‘It’s been a fair few months already, though,’ said Eric. He shook his head in disbelief at having broken his own rule of silence at mealtimes, knowing it would certainly not end well.

‘What would you know? All you do is collect milk, bottle it, deliver it and clean up horseshit. No one’s interested in your opinion.’

It didn’t matter what he did to prepare himself, Eric could never stop Gladys’s words from stinging.

‘And that story about their Kitty, going to look after a relative in Ireland and just happening to drown by accident when she was there? What nonsense. What child around here can swim? Why would she even be near a river? One day, someone will get to the bottom of that story and when that day comes, we will all be the wiser for it.’

‘God rest her soul,’ said Eric and felt a genuine pain at Kitty’s name being mentioned in such a way in his home. Kitty had been the sweetest child, her da’s shadow, her mam’s little helper and to have died at the age of sixteen, at the foothills of all there was to enjoy in this life, was nothing short of a tragedy.

‘And then, to bring her body over here? Who paid for that, I ask you?’ Eric didn’t answer; Gladys wasn’t asking him at all and had never, since the day they married, shown any interest in his opinion. ‘In a carriage and a coffin and with all those flowers. None of that came cheap, I can tell you. Flown from Shannon into Speke airport like she was the queen. Well, Kitty Doherty is the only person from around here to have ever been on an aeroplane, I’ll give her that. Kitty Doherty and the Beatles, who would have thought that, eh? Shame she had to die first and can’t tell any of us about it.’

Eric had risen from the table feeling physically sick, the toxic atmosphere choking him. ‘I’m just going to check on Daisy Bell,’ he’d said as he made for the back door. ‘I thought she looked a bit lame at the end of the round today.’

‘What about your pudding?’ she said to his back.

‘I’ll have it in a minute.’ He’d closed the door behind him and gulped in the damp evening air, knowing he wouldn’t be able to swallow another thing until he could erase the memory of her heartless words from his mind.