‘Actually, I have something to tell you as well,’ Holly said. ‘Ivy left on the evening you went to your sister’s. She’s going to be married shortly.’

‘Really? Well, how wonderful. I had no idea she and her young man were so serious. But can you manage on your own?’

Holly nodded. ‘I think so but if need be I thought I might offer one of the nurses at the hospital Ivy’s room, if you have no objection, that is.’

‘I’d have no objection whatsoever. I trust your judgement implicitly,’ Miss May assured her. And so it was decided and once again it felt to Holly like her life was about to change.

Just as Holly had hoped, the matron was only too happy to offer her full-time employment and, relieved, Holly felt that things had worked out well. It was agreed that she would start in two weeks’ time, which would give Miss May time to settle her sister in and let her take over Holly’s job in the shop. But she missed Ivy terribly. The evenings were the worst. They had usually prepared their evening meal together and chatted about what they had been up to during the day but now when she got home only silence greeted her. Ivy had already popped round once to drop off Jeremy’s address for her and one evening Holly decided she would visit her. She had asked Dora for directions as she lived in that area, although she had still had no luck in tracing anyone by the name of Farthing as yet.

It was a brisk autumn evening and as Holly walked along she was glad of the warm scarf and gloves she had treated herself to the week before. As she neared the address that Ivy had given her she found that it was as dismal an area as the one she and Ivy had rented when they had first arrived in London. Buck’s Row, where Ivy lived, proved to be just as depressing and as she strolled along she glanced worriedly from side to side. This place was a breeding ground for thieves and vagabonds and she felt nervous being there after dark. At last she arrived at number 38. It was a tall, terraced house the same as all the others in the row and equally as depressing from the outside. The stench as she stepped into the hallway made her screw her nose up and she had to step past a gaggle of children playing on the floor there to reach the stairs. Ivy had told her that Jeremy lodged in the top two rooms so she began to climb. The higher she went and the more she saw of the state of the place, the stranger it seemed that someone from Jeremy’s background should lodge there. At the top of the house she paused as she looked at a number of doors. What number had Ivy said? Ah, room 12, that was it. She tapped on the door tentatively and seconds later she heard footsteps inside and the door slowly inched open. Ivy stood there but this was not the Ivy that Holly knew. Her hair was straggling on her shoulders and she had a thin shawl wrapped about her. But it wasn’t that that Holly was focusing on, it was Ivy’s eye, which was swollen and almost shut.