A Mother's Promise Read Online Free Page A

remember the last time she had sat down to eat in a café. Greasy Joe’s might not be grand like the chop houses and restaurants up West that she had read about in old copies of magazines, but at least it was warm and cosy in here, and tonight for once they would go to bed with full bellies.
    Tom threaded his way between the tables holding an enamel plate in his hand. He set it down in front of Sammy and Eddie. ‘Here, boys. Get your choppers round them for a start. The fish suppers won’t be long.’
    Sammy grabbed the largest wally and bit into the sweet pickled cucumber with an expression of bliss on his face. Eddie snatched another and crammed it into his mouth.
    ‘Steady on,’ Hetty said sternly. ‘You’ll get bellyache if you gobble your food.’
    ‘Let them be. They’re enjoying themselves,’ Tom said, taking a seat beside Hetty. ‘This is most pleasant. We should do it more often.’
    Hetty eyed him suspiciously. ‘What d’you mean by that, Tom? I ain’t a charity case, you know. I was going to buy us a fish supper tonight even if you hadn’t offered. I can pay me way.’
    ‘Don’t get all huffy with me, girl. No offence intended. I just meant it was nice to have yourcompany, and maybe we could step out together, proper like.’
    Sammy paused with a wally halfway to his lips, scowling. ‘Are you spooning with me sister, Tom?’
    ‘Of course not, silly,’ Hetty said hastily. ‘Look, our supper’s ready.’ She half rose, intending to go to the counter to collect the food, but Tom pressed her back onto her seat.
    ‘No, you sit there like a lady. I’ll get the grub.’
    Hetty watched him with a feeling of unease as he returned to the counter. She was fond of Tom, but she had no intention of getting tied up with a bloke, not yet anyway. She had ambition and it didn’t involve getting hitched at nineteen and being saddled with a baby every year. She wanted something better out of life than the back-breaking daily grind suffered by her poor dead mother. She hadn’t worked out how she would achieve her ambition, but there must be something she could do that would earn good money. The solution to all their problems would come to her one day, of that she was certain.
    When Sammy and Eddie were so intent on stuffing fish and chips that the roof could have blown off without their noticing it, she turned to Tom, speaking in a low voice. ‘I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, just because I let you buy us supper.’
    His smile faded into a puzzled frown. ‘I ain’t sure I get your meaning, Hetty.’
    She laid her hand on his arm. ‘Oh, Tom. We’re good friends and always have been. I want it to stay that way.’
    ‘And I do too, ducks. But that don’t mean to say we can’t be better than friends.’
    ‘That’s just it. I don’t need any complications in my life. I got a family to raise and a living to earn.’ She laid her finger on his lips as he opened his mouth to speak. ‘No, hear me out. I got plans, Tom. Plans for a better future, and they don’t include romance – at least not yet.’

Chapter Two
    Next morning, although dawn was several hours away, Hetty gazed in wonder at the moonlight reflecting on the surface of the snow and turning night into day. Standing beside Jane on the pavement outside the factory gates, she tried to ignore the bitter cold gnawing at her bones and hunger growling in her belly like an angry bulldog. Icicles hung from the factory roof, sparkling under the stars like diamonds around a rich woman’s neck. The amorphous mass of darkly clad workers stood out eerily against the pristine whiteness of the snow. Some of the younger children were having snowball fights and their shrieks of laughter echoed off the high walls.
    Hetty moved closer to Jane. ‘What time did you get home last night?’ she demanded in a low voice. ‘I didn’t hear you come in.’
    Jane’s soft lips curved in a smug smile. ‘Can’t say that I remember.’
    ‘It must have been