Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection

Luke laughed in delight at the deer’s inquisitiveness. For a wild creature she was pretty bold. Maybe she’d visit again and he could entice her closer to the cabin. When he was a child, that had been the ambition of his school holidays – to tame a wild deer in these very woods. Well, now he’d try again. Velvet, she’d be called, and she’d feed out of his hands. He smiled at his foolishness and shrugged. Well, why not? Some dreams could come true, couldn’t they?

The portrait of Amy greeted him on the easel as he re-entered the cabin, and after a few minutes away from it, he saw it with fresh eyes. All at once he knew that it was finished, that adding anything more would detract from what was there already. This was the best he could do and he was pleased with it.

He stood for a long time gazing at Amy – his Amy – while the sun moved round and the light in the cabin changed, and Amy’s smile met his.

A month later on a beautiful June morning, Maureen Langdon came into the shop with the boy at her side. Now a regular customer and somewhat mellowed, she was on first-name terms with both Marie and Amy.

‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’ she asked Amy, ‘only he won’t stay with anybody else and, like I told you, I really have to go on this errand.’

Amy assured her it was fine. ‘Don’t worry, Maureen. He can help me fill up the shelves.’ Being as they had taken delivery that very morning, there was any amount of packets to be put away.

‘I’ll be back inside of two hours,’ Maureen promised, ‘and look, I can’t tell you how grateful I am.’

Ushering the boy forward, she smiled at how easily he went to Amy, and how, when he slipped his hand into hers, Amy drew him close, as if to keep him safe. Knowing how frightened and unsure he was around people, Maureen had been astonished at how quickly little Johnny had taken to Amy.

After everything bad that had happened to them it was comforting to know that she and her son had found a real friend in this warm-hearted young woman. She wasn’t altogether yet sure of Amy’s mother, Marie, because though she was friendly and interested in them, Maureen sensed a certain wariness that put her on guard.

‘Take as long as you like,’ Amy told her. ‘He’ll be all right here with us.’

‘If I didn’t think that,’ Maureen answered, ‘I wouldn’t be leaving him with you.’

Amy had come to love the little boy, yet she had never been asked to take care of him before, and now she was really looking forward to it.

‘Would you mind if I took him to the park?’ she asked. ‘I’ve kept back a loaf of stale bread so we can feed the ducks.’

‘All right then, but mind you keep him well away from the water!’ Opening her arms to him, she asked with a smile, ‘Well, are you gonna give your mammy a cuddle or not?’

Running to her, Johnny was swung up high and held tight, before a moment later he was given back to Amy. ‘Take good care of him, won’t you?’ Maureen said meaningfully. ‘He’s all I’ve got right now.’

Knowing how lonely she was, Amy took a pace forward. ‘You’ve got me, and my mother,’ she said. ‘We’ll be here whenever you need us.’

Maureen nodded. ‘You’re good people. I’m lucky to have you as friends.’ Enjoying any kind of friendship was a new experience for her.

‘You look very special today, if you don’t mind me saying.’ Amy observed how Maureen’s short red hair shone. Her lips were painted soft pink and her high cheekbones touched with rouge.

Though slightly ill-fitting, the pretty green cotton dress was in stark contrast to the well-used clothes she usually wore. ‘The dress really suits you,’ Amy remarked. ‘You should wear green more often.’

Blushing pink at Amy’s kind comments, Maureen confessed in a whisper, ‘It cost me tuppence from the rag-and-bone shop. They had a little jacket to go with it, but that was another tuppence and I couldn’t quite stretch to it.’

Amy was quick to offer. ‘I’d like to help you with that.’

‘No, thank you!’ Maureen Langdon was a proud woman. ‘If I can’t afford it, I won’t have it.’

‘Our Amy’s right.’ Entering from the back in time to hear the last conversation, Marie agreed with her daughter. ‘You really should wear green more often.’

A moment or two later, and feeling like a million dollars, Maureen bade them goodbye. ‘Two hours,’ she said. ‘Then I’ll take him off your hands.’

‘Take all the time you want,’ Amy told her. ‘Me and little Johnny are going to have a good time, aren’t we, Johnny?’ Bending to tweak his nose, she laughed out loud when he reached up and did the same to her.

When Maureen was gone and Johnny was busy refilling the shelves, Marie quietly voiced her concern. ‘Aren’t you getting a bit too fond of the lad?’

‘How can you say that?’ Amy was taken aback. ‘I thought you liked him?’

‘Well, of course I like him!’ came the sharp rebuke. ‘It’s just that we still don’t know anything about the lad and his mammy – where they came from, or why they turned up out of the blue like that. What happens if they leave the same way?’

‘Out with it, Mam,’ Amy urged. ‘What are you getting at?’

‘You think about it, lass. Here you are, getting more and more fond of the lad – and don’t deny it because I’ve seen you, nose pressed to the window when you think they might show their faces. So, what if one afternoon he’s here, and the next minute, without warning, they’re gone as quickly as they arrived?’

‘But they won’t. Not now.’ Amy had thought about it often of late, and somehow had managed to convince herself how Maureen Langdon and the boy would be around for a long time to come. ‘They’re settled here now,’ she argued. ‘Maureen says herself how much she likes living in Derwent Street.’

A little flurry of concern made her turn to watch Johnny busying himself. ‘But if, for any reason, they were to leave now, I know Maureen would keep in touch.’

Marie sighed. ‘I don’t want you hurt, lass. That’s all.’

‘Amy! Amy!’ Excited, the boy came running to tell Amy how he’d finished the work she’d set him. ‘No more boxes. Come look!’

Discreetly sending him before her, Amy quietly assured her mother, ‘You’ve no need to worry. They won’t be leaving. You’ve only got to see how well Johnny’s come on since they came to Derwent Street. Maureen too. You saw how she was when they first arrived – defensive; afraid even. They won’t leave. They’re settled here now.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ Marie announced. ‘For your sake.’

In a troubled voice she gave a kindly warning. ‘Maureen Langdon was right about you,’ she said. ‘You are a good ’un. Warm-hearted and kind. But don’t let the lad creep too far into your affections. Remember, lass … the deeper you love, the deeper can be the hurt.’

‘Oh, Mam!’ Throwing her arms round that dear soul, Amy held her for a long, reassuring moment. ‘All right, Mam. I’ll bear in mind what you said,’ she promised.

A moment later, she and the boy were laughing at the way he had mixed all the buttons together; large, small and multi-coloured all in the same drawer.

From a discreet distance, Marie watched them, and the way that darling little boy was looking up at Amy with adoration only served to fuel her fears.

In spite of Amy’s promise, it was all too clear that these two were already deep in each other’s affections.

Having travelled some distance, Maureen joined the other passengers and clambered from the tram.

Going at a fast pace down the street she turned the corner and there right before her the building blocked the way, its grim high walls sending a shard of apprehension through her insides.

Approaching the tall iron gates, she was aware of other women all heading in the same direction. ‘I hate this bloody journey!’ The small weary-eyed woman was about Maureen’s age. ‘Every week for the past four years,’ she groaned, ‘and no end in sight. Knowing him and his troublemaking ways, I expect it’ll be the same for another four years.’ Pushing on, she added angrily, ‘It’s not just his life he’s wasting. It’s mine too … mine and the kids’. In the end it’s always us who pays the price!’

Maureen nodded. She knew what it was like.

Now, as she neared the gates, she prepared herself for the ordeal ahead.

‘Here they come!’ Straight-faced, legs astride and arms folded, the two prison officers waited. ‘The sooner this is over the better,’ exclaimed the taller of the two.

‘Poor devils,’ replied the other. ‘It can’t be easy for them.’

‘Listen to yourself, man! Not getting soft, are you?’

‘Nope. Just getting older, I guess.’