Christmas for the Halfpenny Orphans. Cathy Sharp

through a bit, she thought, as she carried the meagre breakfast through to the kitchen. Sarah was staring at the kitchen shelf, a look of dismay on her face.

      ‘Pa’s pipes gone,’ she said. Her gaze travelled round the kitchen, the look of fear and puzzlement growing. ‘Tankard and coat gone … Pa gone …’

      ‘No!’ Samantha cried as the fear struck her too. ‘He couldn’t have gone … He’s coming back; he must be …’

      Looking around the room, she saw that the few treasures that had stood on the dresser shelves, like their mother’s tea caddy and a pair of silver berry spoons, had gone. All that was left was an assortment of china that didn’t match and a brass tin, where pins and bits were stored.

      She put down the tray she’d been carrying and ran from the kitchen and up the stairs, flinging open the door of her father’s room. He wouldn’t have deserted them … surely he wouldn’t. Pa wasn’t really a bad man; it was only that he missed their mother and got drunk sometimes.

      As soon as she looked round the room, Samantha knew that it was true. Her father had few possessions he treasured and only a couple of extra shirts and his best suit, which he wore only for funerals or weddings. The cupboard had been left open, as if he’d torn everything from its place in a hurry, and his brushes and shaving things had also gone from the washstand.

      The truth hit Samantha like a drenching of cold water. Their father had abandoned them, as Aunt Jane had said he would. He might have told Samantha of his plans had Sarah not broken his favourite pipe, but instead he’d gone down the pub to get roaring drunk and then he’d tried to kill Sarah.

      Yes, he really had meant to do it, perhaps because he knew Aunt Jane wouldn’t take her. Perhaps he’d thought it better for everyone if Sarah were dead?

      Samantha couldn’t believe what her thoughts were telling her. No, Pa wouldn’t do this, he wouldn’t attack his daughter and then go off leaving them both to starve … But he had. She sat down on the bed, feeling empty, drained. What was she going to do now?

      Samantha knew there was no money in the house. Her father never gave her a penny. He paid the rent and brought home the supplies they needed – and he’d taken everything they had of value. She looked about the room, knowing that the contents wouldn’t fetch more than a few pence from the rag-and-bone man. There were still a few things in the scullery and kitchen, things that had belonged to their mother. Sarah had broken the best china pot, but there might be some copper pans and a few silver spoons in the drawer. She would have to go through every room and take whatever items she could find to the scrapyard later. Samantha was frightened of Alf, the man who ran the scrapyard, but she couldn’t think of any other way to get money to buy food. After that, she wasn’t sure what to do. She knew they wouldn’t be able to stay here: the rent was due on Saturday and Pa wouldn’t be around to pay it.

      Samantha ran her hands over her sides, her body aching in the same places that her father’s blows had rained down on her twin. She didn’t know why she always felt her sister’s pain, she just did. That realisation brought her out of her shock and she got up off the bed, knowing she had to go downstairs and see what she could do to help. Poor Sarah must be hurting all over – she already bore the scars of more than one beating and last night’s attack had been the most vicious of them all.

      What people didn’t understand was that Samantha and her twin lived for each other. Each felt the other’s pain and sorrow as if it were her own. That was why Samantha couldn’t do as her father ordered and go to Aunt Jane. She’d made it clear she would send Sarah to a place where Samantha knew she would be unhappy. They would never see each other – and that would break both their hearts.

      When Samantha walked into the kitchen she found Sarah nursing the clay pipe she’d broken the previous evening, which Pa hadn’t bothered to pick up from the floor. Tears were trickling down her cheeks and Samantha knew that her twin understood Pa had gone, even if she couldn’t grasp what that meant for the two of them. They were all alone in the world now, with no one to turn to, no one who would take them both in.

      Well, there was nothing else for it: they would just have to look after each other. As soon as she’d got her sister fed and dressed, Samantha would go to the scrapyard and sell everything of value, and then she would set about finding somewhere they could stay. There were plenty of houses that were standing empty after having been bombed-out in the war. Tramps and homeless people slept in them, and so could she and Sarah – just for a while, just until she could decide what to do …

      ‘Put that pipe in your pocket and come and eat your cake,’ she said, wrapping an arm around her sister. ‘We’ll be all right, Sarah love. I’ll take care of you now.’

      Sarah’s smile was loving and trusting as she looked at her. ‘Samantha take care of me,’ she repeated, and sat down at the table to eat her cake and drink the tea that was now cold.

       TWO

      ‘Well, here’s to you, Sally,’ Angela Morton lifted her wineglass to the young woman who had been such a friend to her at St Saviour’s and was now leaving her job to take up her training to become a nurse. ‘I’m sure we all wish you the very best in your new life – and you must promise you will come and see us when you can.’

      ‘Yes, of course I shall,’ Sally promised. Angela noticed the girl’s blush as everyone drank the toast and then crowded round her, friends hugging and kissing her and telling her how much she would be missed.

      It was true that the young carer would be missed, as much by Angela as any of them, but she knew in her heart it was for the best. To stay on at the children’s home would have brought back too many memories of the man who had filled the children’s ward with laughter when he visited the hospital as a volunteer, the man Sally had hoped to marry until he lost his life in a car accident.

      Hearing the phone shrilling, Angela left the staff room where the small party was taking place and ran upstairs to answer it in Sister’s office. It stopped as she reached it and she frowned, wondering if it had been business or perhaps Mark Adderbury … but he would more likely have used the extension in her office had he wanted to speak to her.

      A sigh left her lips. It had been a while since Mark had bothered to get in touch, though he’d continued to call in at the home occasionally in a professional capacity. He still nodded and spoke in passing, but his special smile had been conspicuous by its absence. Angela had always thought of Mark as one of her closest friends; when she’d been overwhelmed by grief after her husband of a few months was killed in the war, Mark had been the one who helped her get through it. For a while she’d believed their friendship might develop into something more – but that was before Staff Nurse Carole Clarke came on the scene.

      Eager to ensnare a rich husband, the attractive young nurse had made a play for Mark. He’d been flattered at first and they’d gone on a couple of dates, but when he tried to break up with her she told him she was pregnant. Mark had done the honourable thing and proposed. Although she thought he was making a terrible mistake, Angela had felt it wasn’t her place to intervene. But when she caught Carole tampering with records in an effort to discredit Sister Beatrice, and found out that she had lied about being pregnant, Angela had no choice but to get involved. Appalled by his fiancée’s duplicity, Mark had ended their engagement. Carole had stormed out, saving Sister Beatrice the trouble of dismissing her, but her departure hadn’t healed the rift that had opened between Angela and Mark. If anything, he was more distant. It was as though his initial shock over his former fiancée’s behaviour had turned to embarrassment and now he couldn’t bear to face Angela.

      In the staff room, Sally’s colleagues were still saying their farewells, but Angela was in no mood to return to the party. Instead she carried on down the stairs, meeting Sister as she reached the hall below.

      ‘Ah, Angela,’ Sister Beatrice said. ‘I was just on my way up to see you. I’ve been speaking to Constable Sallis. It appears they’ve found a couple of