A Mistletoe Kiss by Katie Flynn Page A

and his brothers had searched the hedgerows for nuts, berries, wild plums and crab apples, had dug up root vegetables and no doubt robbed waterside orchards and hen roosts, they had not gone further inland in their search for food. Hetty, who had always been given much more freedom than the Collinses had allowed their sons, was happy to show Harry where the fattest blackberries could be found when autumn came, as well as the best nuts, and where they might find hens’ nests deep in the hedgerows and help themselves to the odd egg or two.
    She was, in fact, delighted to take up her old life where it had left off, and though she missed Guinness it was nice not to have to watch Gramps legging his way under low bridges or long tunnels whilst she or Gran untacked the horse, gathered in the towrope and tacked him up again when the Water Sprite had emerged. Once, she had dreamed wistfully of the time when she would be grown up and could lie flat on her back on the roof of the Sprite , put her legs in the air and “walk” the barge along under the narrow bridges as Gramps did, but now she realised that such a task would probably be beyond her strength. Harry with his long, strong legs might have managed it, but she was pretty sure it would have proved too much for her. She knew also that it had been getting too much for Gramps, for though he never complained she had seen how tired he had been as he scrambled uprightwhen they emerged from beneath the bridges, and how worried Gran had looked when they approached another.
    With the engine, however, legging through the tunnels was now a thing of the past. And it was the engine which had enabled them to reach Leeds in record time and would mean that she could spend her whole month on the canal, for in previous summers she had sometimes had to leave the Water Sprite and catch a train back to Liverpool in order not to miss the start of the autumn term.
    That had occasionally happened even when she was on the canal for the whole of the summer holidays, since when they were carrying a mixed cargo and stopping off at every village with supplies for local shops and inhabitants, their journey had taken considerably longer. Once, Guinness had cast a shoe, and when they reached the nearest blacksmith it had been discovered that the horse had developed a foot abscess, which had needed treatment and rest. On another occasion, Gran had been injured when a gale had sprung up and slammed the cabin door on her hand; they had had to turn the Sprite round and go back to the infirmary in Leeds, where the wound had needed cleaning and stitching. But now it was amazing how much less time the journey took, with the engine put-putting away and even able to continue to do so after dark, if the Number One so wished.
    It was three weeks before Hetty’s face was more or less back to normal, which coincided with their returnto Liverpool once more, and the end of her holiday. The time had flown and she had felt the usual little ache of disappointment at the thought of school and life ashore. But now, she reminded herself, there was the Everton library and her friend Miss Preece, so though she would miss the Water Sprite and Gramps and Gran, she did have something nice to return to. When they reached the wharf, they would unload the cargo they had carried from Leeds – it was cotton – and take aboard their new cargo of sugar. Hetty had a strong suspicion that as soon as they were ashore Gran would give her a note and send her hurrying off to Salisbury Street to let Aunt Phoebe know that they had arrived. Loading and unloading both the Water Sprite and her butty boat always took time; there were papers to be filled in, people to see and of course money to change hands. Whilst all this was taking place, Gran would be making a delicious meal in the Sprite ’s little cabin and Hetty knew that the letter she would be carrying would also include an invitation to Aunt Phoebe, Uncle Alf and the