‘Two looms have broken down, so we have been told to go home; there is no more work for us today. They will pay us for today,’ Edyta added, ‘but not tomorrow and not until they have fixed them.’

Filip stopped singing. ‘Why?’

Edyta shrugged and shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I think they have to pay us once we’ve started the shift.’

‘But why have the looms broken?’ he asked, bending his knees to slide the boys down to the ground.

She shrugged again, lifting her hands and shoulders. ‘How do I know? No one tells us anything. They only say go home.’

Filip ushered the boys towards their mothers. ‘God is good!’ he pronounced. ‘Today is a lucky day,’ and he began to run back in the direction of the cotton mill.

They all stood and watched him, including the other women who had been told to go home, and Edyta nodded. ‘I will believe that it is,’ she murmured, ‘if he can repair the looms and we can all go back to work tomorrow.’

‘Come,’ Anna said. ‘I have brought sweet cake and coffee. Do you have tea, Ellen? We will celebrate in your house.’

‘Yes.’ Ellen smiled happily, though her eyes overflowed with tears. It seemed as if things really were going to be better, but life wouldn’t be complete until Harry came home.

When Ellen and Lizzie climbed into bed that night they discussed the possible connection between Mr Tannerson and Dr Lucan, and the house that Dr Lucan had said might be available.

‘Wouldn’t it be an answer to our prayers?’ Ellen said, adding, ‘If only we can afford it.’ She sighed, her earlier euphoria fading. ‘I won’t get my hopes up just yet, because it might be out of reach. I don’t think Dr Lucan knows what it’s like to live in poverty; not knowing where the next meal is coming from or how to pay ’rent man when there’s no money left in your purse. But with the five shillings that Mr Tannerson’s given me we can manage a bit longer.’

‘You can have all I’ve got, Ellen,’ Lizzie told her. ‘It’s not much; Albert never had a large wage and when he was ill there was no money coming in at all, and I had to use what little I’d saved. Without Ma baking bread and bringing eggs, I don’t know what we’d have done. I never told Albert, for he would have said it was charity.’

‘Ma wouldn’t have thought of it like that,’ Ellen consoled her. ‘We have to help each other. If we should get this other house, and there are two bedrooms, you can stay if you’d like to. Harry won’t mind. You’d have to work, though. We couldn’t afford to keep you.’