Dark Fires Shall Burn Read Free Page A

o’clock. Annie will be on her way home, dry, most likely taking advantage of some keen bloke’s umbrella. Glebe Point is far enough from his sister to do as he pleases.
    â€˜Get out from under our feet and go flog the papers,’ Annie had told him that morning. ‘If you want your tea, why don’t you go and earn a bob for once? A bit of honest work. Ha!’ She laughed at her own joke. ‘Do you good.’
    The girls were up early, dressing for the stores. Annie had wriggled into her good dress: admiral blue, with white piping and a wide bib collar. ‘Help me with this, would you?’ She looked from Dot to Sally. ‘Come on, hurry up! One of you.’ Her arms were twisted behind her, plucking at the tiny buttons. Catching herself in the mirror, she frowned and pulled a stray roller from her hair. Templeton caught her gaze in the glass. Eyes that snared blokes easy as a cat takes a mouse. They narrowed when she caught him looking. She broadened her lips with pencil and dabbed powder on her nose, skin red and dry from last night’s grog. ‘I’m so blotchy I look like a Dalmatian.’
    â€˜You can’t see it.’ Sally squinted at her in the mirror. ‘Put a bit more slap on.’
    â€˜I’ve got bags under my eyes the size of plums.’
    â€˜But I want to come with you,’ Templeton demanded. ‘Where are you going anyway? David Jones? Be careful. We don’t want the coppers round.’
    â€˜Stand still, Sal.’ Dot straightened Sally’s blouse and moved to her hairpins.
    â€˜Templeton keeps banging into me,’ Sally complained. She pouted into the mirror, admiring the angle of her smooth jaw and long neck.
    â€˜Well, just pinch him then,’ Annie advised. ‘Lucky, get out of the way. Unless you want some of this?’ She pointed the lip pencil at him.
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜What are you going to do, darling — get a dress on and stand lookout?’ Dot teased him.
    â€˜No one’d know the difference,’ said Annie with an abrupt smile.
    â€˜Annie,’ he complained, face heating. She went for the soft skin under his ribs and twisted. ‘Ow! Stop it.’ He slapped her hand. ‘Are you going into town?’ He was still talking as the girls hustled to the door, and he was bundled out. ‘Are you catching the tram? David Jones? You’re going to David Jones, aren’t you? I knew it!’
    â€˜Lucky, I’m not fooling.’ Annie turned. In the sunlight he could see the powder caught in the lines that fanned from her eyes; the only thing about her that looked old, her eyes — and her hands, and she raised one to him. ‘I’ll give it to you. Don’t try me.’ He could suddenly see in her the stamp of their mother, with her heavier brow and deeper-set eyes.
    â€˜But why not?’
    â€˜You’ll attract attention, that’s why.’
    â€˜Here’s a shilling. Do not get into trouble.’ Dot patted him on the cheek. He coloured at the touch of her fingers on the fair, downy hair that had sprung up in the last weeks. Not quite enough yet to shave; he had been waiting for someone to tease him. But Dot only smiled and tossed him the coin, along with their salute. He rubbed the raised profile of the king’s head, solid and safe in his pocket.
    â€˜Hell’s bells. Get away with you,’ Annie said and pushed him off the curb, smack into an iceman plodding up the gutter. The man reeled, his shoulder-load of ice slipping off the hessian sackcloth and fracturing into pieces on the ground.
    â€˜Sorry,’ Templeton said, palms up, stepping backwards, the frozen rubble exploding pleasingly underfoot.
    â€˜Watch where you’re going, you little bastard! Are you going to pay for that?’
    He dodged and ran, hearing the girls’ laughter fading behind him. Then he was on the tram to Glebe, picturing his sister and Dot and Sally in the