‘It was the way he nibbled your ear and looked very comfortable indeed on your shoulder the other day – it was almost as if he lived there. Go on, away, take these with you.’ Kathleen rolled the paper up and gave little Paddy the parcel. ‘I’ll be twenty minutes because I’ll call into St Cuthbert’s on my way. Tell the kids Nana Kathleen is bringing them some sweets from Simpson’s and I want washed knees, hands and faces and everyone clean and ready for bed by the time I get there. If any one of them plays up, I’ll give their sweets to whoever was the best-behaved – and tell them I mean that.’

The back door slammed shut and Kathleen watched little Paddy run down the path. Peggy must have pawned the shoes – and there was not a woman she knew who wouldn’t sell herself before she would be forced to do that. Things were far worse than she’d thought.

Jerry ran his hand through his hair. ‘Those poor kids. Where do you think Peggy is, Mam? And the kids’ shoes…? Holy smoke!’

Kathleen had taken a jar down off the press and was counting money out of it onto the kitchen table. It was the jar full of sixpences, the price she charged for reading people’s tea leaves, and she made almost as much as Jerry did from it. Added to that, she received regular money from Liam and Maeve and the farm in Ireland, which was still Kathleen’s in name. With only Nellie and Joseph to feed, the Deanes were one of the better-off families on the four streets.

‘I’m guessing Peggy has gone down to the bingo. And something is seriously wrong – where the hell did she get the money from for chips and saveloys? I told you, didn’t I, that something wasn’t right because I saw it in the leaves.’

Jerry was back at the door. ‘Mammy, go and see Sister Evangelista – she will know what to do about Peggy, don’t you take it all on your shoulders.’

Kathleen shook her head. ‘I daren’t do that, Jerry. For all Peggy’s failings, she loves her kids and she’s terrified the welfare will take them off her. I can’t be the one responsible for that happening. If the nuns are involved, it has to be Peggy’s doing, not mine.’ She took her coat down from the back of the door and slipped the coins into her pocket. ‘You go to the Anchor and see if you can get that haul up the steps – we need something to put everyone in the mood for the carnival. Alice, can Nellie come with me?’

Nellie was instantly on her feet and at her grandmother’s side.