Marie nodded. ‘They knew that we couldn’t have a family. You can’t keep a thing like that secret in a place like this. They told us that Joanna had refused to give the baby up for adoption. She hated the thought of it being cared for by strangers and, besides, it was so handicapped she thought no one would want to adopt it. She couldn’t stand the idea that it would spend its life in a hospital.’

She paused and for the first time she smiled. ‘ Mr Grenville took us to the nursing home to see Cassie and meet the doctors,’ she said. ‘It was like something in a spy film. He was so worried about keeping it secret that he picked us up after dark. Mrs Grenville wouldn’t come at all. So far as I know she’s never seen Cassie. Except perhaps at a distance through the ambulance window.’

‘And you agreed to go along with it?’ Molly asked.

‘I wanted a baby,’ Marie said simply. ‘I suppose we could have adopted in the ordinary way, but I’d heard all those stories of couples waiting until they were too old to be considered. And there was no guarantee that we would be approved. And when I saw Cassie I fell in love with her. I’d have brought her home then if they’d let me.’

‘What about Vic?’ Molly asked. ‘What did he think of it?’

She shrugged. ‘He wasn’t sure. He went along with it for my sake, but he wasn’t really happy.’

‘I thought there’d be trouble,’ Vic Liddle said. ‘And I was bloody right.’

He was standing in the doorway from the hall. They had been expecting him to come in through the kitchen and throughout the conversation Marie had turned towards the window looking out for him. They had not heard the front door open or his stockinged feet in the hall.

His wife looked at him helplessly. ‘Vic .…’ she said. ‘I’m sorry …’

‘No,’ he said. ‘ I’m sorry. I should have known better than to trust that lot.’ He stood behind her and clumsily took her hand. ‘I know they want to send Cassie away,’ he said. ‘ Mr Grenville told me today. He seemed to think we’d have heard from the school.’

‘There was a letter on Friday,’ she said. ‘I meant to tell you. But I was so upset. I tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. I should have told you.’

Her eyes filled with tears. She stood up and tore a square of kitchen paper from a roll on the wall and blew her nose.

‘I’m sorry,’ Molly said. ‘ I don’t understand what’s going on.’