BooksBarbecue
Back A Place to Call Home
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. ABOUT THE BOOK
  3. Dedication
  4. PREFACE
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY
  55. ENDING
  56. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  57. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  58. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  59. Also by Val Wood

‘Yes,’ Ellen said. She baked with wheat and rye flour, but preferred wheat.

‘I also make matzos.’ Anna looked questioningly at Ellen, who shook her head.

‘I don’t know what that is,’ she said. ‘Is it Polish?’

Anna hesitated. ‘It is Jewish; for the Passover.’

‘Oh, I see,’ Ellen said. ‘That’s why I haven’t heard of it. I don’t think I know any Jewish people.’

‘We are Jews,’ Anna said simply. ‘Is that all right for you?’

Ellen frowned. What kind of question was that? ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Why not?’

In Holderness some residents attended chapel, others went to church. Ellen generally chose church because her parents did, though she didn’t go every week, and when she was a child she had often gone to chapel in Hollym if her friends were going. But she didn’t rigidly prefer one over the other.

‘I don’t always go to church,’ she confessed, ‘but sometimes I pray at home. When Mary was ill, I prayed then.’ She considered. ‘I think it is a personal matter that everyone should decide for themselves.’

‘Not for Jews, it is not. We are born into Jewish faith and often we are punished for it.’ Anna took a deep breath. ‘Here is baker’s shop.’

Ellen blinked, thinking this was not a conversation for a baker’s shop, but she was intrigued. She smiled at Anna. ‘Thank you,’ she said as she stepped inside and opened her purse.

CHAPTER TWELVE

It was only a small shop with a queue of women waiting to be served. Anna stayed outside with her children; Thomas, who had been standing by Ellen’s knee, put his nose up to the tantalizing aroma and raised his arms for Ellen to lift him. Leaning forward, he pointed at the bread on the shelf behind the counter and began to jiggle impatiently, clapping his hands.

The other women turned and smiled at him. ‘A hungry boy, is he?’ one of them asked, and Ellen replied that he was, always.

The baker who was serving looked hot and flustered; she finished attending to one customer and muttering ‘Excuse me a minute’ hurried to a back room, where they heard the bang of an oven door and the crash of a baking tray on to a table.

‘Sorry,’ she said on her return. ‘I’m trying to be in a dozen places at ’same time.’

‘Is Ginny not here this morning?’ someone in the queue asked. ‘Slept in again, has she?’

The baker nodded and turned to serve the next woman. She took the money and put it in the till and hurried into the back room again, returning with a wooden tray of freshly baked bread.