‘That’s it!’ Mrs Miller encouraged her. ‘You’ve got the idea. You’ve got a lovely little lad there – a good size an’ all. He was well over seven pound.’

Katie smiled faintly. ‘I feel as if I’ve been hit by a tram.’

‘Ooh, I know, bab, believe me, I do! Listen, what you’ll want is a nice cup of tea. Now, give him a few minutes on each side and you’ll stay evened up that way. I’ll go and get you some tea and a bit of bread and scrape – that’ll set you up.’

‘You’ve been ever so kind,’ Katie said tearfully.

‘Don’t mention it, love. You’re our Ann’s friend, and we couldn’t have you doing it all on yer own, could we?’

The baby had come early. Katie had calculated that it was due towards the end of February, but yesterday, a fortnight sooner, she had felt strange sensations as she was sitting at her desk at work – a hot, melting feeling of something giving way inside her. It was only later, after she’d walked home, that the pains began.

She had always kept out of the way of her crabby landlady as much as possible, going straight to her room, cooking solitary little meals on the single ring, only having anything to do with the woman if she had her topcoat on, which she hoped hid her swelling figure. As soon as the pains began, she knew there was only one person she could turn to: Ann. The Millers were already keeping an eye out for her. When Mrs Miller heard just how alone in the world she was, she had insisted that Katie go round there for Christmas dinner, taking everything she could in the way of rations, and she had squeezed in with all the family and received a kindly welcome. She was more grateful to the Millers than she could have put into words.

Thanking providence that it had begun in the evening, when she was not at work and it was dark, she put a few things in a bag and walked along to Ann’s house on Stoney Lane. Mrs Miller took one look at Katie, bent over, gasping, on the doorstep and said, ‘Oh dear – like that, is it? Come on, we’d better get you upstairs. Ann!’ she bawled into the house. ‘Get yer bed ready!’

She sent one of the younger children out for the midwife, a Mrs Mulvey.

‘That’ll give Mrs M a shock, us lot calling for ’er,’ she joked as she helped Katie to climb the narrow stairs. The younger children were watching curiously from the hall. ‘I’ve ’ad everything taken away down there now – she’ll think I’ve ’ad a little miracle happen!’

Katie gave herself up gratefully into the hands of kindly Mrs Miller and the midwife, and the crushing waves of pain. The only things she was aware of were the squeezing of her drum of a body, and someone wiping her forehead with a cool rag from time to time. How the rest of the family were managing, she had no idea. She was only aware, distantly, that after she had managed at last to push the baby out, feeling as though all her bones would crack apart in the effort, and he was taken downstairs to be shown off in the small hours of the morning, there came the sound of a cheer from the waiting children and it brought tears to her eyes that someone else in the world was pleased to welcome him.