Christmas came and went but just as she always had, Dot couldn’t be bothered to try to make the occasion special. So long as Arthur loaded her with presents, she didn’t give a thought to anyone else. But this year the weather was bad with snow drifting against their door. Arthur couldn’t drive his van anywhere and only the farm tractors could get about, doing their best to move the snow from the local roads. ‘’Ow can yer make puddings and a cake’ – Dot had excused her laziness, ‘when you can’t get hold of the stuff to make ’em?’ ‘Yer’ve got eggs and plenty of sugar.’ The latter had come from a night raid on a local grocer’s shop in the next village just before the bad weather had set in with a vengeance, when once again Arthur had picked the lock on the back door of the premises. Jenny had been terrified; the shop was in the centre of the village and she couldn’t think of a plausible story if she was asked what she was doing hanging about outside a shop at midnight and a long way from home too.
