‘Someone to waste time with?’ Tess’s voice rose once more. ‘How dare you, Desmond, and now would you kindly let go of my arm?’

This time Snowy flushed, and reading retribution in his glittering eyes Tess tore herself free and began to hurry along Mere Lane, but Snowy caught her up and grabbed her arm once more. ‘Don’t try to pretend you weren’t jealous of Marilyn and me,’ he said between clenched teeth. ‘I saw you taking notice of the way girls looked at me when we were in Princes Park. Why did you invite me up to your gran’s place, if not to make it look as though we were more than just pals? I dare say you boasted about having a feller at last, which is how it got to Marilyn’s ears.’

Tess was so indignant that for a moment she could not speak, but then she found her voice. ‘You asked if you could come up after you’d carried my suitcase home,’ she reminded him. ‘And it was Gran who invited you for supper and a game of cards. As for boasting about it, I never did any such thing! Indeed, now that you’ve shown yourself in your true colours I shall regret that I ever let you into our flat. I’m sure if Gran could hear you she’d tell me never to bring you home again, and now if you don’t stop hanging on to my arm I’ll . . . I’ll . . .’

Snowy gave a sneering laugh and continued to hold her arm. ‘Don’t think you can just walk away and leave me looking a fool,’ he said angrily. ‘I want you to go to Marilyn and explain that it was all a mistake; that we met on the station by accident and your beloved gran asked me back for a meal because I’d been kind to her dear little girl.’

It was too much. Tess drew back her foot and kicked Snowy in the shins, and, when he doubled up, smashed her fist into that part of him to which she had never given a name. Snowy gave a howl of pain and let go of her arm, clutching himself and beginning to wheeze threats. But Tess, freed from his grasp, shot along Mere Lane just as Lucy emerged from her front door.

Lucy was smiling. ‘Why’s you runnin’? We’ve got plenty of time; even if we walk slow as slow, we’ll still be in school before half past eight,’ she said. ‘You’re sweatin’ like a pig, Tess. Don’t say someone’s after you!’

Tess began to giggle. ‘You could say that. I’ve made Snowy extremely angry, and when he wouldn’t let go of my arm I kicked him and then punched him in the unmentionables, and left him threatening all sorts. Do we have to go back down Mere Lane, Lu? Isn’t there another way to school?’

Lucy gave her friend an indulgent glance. ‘You can’t go around beatin’ up the best-lookin’ guy in Everton, even if he does annoy you,’ she said reprovingly. ‘An’ I guess we can go through the back streets; we’ve got time. But I don’t suppose he’ll hang around waitin’ for a second helping, let alone he must know he were in the wrong because you say he didn’t let go when you asked him to.’ She cocked an eye at her friend. ‘So what’ll it be? Face the feller now, or later? You can’t go through life avoidin’ everyone what you’ve disagreed with.’