‘Right, come on then. I’ll show you, then I’ll have to be off afore my boss comes lookin’ for me, thinking I’ve run off wi’ his rent money.’

‘I thought you said you hadn’t collected any?’ Harry grinned.

‘I haven’t, but he doesn’t know that, does he? Not that it’s worth ’effort of running off wi’ pittance I collect. It doesn’t even cover my wages.’

‘Well, if you can find me somewhere liveable, you can be sure I’ll pay what we owe every rent day.’

His companion nodded and sighed. ‘Aye, that’s what everybody says, but I’ll tek your word for it.’ He marched out of the court, and down the street, taking several turnings before they arrived at the end of another long street of two-storey houses.

‘This one’s ’whole of bottom floor,’ the agent said, stopping outside the last house in the row, which had a space alongside leading presumably to the rear; this terrace, it appeared, was a single row of houses, not back to back. ‘Two rooms and a yard wi’ a privy, so ’rent is more than ’others. Former tenants were in arrears so they’ve had to move out; not that my boss’d want them to stop anyway. He doesn’t like Jews. I’ve given them till today so they should have left.’

Harry frowned at his comment, but followed him inside. The tenants were still there, a man and woman with their three young children, one about the same age as Thomas sitting in a cardboard box wearing only a nappy and crying, the adults collecting up pieces of crockery. On a wooden chair were several grubby sheets and a pillow; what he could see seemed to Harry to be all their worldly possessions, for there was nothing else in the room.

‘We are leaving,’ the woman said, looking first at the agent and then at Harry with large dark red-rimmed eyes. ‘Sorry, but our child not well.’

Harry felt sorry for them and bent down to speak to the wailing infant. ‘Hey,’ he said softly. ‘What’s up, then?’ He wondered if the child was hungry, and taking off his knapsack felt around until he located the bread and cheese that Ellen had wrapped carefully in a cotton cloth. The toddler stopped crying and the other two children drew closer. He looked at the mother for permission before breaking off a piece of bread and giving it to the toddler, who grabbed it and began to chew. Harry broke the cheese and gave a piece each to the other two children. One, a little girl, looked at the food and then at her mother, who nodded and murmured, ‘Eat.’

Harry wondered if it was the first time she had eaten cheese. He had caught a slight accent as the mother spoke and wondered where they had come from.