do … I’ll go down and make a pot of tea while you get up.’
It was impossible for Evie to feel miserable for long with Sue’s remarkable energy and enthusiasm rallying her.
Sue and Evie were up and making toast when Peter appeared, playing a cheery ditty on his penny whistle.
‘You’re in a good mood,’ Evie remarked to Peter, as he smiled at the music, quietly tapping his toes.
‘No school,’ said Peter simply.
‘But you’ll have to go sometime.’
‘Not for ages and ages. It’s the summer holidays from the end of this week. Mum and Dad won’t send Bob and me to school for one week, will they, Grandma?’
‘They haven’t even had the chance to think about school, Pete,’ Sue replied. ‘I reckon you’re safe now until September.’
‘Yippee! Though I won’t tell Bob just yet. Let him stew, like.’
‘Don’t be cruel,’ laughed Evie. Within five minutes it was smiles all round. The music was jolly and lifted their spirits.
‘You can help your dad with those boards and let some light into the front,’ said Sue, as Michael and Jeanie came running in.
Peter gave his father a look that said he’d rather not help him but his words belied that. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I’m good on ladders – if we have one, that is?’
‘Saw one round the side yesterday when I fetched the key,’ Michael told him. He took a piece of toast and went off with it to find the ladder and his tools. All their things had been unpacked so quickly from Fergus’s van the previous evening that it was difficult for everyone to remember where they’d put their belongings.
‘You sound keen to get on,’ said Jeanie to her mother, sounding anything but keen herself. She looked as if she hadn’t slept at all and her eyes were red.
‘No point in delaying,’ Sue replied. ‘You never know what you’ll find.’
‘You’re right, Mum, of course,’ Jeanie pulled herself up, ‘though it’ll have to be an awful lot better than I think it’s going to be if we’re to stay here. The place is rundown – and a shop, for goodness’ sake!’
‘I’ll have no defeatist talk,’ Sue answered, though she was smiling. ‘We don’t even know who owns it, and we’ve yet to meet Brendan’s friend Jack Fletcher, either. Or maybe he owns it? I’m confused about that, I admit.’
‘Me, too,’ said Jeanie. ‘I expect someone will appear to tell us – especially if they want some rent,’ she added.
‘Come on, get that toast down you – and you too, Peter,’ Sue commanded, passing over mugs of tea. ‘It could be our lucky day.’
‘Give over, Mum. No need to go overboard,’ said Jeanie, but she winked at Evie and Peter.
‘Maybe there’ll be buried treasure,’ said Peter, as he led the others through to the front, bringing the plate of toast with him. ‘A secret cellar full of gold.’
‘Aye, and I’m the Queen of Sheba,’ said Jeanie. ‘Where’s Bob? Is he getting up?’
‘Sort of. He said his stomach aches but I told him to stop whingeing and see if it felt better when he came down,’ said Peter without a trace of sympathy. ‘I think he’s worried about going to a new school. I haven’t told him yet we’re not going,’ he grinned.
‘I’ll go and tell him and see if he’s all right. You know what he’s like with his sensitive stomach.’
It took most of the morning for Michael and Peter to remove the boards from the window to the street and stack them out of the way, while Jeanie and Evie found some dusty curtains in the attic and tried to get the place cleaner and more comfortable, and Sue unpacked their boxes. The whole family went to view the unboarded shop from the pavement, eager to see if it looked more promising than it had the previous evening.
‘At least we’ll be able to see out,’ said Michael. ‘And it’s a big room.’
‘A big room for what?’ snapped Jeanie, her anger with him not yet dampened down. ‘And everyone else can see in now, too. What are we going to do there, sit having our tea like goldfish in a bowl?’
Robert started pulling fish faces, his mouth silently working like a guppy until Peter gently cuffed him round the
