Harry and Billy began bringing in the furniture and their belongings, and gathering up a group of very young children who stood by the wagon watching them, including the boy who had spoken to them earlier. Sarah and Mary solemnly observed them from the window and each held Thomas by a hand to stop him going out of the door, whilst Ellen lit a fire in the grate. She stood up as the twigs and the wood caught hold and began to draw. At least the chimney must be clean, she thought. It was one of the questions she had thought of asking Dennison.

She picked Thomas up, and when Harry brought in a chair she sat down to feed him and hoped that he would fall asleep, freeing her to begin unpacking and wash out the cupboard before stacking it with crockery.

Billy carried a box of pans into the scullery. ‘We’ve got a wooden cupboard in ’shed at home, Ellen,’ he said when he came out again. ‘There’s nowt much in it. I’ll borrow the wagon again next week and bring it and one or two other things.’

‘Like what, Billy? We haven’t any space for anything else.’

‘Like whitewash and a brush,’ he said. ‘I’ll paint ’scullery for you. It’ll look cleaner and brighten it up.’

‘Oh, would you? Thank you, Billy. Harry’s going to clean ’yard so that ’children can play outside, and fix up a washing line, though it’s going to take ages to boil a kettle on this small fire to do any washing. I’ll have to ask if there’s a wash house nearby.’ A sob caught in her chest and she stifled it. How would she cook anything that wouldn’t take all day?

Thomas fell asleep and she placed him on one of the easy chairs and covered him with his blanket. The men hadn’t yet brought in their bed or the small one for the children. She looked round the room, wondering where they could put them, and decided that the only possible place was on the opposite side to the fire, alongside the inner wall of the room, where they could borrow heat from the next door house, if there was any.

Harry went outside to look at the yard and came back with a smile on his face. ‘Come and look here, Ellen,’ he said, and the two girls followed her to explore.

‘What is it?’ she asked as she stood on the outside step. Harry was examining a waist-high brick structure with a space beneath it and a wooden lid on top. ‘It’s a wash tub!’ she exclaimed when Harry stepped back. ‘Oh, wonderful! We can have hot water for washing and baths every weekend. Except we didn’t bring our bath tub! I forgot about it. It’s still hanging on ’wall by the back door.’