Kingfisher

Excerpt from Kingfisher

Only Mrs. Barton was at all permanently bruised. Tom never hit the children unless they came in his way. When he was mad with drink he frequently expressed a wish to kill them, but beating his wife always did instead.

There was no convenient substitute for Mrs. Barton. Every now and then she screamed till the police came, which was very exciting for the children, but ordinarily she was very quiet, and then the interest of these occasions palled.

Mrs. Barton had had a great deal of spirit as a girl, and it lasted her nicely till she became a mother; then she alternated between melancholy and exasperation.

She meant to be kind to her children, and she always loved them, but the methods of her affection became as frayed as her nerves.

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