Taken off his guard, Jimmy spoke without reserve. ‘Can you keep a secret?’

Wynne nodded, ‘Course I can; that’s why me nickname’s Oyster.’ He laughed. ‘Go on then, what’s this secret?’

‘The feller I mentioned has got a grudge against me and Mo,’ Jimmy admitted. ‘It seems he took something he didn’t oughter have had, and hid it away, not knowin’ at the time that Mo was watchin’ him. It wouldn’t have mattered except that he took himself off to bed – he were drunk as usual – and when he woke up he couldn’t find it. So of course he thinks either me or Mo took it, only we didn’t, honest to God we didn’t.’

‘Cor!’ Wynne said, round-eyed. ‘It’s like one of them stories in the Boy’s Own Paper! But what can he do to you, this chap? You’ve only got to go to the police and tell them the whole story and they’ll see you safe.’

Jimmy laughed bitterly. ‘One, we don’t think they’d believe us – you must admit it’s a pretty unlikely story – two, if he catches us he’d nigh on kill us before we could get to the scuffers – that’s the police – and three, we’d need an armed guard for the rest of our lives, or at least until Cyril accepts that we didn’t do nothin’. Why, he near on broke Mo’s little arm once when I’d done somethin’ to annoy him, so you see we can’t take chances. Catch one catch ’em all, you might say.’

‘Cor!’ Wynne said again. He frowned. ‘But you’ve only told me half the story. How about the other half? What did young Mo see this neighbour hidin’?’

Jimmy grinned as his friend’s eyes positively bulged. ‘Gold sovereigns? Jewels an’ that?’

His smile fading, Jimmy sighed. ‘It were a necklace, all sparkly and glittery Mo said, though Auntie Glenys thought it were probably just glass.’

Wynne looked disappointed, but then he perked up. ‘That’s another thing. Where does Miss Trent fit in? You said it were chance that you arrived here just when they needed a teacher, ’cos you were really lookin’ for your family – is she helpin’ you do that?’

Jimmy thought for a moment. ‘You swear not to tell anyone?’

‘Cross me heart,’ Wynne said promptly. ‘We can seal it in blood if you want.’

Declining this generous offer, Jimmy went on to describe how Miss Trent hoped to find the girl who had abandoned her on a doorstep twenty-six years before, and Wynne’s eyes almost popped out of his head.

‘Well, if I hadn’t heard it from your own lips I’d have thought someone were tellin’ tall stories,’ he admitted. ‘So are you goin’ to stay with the old witch? Only you’ve spoken to all the Griffiths I can think of round here and you’ve not come across anyone who admits to havin’ a relative who married an Englishman.’ He grinned at his friend with more than a trace of mischief. ‘Not that anyone from this area would admit to an English relative if they could help it,’ he concluded.