‘It means you’re asked to go for this and that and fetch t’other. I cleared up ’yard, which was full of old boxes and bits of machinery, and storage bins and sacks that ’last lot o’ grain came in, so we’re ready for tomorrow when ’next shipment of grain arrives. Oh aye, and that reminds me, I brought some wood home to burn on ’fire.’ He got up from the chair and headed for the back door. ‘I’ve left it outside ’yard gate so I’ll fetch it in now afore it disappears into somebody else’s fireplace.’

As Ellen was about to dish up the soup she had made, Filip and Anna came to collect the children. Anna was introduced again to Harry, and Filip to Ellen. Filip was bursting to tell Harry the news that he had worked on one of the idle looms at the cotton mill and managed to fix it.

‘They say they can give me regular work, but not every day,’ he explained. ‘So, for now … how do you say, we can keep wolf from house, for they pay me immediately, and I thought if I can visit other factories and say I am available, then perhaps they might do the same.’

‘They might,’ Harry agreed. ‘You might like to try Tannerson’s, where I am, cos there was a problem this morning with one of ’dryers.’

Filip said he would go in in the morning, and then, seeing they were about to eat, he said they would leave.

Ellen asked if they would like to stay and eat with them as she had made a large pan of soup; she knew Harry would be hungry after a long day, but she said there was plenty for all of them and of course there was bread.

‘Excuse me, Ellen,’ Anna said. ‘but is there meat in the soup?’

Ellen shook her head. ‘No, sorry, it’s onny vegetable. We finished all of ’chicken that my mother brought, but I boiled up ’carcass for stock. We can’t afford to waste anything.’

‘No, no, vegetable is good … I meant—’

Filip interrupted. ‘Anna is saying that we don’t eat pork. Chicken is good and we will be happy to eat soup with you if there is enough, and next time you will eat with us.’ He looked round the room. ‘Though our room is not so nice as this one. You are home-maker, Ellen.’

‘So what can you eat?’ Ellen asked rather anxiously.

Filip gave a very hearty laugh. ‘It depends how hungry we are! Anna will only cook kosher food; some food is forbidden, like pork and ham and shellfish, but I confess I might not be so strict if my belly was empty.’

Harry groaned. ‘So you can’t have bacon and eggs for breakfast?’

Pulling a miserable expression, Filip shook his head, and then grinned. ‘Eggs yes, but not bacon, and the smell is so – tantalizing!’