Lizzie put a finger to her mouth and made a pretence of trying to remember, and then exclaimed, ‘Oh, so I did! Silly me!’

‘But you haven’t seen me or Thomas for ages,’ Sarah said, ‘cos we didn’t stay long when we came to collect Mary.’

Ellen, watching her sister chatting to the girls, felt sad for her, for she clearly loved children. She wondered what Lizzie would do now that she was widowed. She would have to find work again; Albert had been a farm labourer and Ellen doubted that he would have left her any money to live on.

Billy unpacked a cooked chicken, a knuckle end of bacon that Ellen could cook over the fire, a bag of potatoes and a large swede. Other parcels yielded bread, biscuits, an apple pie, a fruit cake and more vegetables.

Ellen’s eyes began to prickle again as she gazed at her mother’s gifts and thought that she couldn’t have any chickens left when she kept giving them away, unless perhaps she was exchanging or bartering with a neighbour, which country folk tended to do. ‘She’s too good,’ she began, but couldn’t continue.

‘You know how she likes cooking and baking,’ Billy said, ‘and now that there’s onny me and Da at home she doesn’t need to bake so often. But Harry’s ma has been coming over; Meg brings her and Mrs Randell scrubs ’taties and carrots for dinner, and prepares scone mixture and suchlike, and they both have a grand natter together about ’old days.’

‘Ma’s a hero,’ Lizzie butted in. ‘I don’t know how I’d have managed without her these last few weeks.’

‘Listen, our Ellen,’ Billy interrupted. ‘I want to go and visit Harry so that I can give everybody news of how he is. But I have to go now, cos I’ve to tek ’hoss and wagon back tonight, so do you want to come wi’ me?’

‘Ellen should go; I’ll stay with ’bairns,’ Lizzie said, and looked up at her sister. ‘And I can stay longer if you want me to. I’ve no reason to dash home.’ Her voice cracked. ‘I’d like to.’

‘Oh, yes, please!’ Ellen was delighted. Edyta and Anna had been unfailingly caring and helpful, but she was conscious of taking them away from their usual commitments; also, if Lizzie stayed, she could visit Harry more often.

She quickly put on her coat, shawl and boots, whilst Lizzie made chicken sandwiches and thrust them at her for her and Billy to eat as they drove, and said she’d feed the children. Ellen asked them to give her a kiss for their dada who wasn’t very well but would be coming home soon, and then she was climbing into the wagon with Billy grasping the reins and asking her if she knew which way to go.