The Boy with the Latch Key
Heartache and hardship in London’s East End, from the bestselling author of The Orphans of Halfpenny StreetIt’s the 1950’s and the orphans of Halfpenny Street have found a new home in the Essex countryside at Halfpenny House. Meanwhile, back among the slum clearances of Bethnal Green, St Saviour’s has now been partially given over to a home for disturbed girls though it still serves as a reception centre for local children who are in desperate need.Amongst these are Archie and his sister June. They’ve been ‘latch key’ kids; fending for themselves while their caring but harassed and careworn mum tries to make ends meet. Now she’s been accused of theft and prison seems inescapable. Archie has no intention of letting his mum go down. He knows she’s innocent and will do anything to prove it. But can he help his mum before adoption, and the authorities, take him and June away forever?
Читать The Boy with the Latch Key онлайн беплатно
Harper
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
The News Building
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by Harper 2017
Copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
Cover photography © Henry Steadman (child characters posed by models); background street scene © Charles Hewitt / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Cathy Sharp asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008211608
Ebook Edition © February 2017 ISBN: 9780008211615
Version: 2017-02-10
Table of Contents
âHereâs the money for some bread, Archie,â Sandra Miller said. âThere are eggs and bacon in the pantry so you can get yourselves a meal when you come home.â
The old-fashioned wireless behind her was playing one of the biggest hits of the music charts the previous year â âOh Mein Papaâ sung by Edie Calvert and one of Sandraâs favourites, but she snapped it off impatiently as her son fiddled with his football boots and pushed the ten-shilling note at him.
âYeah, all right.â Archie shoved the money into his pocket and looked bored. He knew the routine: let yourselves in with the key that hung on a string through the letterbox, make a meal for himself and his younger sister June, and leave the washing-up in the sink for when she got back. It wasnât ideal and Sandra hated the fact that her kids were one of a growing number of latchkey kids whose mothers worked and didnât get home until later in the evening.
Sandra hadnât planned this kind of life when sheâd married Tim Miller. Heâd been a soldier then and the war that had devastated Europe and much of the world had been raging fiercely. Theyâd anticipated their wedding night because Tim had been going back to the Front and Sandra had feared she might not see him again. However, theyâd been some of the lucky ones. Tim had come through the war unscathed. Heâd landed a good job as the manager of a grocery store and until one foggy night in January 1950, Sandraâs life had been perfect ⦠until the ring at the door and a young constableâs stuttering announcement that her husband had been killed cycling home from work in thick fog.
Sheâd been carrying Archie when Tim got leave from the Army in November 1941 and came home to marry her, but Sandraâs parents had stood by her and sheâd appreciated their loving kindness. Her throat caught with grief as she recalled the night when their house had been blown apart with them still inside. Theyâd had no warning, because it was one of those terrifying rockets they called the V2; it came out of the night and suddenly a home and the people in it were gone just like that, leaving a gaping hole in Sandraâs life and that of her kids.
If her parents had lived she would have had someone to look after her children when she was working late, but unfortunately Tim had been an orphan and the kids had only her to feed, clothe and teach them about life, and sometimes Sandra felt it was a heavy burden, even though Archie did all he could to help her.
âWhat time will you be home then?â Archie asked, a little resentful now. Sandra knew he didnât mind doing little jobs down the Docks or even washing windows for elderly neighbours to bring in a few shillings, but he hated it that she was hardly ever home before it was time for cocoa and bed.
âIâm not sure,â she said. âIâll come straight home from the office, I promise. Iâm not working at the pub tonight.â
Twice a week she did a few hours in the evening at the Dog & Gun in Bethnal Green, to earn extra money, because growing kids needed so much, and Sandra hated the idea that hers might have to go short.
