‘They don’t really like everyone being here,’ Davey said, and Molly grabbed the phone. ‘Tough shit, they can’t stop us from grabbing a bite in the canteen.’

‘She could be a while, Ma,’ Davey said.

‘I know, son, and we’ll be there.’

‘I won’t stop you,’ he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. ‘Juliet can’t stay in the room when she’s pushing and I don’t want her on her own.’

‘Never,’ Molly said, and Davey hung up. ‘What’s Vera Shaw going there for?’ she said to Jack.

‘She’s Marjorie’s mother,’ Jack said.

‘Oh is she? Has anyone told her that?’

‘Ah now, Molls, don’t start,’ he said, and he gave the driver the woman’s address before grabbing her hand and squeezing it.

‘We’re having a baby, Molls,’ he said, and his wife nodded and closed her eyes. ‘This time one year, nine months and eight days ago, who would have thought that?’

She raised her arms and stamped her feet. ‘Amen.’

Chapter Eighty-Nine: Molly

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Molly

JACK BANGED ON VERA’S front door while Molly waited in the taxi with the driver who tapped his fingers on his steering wheel. Music was playing faintly in the background; he tapped in time. He had rhythm. No sign of Vera. Jack looked in the window and pounded again before walking back to the car.

‘She won’t open the door. I know she’s there, I hear her tapping that stick of hers,’ he said.

‘I’ll shove that stick up her—’

‘Ah now, Molly.’

‘Excuse me, love,’ she said to the taxi driver. ‘I won’t be long.’ She got out of the car and Jack got back in.

‘Better leave the ladies to it,’ he said to the taxi driver, who was craning his neck to see what would come next. Molly marched up to the door and opened the letterbox.

‘Vera Shaw, open this door or I will pick up that stupid-looking oversized garden gnome of yours and I will fuck it through your front window.’ She waited for a second or two before hearing Vera’s heavy steps and the clicking of her stick on the tiled hall floor. She opened the door a crack.

‘You were always very aggressive,’ she said.

‘And you were always unreliable,’ Molly said.

‘She doesn’t need me there,’ Vera said.

‘You’re right, she doesn’t, but she asked for you,’ Molly said, pushing her way past Vera. She moved towards the coat rack, picked out a coat and threw it at Vera. ‘Put that on, it’s freezing out there.’

‘I can’t,’ Vera said.

‘What is wrong with you?’ Molly said.

Tears rolled down Vera’s face. ‘What if it goes wrong?’

‘Then we’ll be there,’ Molly said.

‘I couldn’t go through that, not again,’ Vera said.