Harry nodded. If anyone could make the best of a situation it was Ellen.

‘Is this your rent man?’ Billy asked. ‘They all look ’same, don’t they? Shifty, and wearing cast-off clothing.’

‘I don’t know,’ Harry said. ‘We’ve never had one. Ozzie allus took ’rent out of my wages at ’year end.’

Ellen gave a grim laugh. Billy didn’t have a rent man either; he still lived at home with their parents and paid board and lodgings to their mother, so he couldn’t know, but nevertheless the man coming towards them matched his description perfectly.

‘Good morning, Mr Randell.’ Dennison tipped his battered bowler to Ellen. ‘Mrs Randell. In good time, I’m happy to see.’ He fished about in his case. ‘The keys!’ He offered them to Ellen with a flourish.

‘You can open ’door for us.’ Ellen smiled sweetly. ‘I suppose it’s been left in good order? Clean and tidy? Though I notice that ’window glass needs cleaning.’

‘Ah, yes, I’m afraid that’s a hazard due to ’conditions in this area, Mrs Randell; nothing much can be done about that.’ He unlocked the front door, led her into the small hallway and pushed open the door to the downstairs room.

‘No lock on this door?’ she commented and looked up the narrow stairway. ‘Who lives upstairs?’

‘Another family,’ he said. ‘Very respectable.’

‘I’ll need a key for this door,’ she said firmly. ‘You’ll send a locksmith to fit one today, please; we can’t move in without that assurance. We might not have much but what we have is precious.’

Dennison looked at her in amazement; he had evidently never had demands made on him before.

Ellen looked at Harry. ‘Otherwise we’ll have to ask for our deposit back, isn’t that right, Harry?’

‘Aye, it is.’ Harry called to Billy through the front door. ‘Don’t unload yet, Billy, we might have to move somewhere else.’

‘Oh, but …’ Dennison stammered, before recovering a little. ‘By all means; I’ll organize that. You have my word.’

‘Today!’ Ellen said. ‘It’s only just ten o’clock. You’ll easily be able to get someone here before midday.’ She looked at him questioningly.

‘Yes,’ Dennison sighed. ‘Masters. Jack Masters. He does work on some other houses belonging to Mr Benstead. I’ll send him round afore dinner.’

‘Thank you.’ She looked round the room and went through into the scullery, too bare with only a sink, a draining board and one cupboard to be called a kitchen. ‘And he can put a chain on ’back door as well whilst he’s about it. We can’t be too careful with young children about.’

She decided not to make further demands; he would, she was sure, baulk at doing much more, but she was satisfied that he’d realized that neither would she accept anything substandard, however inferior and far from what she had expected this place might be.