Half an hour later, Kathleen had a fire almost blazing, the sixpences were in the meter, the lights were on and Peggy’s boys sat in a semi-circle in front of the fire, laughing and filling their faces with sweets, Nellie helping the youngest. Kathleen had a good poke about the kitchen. The bread crock was empty, the cold shelf was bare – there was not a scrap of food or a drop of milk to be had. Kathleen placed the milk Nellie had returned with on the cold shelf then opened each of the drawers and was amazed to see that the cutlery had gone. She opened the smallest drawer in the press where she knew that Peggy kept the rent book and the letter with the dock board address on the top caught her eye. ‘Aye aye, what’s this, then?’

Peering over the top of her glasses, what she was reading began to sink in and it felt as though icy water trickled down her spine. Holy Mother of God, Peggy and the children and her lazy good-for-nothing husband were being evicted. They’d be out on the street on Friday morning.

‘Paddy…’ Little Paddy was stuffing an Everton mint into his mouth and looked over. ‘Paddy, has your mam said anything to you about this Friday? About anything special that might be happening?’ Little Paddy looked confused and shook his head. ‘All right, love, don’t you be worrying.’

Kathleen took a deep sigh; she would need to talk to Jerry about this, but he was in the Anchor and Kathleen had a more pressing problem: holding a family together and keeping a roof over Peggy and her children in the very short time she had left.

‘Paddy, I’m putting some more money here in the bread crock. In the morning, you go and buy some bread, butter, sugar and jam.’

Little Paddy felt as though it was Christmas morning and he felt tears burn at his eyes without knowing why. Before Peggy had left, they’d had the best tea in months. Now they had sweets and the house was bright and warm, but the nagging worry was still at the back of his mind. ‘Kathleen, is Ma all right?’

Kathleen felt her heart lurch for him. ‘Of course she is, Paddy, your mam’s just got a few things on her plate, but we’re going to get those sorted out. The shopping, can you remember that? There’s a good lad.’ She ruffled little Paddy’s hair and left the house with a heavy heart.

Chapter Twenty-one

Alice could hear a murmuring of voices out in the yard and a shuffling of feet as Nellie and Kathleen told her all that they had found around at Peggy’s house.

‘What can we do now?’ asked Alice. ‘Shall I make them some griddle scones? I can’t leave because of Joseph but I have the buttermilk I got from Eric this morning.’