Her friend was already passing on with her filing, but Katie kept smiling. Her life had suddenly become so full that she could hardly keep up with it. There was Marek, and now the reunions with her father and with Em, both of whom she hoped to see again soon. Bubbles of joy, excitement, apprehension rose in her. Would it be all right? Would she see them? Could she trust that things might be better? It was all so much, suddenly, when she had had so little, had lived her life in a closed, starved way. This new happiness seemed to make her able to be more open with everyone.

As Christmas approached, the day was drawing closer when Marek’s sister Agnieska would arrive. Katie was apprehensive. Would she like Agnieska? She felt rather in awe of the young woman, because of the astonishing journey she had made and all that she had endured, even if Katie was not sure exactly what that was.

She told herself not to be selfish, worrying that Agnieska would draw Marek’s attention away from her. She knew she was in danger of being jealous. Now she had found someone she could be so close to, she didn’t want it taken away. But she knew that she, too, had demands on her time and emotions, and that Marek was having to make allowances for that. While they wanted to spend every moment they could together, there were other people in their lives who had to be given attention.

On the Saturday before Christmas, Katie and Michael O’Neill had arranged to meet. Once again they met at Lewis’s, but this time she took little Michael.

‘We’re going to see someone very special,’ she told him. ‘Your granddad.’

Michael was less astonished by this information than she had imagined he might be.

‘Children are funny, aren’t they?’ she said to Sybil. ‘You suddenly produce a grandfather out of the air, and they just take it in their stride. I was worried about them meeting, but Michael seems quite happy about it.’

Sybil laughed. ‘Yes – at that age, if you tell them something’s normal, they believe it. Besides, it must be nice to discover you’ve got a grandpa suddenly.’

‘Well, yes, Katie said. ‘I only hope he turns up. He might have got cold feet. I don’t even have his address. It’s somewhere Hall Green way.’

When they got off the bus in town she was still full of misgivings that he would not keep their date. How disappointed Michael would be. And though she told herself it wouldn’t matter so much – after all, she’d got through all these years without him, hadn’t she? – she knew she would be desperately disappointed if he let her down again now. He had said to meet her in The Minories, the walk-through that ran under Lewis’s building. As they turned the corner to walk below the building, her heart was thumping uncomfortably and she felt queasy with nerves. But immediately she saw him, waiting for her to one side of the ‘rubber road’, as it was known, near the wall, standing very straight and tense. When he caught sight of her, he made a slight bow from the waist and tipped his hat. Katie took a deep, relieved breath.