Through Streets Broad and Narrow (Ivy Rose Series Book 1)
Page 40
“I can’t think when you do that!” Ivy’s head was spinning, her breath coming in gasps.
Jem pressed a firm kiss into her blushing cheek and turned to leave. “See you,” he called over his shoulder.
“Yeah, see you.” Ivy’s knees were knocking. Jem’s kisses took all the strength from her legs. She grabbed the handle of her pram, glad of its support, and continued on her journey to her own basement rooms.
Thankfully, the cold and wind were keeping people away from the freestanding tap in the back yard. Ivy didn’t want to stop and chat. She wanted the chance to dry out in the comfort of her own rooms.
“Ivy! Pssst! Ivy Murphy!” Seán McDonald crept out of the single toilet that served the entire tenement block. He’d been shivering in the dark, cold, smelly little space for what felt like hours to him. He checked the area carefully. He didn’t want to get caught again. “Have yeh me sack?”
“Of course I have.” Ivy stood waiting for the boy to cross the weed-choked slabs. “Didn’t I promise yeh?”
“I’ll take it off yeh when we get closer to your place.” Seán used the bulk of the old pram to hide behind while they walked towards Ivy’s back door.
Ivy was firmly biting her tongue to stop the questions that longed to explode out of her mouth. Seán’s face was sporting a fresh collection of bruises. She sighed sadly. There was little she could do at the moment to help the young lad.
“Here we are,” she stated unnecessarily, stopping outside the door of what had been her old mentor’s home. “Do you want me to wait, make sure yer one’s home?”
“Nah, I know she’s in.” Seán grunted with effort as he removed his sack from the pram. “I saw her going in a while ago. I’ll be fine – you get along home,” he advised like an old man.
“Take care of yourself, Seán.” She shrugged off the depressed feeling that was weighing her down. There was only so much you could do to help your neighbours. She took the few steps necessary to reach her own door.
With a sigh of relief she opened her back door and pushed her pram inside. She locked the door quickly and decided to leave the pram standing just inside it. She removed her wet shawl before undoing the buttons of her old coat. She let both articles fall to the floor and with a sigh dropped into one of the stuffed chairs in front of her glowing black range.
“At least me new second-hand boots protected me feet from the wet, Da,” she said aloud to her dead father, as was her habit when she was alone. She bent to unlace the heavy boys’ work boots she wore. Using the toe of one boot against the heel of the other she removed both boots before wriggling her toes blissfully towards the barely glowing fire. “I’ll tend the fire and put the kettle on.”
She jumped to her feet. The hem of her black skirt beating uncomfortably wet against the back of her bare ankles made her stop. The end of her jumper sleeves were wet too. She’d better change her clothes. At least she had something to change into nowadays. Gone were the days when she only possessed what she stood up in. She dropped to her knees and strictly by feel pulled out her old black skirt and a ratty white jumper from under the bed. They’d do – she’d no plans to go out again this evening. She shivered while she changed. The room was cold away from the heat of the range.
With her wet clothes in hand, she walked over to fetch one of her two wooden chairs and pulled it closer to the range. She spread her skirt and jumper over the arm of one of the soft fireside chairs before picking her shawl and coat up from the floor. She draped the shawl over the seat of the wooden chair. The heavy old coat was put over the tall wooden shoulders.
With a sigh she knelt to rake out the cooling ash from the grate before dropping dry kindling and small nuggets of coal onto the remaining burning embers.
If you enjoyed these Chapters from Ha’Penny Chance
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Ha’Penny Chance
Also By Gemma Jackson
Through hard work and determination, Ivy Rose Murphy has come up in the world. She still begs for discards from the homes of the wealthy which lie only a stone’s throw from The Lane, the poverty-ridden tenements where she lives. These discards she repairs and sells around the Dublin markets.
But being in the ha’penny place may soon be a thing of the past for Ivy. She is fast turning herself into ‘Miss Ivy Rose’, successful businesswoman. With her talent for needlework and a team of neighbourhood helpers, she has begun to supply an upmarket shop in Grafton Street with beautifully dressed dolls.
Her fiancé Jem’s livery business is going from strength to strength, and Emmy, the little girl Jem is raising, is thriving and happy.
Then Ivy’s wealthy friend Ann Marie Gannon, with her beloved camera, spends a day at the airport photographing planes.
Little does she know that her visit can destroy all Ivy’s hopes for the future.
A fascinating account of life in the tenements of old Dublin with all its harshness, courage, humanity and humour.
Read Ha'Penny Place Now
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