‘It is much better than the other place, but we can still not call it home. But’, Filip added more cheerfully the next morning when Ellen handed him a cup of coffee, ‘this morning I went – erm – to get wood from the river bank?’

She smiled. ‘We called it twigging out in ’country; it’s when you pick up all the small, broken bits of tree branches: twigs. If they’re dry it makes good kindling to start a fire.’

He nodded his head. ‘Twigs. That is what I call it now. It is good word. So, we are to leave you, Ellen – except that we are not. We thank God that we met you; that I met Harry, and Anna met you. It was meant to be: our paths crossed and we shall remain friends always, yes?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I hope so. Can I do anything for you now?’

‘No. You have set us on our way to a new life.’ He turned to Anna, who was dressing their children in their coats and scarves. ‘Are we ready, kochanie?’

Co-hanya, Ellen heard; was it a term of endearment? Anna had nodded and smiled so sweetly at him, her face relaxed, that Ellen was sure that it was. They must both be feeling such relief that they had found a place where they could settle for a while, even if they decided to move on at some later point. They could now pause and collect themselves for the next part of their lives.

Filip was working with more companies, all by recommendation, and at last he was earning enough money to pay the rent and buy food. Ellen had offered to carry on looking after the children if Anna wanted to continue working at the bakery, and Anna had said she would like to, perhaps part time, when they were settled in their new rooms.

When they had all left, and Ellen had promised that she would bring the children to visit them, she prepared soup and put it over the fire to cook, then dressed Sarah and Thomas in their warmest clothes to take a short walk by the river even though there was a strong thick and cloying smell, which she couldn’t identify. She decided they would walk in the opposite direction from the mills and she would try to identify where they might be able to live once Harry was making enough money for them to move.

There were ducks and grebes and gulls on the river and Thomas chuckled and pointed to them; a little grebe, disturbed by their presence, dived into the water, briefly exposing its fluffy rear before disappearing completely for several seconds and bobbing up again further along the river.

Sarah picked up twigs to carry home for the fire and Thomas, finding a long stick too whippy and green to burn, trailed it behind him or happily splashed it in pools of water, stirring up the mud.