had come by this food. Wrapping a filthy flea-bitten old blanket around herself to keep warm was one thing, but putting suspicious food inside herself was another. She said politely, ‘I’m not that hungry, but thanks for the offer.’
‘Then I hope you don’t mind if I do,’ he said, taking the roll out of the bag. He took a large bite.
Jan watched him devour the remains of the sausage roll, fighting to keep saliva from dripping out of her mouth. The pastry looked dry and unappetising but as he hungrily tucked in, hunger pangs exploded within her and she deeply regretted that she had turned her nose up at it.
Glen saw her frown in bewilderment as he carefully folded up the now-empty brown paper bag and put it back in his sack. ‘You’ll learn not to throw anything away. You never know when something that seems utterly worthless at first will suddenly mean the difference between life and death to you. This bag will come in extremely handy when I go down the market tomorrow evening just on closing, to see what leftovers I can get before the sweepers get hold of them.’
God forbid that she was reduced to eating rotting fruit but Jan’s common sense was telling her that it was something she was going to have to do if she didn’t quickly come up with a way to get herself out of her dire situation. Desperate to distract herself from thoughts of food and her worrying situation, she said to her saviour, ‘So how about you?’
He had been about to settle himself again in an effort to snatch some sleep but at her question stopped what he was doing to look over at her. ‘What about me?’ he queried.
‘How did you come to be homeless?’
He resumed trying to settle himself while saying to her in a dismissive manner, ‘Like I said earlier, it’s a long story.’ Hopefully she would take the hint and drop the matter. It was still very painful to him, how he came to be in the position he was in, despite its happening nearly eighteen years ago.
But Jan, like most women, had a streak of curiosity in her nature. His obvious reluctance to divulge his background only served to heighten this. ‘Well, it’s not like we’ve anything else to entertain us, is it? Not like we can put the wireless on or a light to read by . . . that’s if we had a book between us. So, did you cheat on your wife and she found out, the same as happened to me? Is that it?’
He snapped, ‘No. Now if you don’t mind—’
But Jan’s curiosity was at fever pitch. She cut in, ‘Oh, fell foul of the law then, did you, and your family disowned you?’
‘No,’ he replied, even more brusquely. ‘Well, in truth, yes, I did fall foul of the law. But I was innocent. I was framed for what I was put away for. Now if you really don’t mind . . .’
‘You’re an ex-con? Oh!’
He glared at her. ‘Don’t look at me like that. I told you, I was framed.’
‘Framed for what? And just who framed you?’
Glen sighed. This woman was not going to let it go. She obviously felt that as she had bared her soul to him, it was only right he should repay the compliment. It was apparent he wasn’t going to get any sleep until he did. Grudgingly he told her, ‘It was a woman who was responsible.’
Jan looked intently at him. ‘Oh! What exactly did she have you framed for?’
Glen sighed again as he thought back to a time he usually blanked out. Very quietly he said, ‘She got me put away for theft and grievous bodily harm, and at the time I had no idea she was behind it. By the time I did, it was too late. I’d already signed over all my worldly goods to her, as I thought for her to take care of for me until I was released and then return them.’
Jan said, ‘Even if you didn’t know she had framed you at the time, you must have trusted this woman very much to sign everything over to her for safekeeping?’
‘I had no reason not to trust her. She was my wife. She’d never given me any reason to doubt she wasn’t as honest as a new-born babe, until I discovered just how devious she was and how naive I’d been.’ Glen’s face tightened. ‘How I wish I’d