He gave a little shrug. ‘She didn’t speak to me. I thought she was ignoring me because we’ve come to live in Hull, but Meg said that’s ’way she is now; she’s nowt to say to anybody, not even to Da and he can’t understand why, when she’s usually had so much to say. She’s happy to see all of ’grand-bairns, though, so the girls tek it in turns to drop in and chat to her.’ He pressed his lips together and said in a choked voice, ‘She doesn’t know which is which or who belongs to who.’

‘Well, that doesn’t matter,’ Ellen said gently. ‘The children won’t mind. She’s still their gran.’ Someone knocked on the front door. ‘That’ll be Filip and Anna. Will you let them in, Harry?’

But it wasn’t them. It was a short man with a dark beard and wearing a wide-brimmed black hat and a black coat, asking for Mrs Johnson. As Harry turned to speak to Ellen, the upstairs door was opened and the younger woman came hurrying down. As she greeted the visitor and he stepped inside, Filip and Anna arrived on the doorstep and there was a flurry of people all looking at each other.

‘Shalom,’ the newcomer said to Filip, and lifted his hat to Anna. On his head he wore a black skullcap.

Harry stood back and turned to Ellen with a question in his eyes; she motioned him to come inside and they partly closed the door, but Zophia and Jakub heard their parents’ voices and ran out into the hall.

‘They’re speaking Yiddish, I think,’ she whispered.

Presently Anna knocked and came in with the children, followed by Filip. ‘I am so sorry,’ Anna said. ‘That was rude of us, but what a strange thing to happen.’

‘It was. Especially as the young woman didn’t want to speak to me when I last met her,’ Filip said.

‘And still doesn’t,’ Anna added wryly.

‘Is the man a relation of hers?’ Ellen asked.

‘Her brother,’ Filip said. ‘It is their mother who lives upstairs. Did you not help her one day?’

Ellen nodded. ‘She fell out of bed, poor lady. I go up to see her often and take her a cup of tea or coffee. She loves to see Sarah and Thomas.’

‘And I bring her rye bread from the bakery,’ Anna said.

‘She’s well looked after, then,’ Harry commented. ‘Billy, these are our friends Filip and Anna Bosco from Poland. This is Billy, Ellen’s brother and my long-time friend.’

Filip and Billy shook hands and Anna nodded. Billy remarked, ‘Poland! You’ve come a long way. It seems that ’whole world’s moving. Are you stopping in Hull?’