‘I’m Molly,’ she said archly. ‘And that’s Liza.’

‘Well, I’m Brian,’ the skinny one said, mimicking her. ‘And that’s Roy.’

Molly could tell Roy was interested in her at once. Most blokes were.

‘’Nother drink, ladies?’ Brian asked, though there was a sarky tone in his voice.

‘Johnnie Walker for me, love,’ Molly said immediately.

‘Anything in it?’

‘Oh no, ta. As it comes.’ Molly could feel herself moving back into it, the pub talk, the men, the way she had always been with them – she knew she provoked men, led them on, so easily, unless she was determined not to.

‘Another half for me, ta,’ Liza said, a bit more friendly now.

The lads settled down with them and they had one drink after another, the men paying. They each told Molly and Liza what they did for a job, but Molly had soon forgotten. She was very well oiled, and everything was distant and mellow and she didn’t care about anything. She heard herself laughing at their jokes, telling them where she worked, doing an unkind imitation of Bernard Lester’s singing, which made them all laugh. She told them she’d been in the army. Roy, the dark one, said he had been too. Molly decided she liked him best of the two. Someone started up singing and they joined in. The evening passed in a haze.

‘I’m off now, Moll,’ Liza said at some point.

‘I’ll see yer back,’ Brian said, getting up, and soon Molly realized they had gone and that Roy was sitting closer and had his hand on her thigh. She thought about telling him to get it off, but somehow the words wouldn’t come to her. What the hell did it matter anyway? She was warm and contented and it was nice to have someone near.

‘God, it’s been a long time,’ she murmured.

‘Whatcha saying?’ Roy asked, leaning down to her.

‘Oh – nothing!’ She looked up and laughed, suddenly. ‘Let’s have another drink. I’ll get this one in.’

When she got up, she was taken aback by how odd her legs felt. They weren’t hers – someone had stolen them. She only just managed to get back to the table without spilling the drinks.

‘Dunno how much I’ve had,’ she giggled, falling back into her seat again.

‘Quite a bit, by the look of yer,’ Roy said.

‘What’s your name again?’ Molly said. And she started laughing and couldn’t stop.

There was rain falling on her face. Molly lay letting the drops fall and slide, trickling down her cheeks. Gradually, as she came to, she noticed that she was cold to the bone, that she was lying somewhere very hard and uncomfortable, that her head was reeling even though she was lying still and that she was half undressed.

She groaned softly, managing to push herself upright. It was neither light nor dark and she had no idea of the time or where she was. She was wet through, shivering. Somewhere in front of her she heard waves breaking gently; she felt the wet sand with her hand and cursed repeatedly. How had she got there? Those lads – had she come with them? What had happened? But it was obvious. She was no longer wearing knickers, and her stockings had been torn away from her suspenders. She only had one shoe on: the left one. As she sat there her teeth began to chatter unstoppably.