The penny dropped and Mo was mortified. The man must have seen her naked photographs. Postcards, she thought in horror as she realised that the pictures must be in circulation. ‘You must be mistaken,’ she said hastily, and ran from the auditorium.

In the staff room, Mo quickly removed her tray, grabbed her coat and hurried out onto the street. Once there, she sucked in the fresh air and tried to steady herself. She’d probably be sacked for running out like that, but didn’t care. It was too risky to go back in there again. If that man had recognised her, then surely others would too. Oh, God, would men who had seen the postcards recognise her in the streets too?

Mo kept her head down as she made her way home. Samuel would question why she was back early, but she’d pretend to be unwell. All the times she’d hidden from her violent family she’d felt her room was a prison cell, yet now it felt like her sanctuary, and she couldn’t wait to be back in it.

Chapter 44

Sarah had struggled, but managed to get through another week at work. Despite walking out on her, Roger had been round to see her a couple of times. She managed to brush off his advances by telling him she was on her monthlies and now, as the sun rose on Sunday morning, Sarah found she wasn’t looking forward to going out with him later that day.

She loved him and wanted to feel the way she had before Tommy died, but at the moment being with Roger was such hard work and she was beginning to resent that he behaved as if Tommy had never existed. She would’ve spoken to Mo about the situation, asked her advice, but she hadn’t seen her all week. Samuel said Mo was ill in bed with flu and she hoped her friend would recover soon.

Sarah sighed heavily as she poured some cereal for her breakfast. She really didn’t want to go out with Roger today, but couldn’t face his annoyance if she broke their date to his face. It was cowardly, but she decided to avoid him, and pop round to see George instead. Lena had said she and Albert were going out for the day, so George might welcome her company. She hadn’t seen him all week, but Lena had told her he’d taken the news of her engagement well, better than she’d expected. She had laughed, saying that her son seemed more worried about who was going to look after the house and cook his dinner once she was married and had moved in with Albert. Typical man, thought Sarah, but she knew that Lena had spoiled him and that living on his own was going to be a rude awakening.