Ellen’s face froze; it was something she had worried about. ‘It’s just, well, he has to recover from the accident, Billy.’ She pressed her lips together. ‘He’s being allowed out, but he has to mend; he couldn’t go back to work even if there was any to go back to. I’m planning on getting a job once he’s home and he can keep an eye on ’children while I’m out. As will Lizzie. She’s coming with us.’

‘Harry won’t be able to chase after ’bairns,’ he said in concern. ‘He won’t have ’energy.’

‘They’ll still be in bed,’ she said, ‘and I’ll be home afore anybody’s awake.’

‘What kind of work will you do, Mrs Randell?’ Florence asked curiously. ‘Night shift? I didn’t think women did that.’

Ellen explained her plans.

There came another rap on the front door. It was Lizzie and Mr Tannerson. Ellen introduced Mr Tannerson to Billy and Florence, and Lizzie raised her eyebrows at her brother as she said hello to Florence. Suddenly the room was full: Edyta came in with Karl, having taken the morning off, and within minutes Filip, Anna and their children arrived.

‘You’ve a lot of friends, Mrs Randell,’ Florence commented.

Ellen gave a teary smile. She was beginning to fill up with emotion. ‘I have. I’m so very lucky.’

Filip and Billy started to lift the beds out of the room and put them in the wagon Filip had brought; Tannerson took the sack of bedding and the box of crockery and cutlery and the rag rug and packed them in his trap, and Ellen called after Lizzie not to forget the kettle and the window curtain. The children gathered up their few toys and in half an hour everything was stowed away.

Ellen gave Edyta the keys to give to the rent agent and Edyta said she was going to ask him if she could move in. ‘Move in now,’ Filip suggested. ‘We can bring your furniture down. The rent man won’t care; he is a villain anyway.’

Edyta looked at Karl, who grinned and said why not, so they set about dismantling her bed and bringing it downstairs. Billy carried her chair, pans, kettle and cutlery, Lizzie put back the curtain she had just taken down from Ellen’s window, and within fifteen minutes Edyta had a new home and Karl began to build a fire in the grate.

‘At least I know it’s clean,’ she said. ‘Unlike our room when my Mutter and I moved in.’ Sotto voce, she said to Ellen, ‘I can’t tell you how much I’ve longed for my own privy instead of having to share with half a dozen others.’