Christmas to Come: a heartbreaking coming of age saga set in London's East End Carol Rivers (best sales books of all time .txt) 📖

for development. To think that it was once people's homes, where families lived. I expect some awful flats will be built there instead.'

Bella didn't know how she felt about that. Bow Street was her home even if it had been a derelict cottage she'd lived in. But the memories she had of it weren't happy. Even Dolly, her best and oldest friend, didn't really know what it was like to live there. Perhaps if she and Terry had had some memories of a father, or even some information about him, it would have forged some kind of link. But Mary said she didn't know who their father was and more to the point, didn't care. They had been used to different men appearing on the scene and when Jack Router moved in, he had been the worst of them all. So all in all, she wouldn't be sad to see a change. If a block of flats was built there, they would create new memories for the families that lived in them and hopefully happier ones.

Dolly tapped her on the arm and she jumped. 'Bella, our Ray was asking after you the other day when he came round. He's on a week's holiday and visiting with his family.'

'How are they?'

'Got another one on the way.'

Bella grinned. 'He's a fast worker.'

'He was always keen on you, though.'

Bella giggled. 'It would have been funny being your sister-in-law.'

Dolly's eyes widened. 'I'm glad you're no t. They live all the way out at Ramsgate!'

'I couldn't imagine being anywhere else except here in Piper Street,' Bella confessed. 'I've known this house all my life. Just like you and me, knowing each other from school.'

Dolly's eyes moistened again. 'I hope we don't have to move away.'

Bella's jaw dropped. 'Is that likely?'

'Only if we can't afford the house.'

Bella was trying to absorb what Dolly was telling her as the children came running in. Dolly and Percy must be in serious trouble for her to say that. Was it a sign of the times that things were getting worse in the country?

Bella watched as Dolly drew Teresa on her lap. What would she do if they had to say goodbye? It was then that Bella realized how much Dolly's friendship meant to her.

'Sean and Ashley want to buy the flat above the shop,' Ronnie said as he and Joyce strolled arm in arm in Island Gardens.

'They've saved up enough?' Joyce asked in surprise as they sat on the bench near the entrance to the foot tunnel. It was a soft May day and Ronnie was eager to gain a wholehearted yes from Joyce or, if she really wanted to end their affair, a definite no. He would be devastated if it was in the negative, but he couldn't go on like this. He wanted kids, he wanted a family. He was thirty-one and he didn't want to be too old to play football with his son. Being with young Michael so frequently had made him think seriously about the future. His property business was expanding and he had saved a fair wedge since selling the Blue Moon. Now that Sean was settled and on his way to his first fortune, Ronnie felt as though he actually knew what he wanted out of life. He didn't like living in rooms and he didn't like the fact they were living in what Joyce called happy sin. He wanted permanence, security, the old-fashioned values his mum and dad had taught him.

Ronnie nodded. 'I'm signing over the deeds next week.'

'That quick?'

'Well you see, I've got an ulterior motive.'

Joyce looked at him and smiled her lovely smile. She was beautiful, everything he could want in a woman. They knew each other well, he could trust her one hundred percent and she him. The physical attraction was there. If not red-hot it was still warm. All that could be added was making it legal and she could bear him a son, continue the Bryant name.

'Come on then, spit it out.' She looked at him with those dark, knowing eyes and for the first time ever, he saw her as an older, wiser Joyce. Neither of them were getting any younger, he was the first to admit it. But he had this sensation that time was marching on and leaving them behind.

'Joyce,' he said, taking a deep breath, 'this is going to come as a shock to you, but I don't want to buy a gaff in the sticks. What I really want is to move back to Piper Street.'

Joyce looked at him in surprise. Her eyes went over his face, as she unconsciously stroked her black hair, cut to the nape of neck and laying softly on her cheeks. She was wearing her dark purple suit, her colour, and Ronnie thought once more how good it was to have her beside him. 'But what about all those plans you had?' she asked. 'Bromley, you thought, or even across the water. Blackheath, perhaps.'

'I know and it's what I thought at the time.'

'And you don't now?'

Ronnie could never quite guess Joyce's reaction, which was one reason why he loved her. 'That's about the size of it.' He slid his finger inside his collar and loosened it. 'Poplar's no t my home, Joyce, nor is Bromley or Blackheath. The only place I'm truly happy is on the island. And when Sean and Ashley move out, the old gaff will be empty except for Micky and Bella downstairs. Seems a waste to, well, not live in it.'

'But isn't that a backward step, Ron? We could live anywhere we want,' Joyce said in a puzzled tone. 'You are a man of means and I've got enough put by to see me through to a ripe old age. Putting our cash together we could afford somewhere a bit stylish.'

Ronnie sighed heavily stretching his arm along the back of the bench. 'I'm not so sure about all the frills and flounces now. There was a time when living in a