‘It would only be until we could find somewhere decent to live and have enough money coming in to feed them,’ he said gently.

‘I know – but I can’t bear to think of them in that place, or of us separated. We’re the only family they’ve got now – we need to stick together.’ Opal hung her head as she stared at her two younger siblings. With their thick black hair and their tawny brown eyes, they looked like two little peas in a pod. They all did, if it came to that; they all took after their late mother in looks. She could hear her father even now, laughing and teasing that it wasn’t fair that not one of his children had taken after him.

As the painful memories of happier times rushed back, Opal rose and went to stuff an old sack beneath the door to try and stop the wicked draught that was whistling beneath it.

‘Let’s try an’ get some sleep, eh?’ Charlie suggested, seeing that Opal was almost at the end of her tether. ‘Jack might be a lot better in the morning and things will look brighter. An’ at least we have somewhere dry to sleep.’

She managed to raise a weak smile, but as she curled up beneath the thin blanket she wasn’t so sure, and when she finally fell into an exhausted sleep, there were tears on her cheeks.

Chapter One

Early the next morning, Opal woke to an eerie grey silence, and as she stared towards the window, all she could see was the snow piled high on the ledge. The fire was almost out and it was bitterly cold again, so she hastily broke up what was left of an old chair and threw it onto the fire.

Charlie stretched and yawned and, pulling himself onto his elbow, asked, ‘What time is it?’

Opal shrugged. ‘I don’t know. We took the mantel clock to the pawnbrokers last week, if you remember?’ She could have added, ‘along with everything else decent we owned’ but thought better of it.

‘Ah, yes.’ He sighed. Then, pushing his blanket aside, he rose and lifted the kettle. ‘I’ll go and get some more snow. At least we can have a hot drink.’ They had no sugar or milk, but they’d grown used to drinking their tea without over the last weeks. After slipping his boots on, he attempted to open the door and was almost knocked over by the drift that had piled up against it during the night, as it spilled into the room.

‘Cor blimey,’ he breathed. ‘Would yer just look at that!’