‘Don’t worry, Ellen,’ Billy said. ‘I’ll pick it up when I go home, and if ’new folk have moved in, which I doubt, I’ll say we didn’t have room for it on ’wagon.’

Ellen gave a big smile. ‘Everything’s going to be all right,’ she said, and put her arms round Billy and gave him a squeeze, and then did the same to Harry, who dropped a kiss on her nose. ‘We’re going to be all right.’

Billy folded his arms. ‘I hope you realize,’ he said gruffly to Harry, his long-time friend, ‘just how lucky you are being married to my little sister.’

CHAPTER TEN

The room began to look more homely once the furniture was in place, even though there was hardly room to move with the two beds against the wall, a chair on each side of the fire and the kitchen table and a bench against the scullery wall. Ellen had swept the floor and mopped it and washed the inside of the window and surrounding frame. There was a lot of dust and soot but essentially the place was reasonably clean. She thought that it would be a full-time occupation keeping dirt and grime at bay, considering the area they were in; it was coming in through the ill-fitting windows and under the doors of this old housing.

She wondered about the people who had lived here previously; how difficult it must be for them, especially if they didn’t speak the language well. They will be so vulnerable, she thought; open to the trickeries of every conniving fraudster who might take advantage of them.

Harry had cleaned the wash tub, half filled it with water from a tap in the yard and lit a fire beneath it with the remains of the wood they had brought. They were used to getting washed in cold water, but providing the fire stayed in long enough to get the water very hot it should still be warm by the next morning, and what a luxury that would be, he reflected, to wash in warm water.

‘I’ve had a thought,’ Billy said. ‘I don’t think Jack Rogers will mind if I keep ’wagon over tomorrow, so I’ll come back in ’morning rather than next weekend with what you need.’ He looked round the yard. ‘If I bring two large brushes we could paint ’walls out here as well as ’scullery. What do you think?’

‘We could. They’ll not stay white for long, but yeh, that would be great, Billy. Thanks.’