There was linoleum the colour of pea soup worn through in places to the stone flags. There were the cupboards Fred had put up when they were first married. Once they had been painted white but they were discoloured now by the smoke from the Aga and grease and cobwebs. Ursula had stopped taking people into the kitchen – even her daughter Sally, on her rare visits, was kept firmly in the drawing room. The visitors’ looks of shock and disapproval made Ursula uneasy. Perhaps there was something shameful about the room, something she could not see. But it had always been good enough for her and Fred. Now it was good enough for her and the cats. She knew it was dirty but thought it had never been very clean. Farmers’ wives were too busy to be over-obsessed with hygiene. It occurred to her that recently she had let things slip and she thought vaguely that she should have a good tidy out. It was the time of year for spring cleaning. The cupboard at the side of the range, for example, was full of damp and disintegrating Farmers Weeklys. The scout group in Appleworth collected waste paper. Perhaps she could take it to them on her next monthly trip to the supermarket. And if she washed the windows she might let in more light.

She went back into the yard to collect the remaining bags of groceries.

‘Lottie!’ she called. ‘Belle!’ She was more concerned about the cats than the state of her kitchen and there had been no sign of them by the Aga or on the scullery roof.

But still they did not come and she stamped back into the house and crouched awkwardly to stack tins in the cupboard under the sink, because that was where the mice always seemed to get, despite the cats, and only tins were safe in there.

She filled a kettle at the deep enamel sink, lifted the lid on the range and put the kettle on the hot plate to boil. While she was waiting for it she took a tin opener from the drawer in the table and began to open a large tin of cat food. She picked up the cats’ earthenware bowls from the corner of the range and rinsed them under the tap, then spooned in the food. She had chosen their favourite flavour and knew nothing would keep them away now.