Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection. Josephine Cox

boy laughed. ‘There ain’t no Father Christmas.’

      Kathy was shocked. ‘Who told you that?’

      ‘My dad.’

      ‘Well, I believe in Father Christmas, and I don’t care what anybody says.’

      There was a minute of quiet contemplation while Frank considered Kathy’s profound statement, after which he declared boldly, ‘I believe in Father Christmas too!’

      Kathy squeezed his hand. ‘Good for you!’ If she did nothing else today, she had restored a child’s belief.

      As they approached the harbour, Kathy could see Tom on the decking. ‘TOM!’ Having caught his attention, she took the boy at a run over the little bridge. ‘We need to ask you a favour,’ she said breathlessly.

      Tom looked pleased to see her. ‘Who’s your little friend?’

      Kathy looked down at the boy. ‘This is Frank.’

      Tom held out his hand in greeting. ‘Hello, Frank,’ he said.

      The boy was wary of Tom, but not shy. ‘Hello, mister. Can I come on your boat?’

      Laughing, Tom ushered them aboard. While the boy scouted about at the helm, Kathy gave Tom a brief resumé of the boy’s background. ‘His mother’s doing the best she can, but the children are having to go without.’

      Tom thought it was a sad affair. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘We’ll see what we can do to make his holiday one to remember.’ For a moment, he gazed at her, then smiled and nodded. Placing his hand lightly on her back, he ushered her inside to where the boy was pretending to be captain. ‘Will it go?’ he asked.

      ‘Will what go?’ Tom thought of his own son, and the pain was like a fist inside his heart.

      ‘This boat. Will it go?’

      ‘Yes, it will,’ he said as he sat beside the boy, ‘but I’m not yet up to taking her out to sea.’

      The boy’s disappointment was obvious. ‘Why not?’

      Tom tried to explain. ‘I’ve only just got it. There’s a lot to learn before I can take her right out.’

      Seeing the boy’s despondence, he had an idea. ‘Look, I’ll tell you what. Let me have a word with an old friend of mine. I’m sure we can wangle something for you.’

      ‘Is he called Jasper?’

      ‘Well, yes …’ He glanced up at Kathy, who gave him a knowing wink. ‘So, you already know him, do you?’

      ‘Kathy told me about him!’ His smile lit the day. ‘He’s the one as looks like Father Christmas. My dad says there ain’t no Father Christmas, but me and her know different, don’t we?’ Gesturing with his thumb, he nodded appreciatively when Kathy confirmed his assertion with a smile.

      Leaving Kathy and Frank on board, Tom set off to find Jasper. He tracked him down aboard one of the fishing boats. Jasper and his mate, Jack Plummer, were sitting, pipe-smoking and enjoying a glass of cider.

      Tom quickly explained the situation; both men thought the boy should have the treat of his life. ‘Fetch him along,’ Jack said. ‘We’ll take him up to the headland and back.’

      When Tom told him what the plan was, Frank was beside himself with excitement. ‘Can I drive?’

      ‘You’ll have to ask the skipper.’

      Once on board, Jack handed Kathy the smallest lifejacket he could find. ‘Put this on the boy,’ he ordered. ‘And here’s another for yourself. Nobody comes out on this boat without wearing a lifejacket.’

      When all four were suitably dressed, the skipper kicked the engine into life, and they were away, with the boy whooping and hollering, and Kathy being thrown from side to side. ‘You haven’t got your sea-legs yet,’ Jasper told her. ‘You’ll have to come out more often, so ye will.’

      While the boy sat in the wheelhouse with Jasper and the skipper, Kathy and Tom kept out of the way. There wasn’t enough room for all of them in there, so they stood at the stern amid the buckets, ropes and nets, watching the water churning in the boat’s wake, and feeling content in each other’s company. ‘He’s a smart little boy,’ Tom remarked. ‘It’s a pity his father’s gone off and left him. A boy needs his father.’

      He watched the boy for a time, taking great delight in his antics at the wheel. Wearing the boatman’s oversized cap, he was pretending to be skipper. ‘So, he thinks Jasper is Father Christmas?’ Tom laughed at the idea. ‘That’s you, is it?’

      ‘No, it’s Rosie’s fault.’ Kathy relayed the discussion she and the boy had had on the way to the harbour. ‘His father told him there was no Father Christmas, and I’m afraid I disputed that.’

      Tom condoned what Kathy had done. ‘That’s a sad thing for a father to tell the boy,’ he murmured. ‘Kids need to believe in magic. We all do.’

      He thought of the many times when his own children’s eyes had lit up when faced with the magic of Christmas trees, and presents that had ‘come down the chimney’. He remembered them being mesmerised by tales of how the little people helped Father Christmas prepare all the toys, ready for deliveries through the night. It was tradition; it was fantasy and wonder; it gave only pleasure. He thought of all that, and was saddened by the awful knowledge that his own children had never gone beyond that innocent state of wonder, before their young lives had been cut short.

      Kathy had wondered at his comment, and now she wondered at his prolonged silence. When, like now, he lapsed into that dark, secret mood, she knew he was somewhere she could not go. It was as if a barrier had gone up between them, and unless he trusted her enough to confide in her, she had no way of breaking it down.

      She could hear Frank laughing and shouting in the wheelhouse, and Jasper explaining everything to him. Suddenly, they made a sharp turn; the boy could hardly contain his enthusiasm, ‘It’s like the funfair!’ As they bounced from wave to wave, he was overwhelmed with excitement.

      All too soon, the short boat ride was over. When his mother came to collect him, the boy was full of it. ‘Cor, you should have seen me!’ As they went away, he could be heard telling her all about the boat and how the water splashed up on the deck, and he even wore the skipper’s cap. ‘I’ll be good at school,’ he promised, ‘because when I grow up, I want to be a fisherman!’

      Somewhere in amongst all that excitement was his proud declaration that, ‘Daddy was wrong. There is a Father Christmas! I’ve seen him.’ He chatted on and on, a very different little boy from the sorry, thirsty child who had sidled up to Kathy earlier.

      As they turned the corner, before disappearing out of sight, his mother glanced back. When her gaze alighted on Kathy, she smiled. And Kathy understood.

      ‘You’re a natural with children,’ Tom remarked as they walked back to his boat.

      ‘I love kids,’ she confessed. ‘I always said I’d have four – two of each.’ She laughed. ‘Trouble is, we can’t have them to order, can we?’

      When they reached the boat and Kathy prepared to carry on home, he put out a hand to keep her there. ‘Don’t go yet, Kathy.’ There was a well of emotion in his quiet voice. ‘Please?’

      Kathy gave a nervous little laugh. ‘I won’t, not if you don’t want me to.’

      ‘Come on then!’ Greatly relieved, he said, ‘Come aboard.’

      Having hoped he would ask her to stay, Kathy was suddenly afraid. She thought about Rosie’s warning, that he might break her heart. She was already beginning to fall in love with him. But what if he didn’t have the same feelings for her? What if she was making a rod for her own back by keeping company with him? She didn’t want more heartbreak. Suddenly, all the old doubts