Eric took in a deep breath. ‘No, it isn’t. I’m not going to go back to my old life ever again. Even if you don’t want me, Maggie, I have to walk a new path. The old one was destroying me and I can’t go back.’

Eric led her back to the bed. ‘I’ll have to go,’ he said. ‘I have to collect the milk and load up the float and I have to face Gladys. I’m going to tell her everything and my guess is she will pack her bags and move to her sister’s on the Wirral. She’s been looking for an excuse to do that for years, anyway; all she wants is the money. I’ll tell her to take every penny we have and I’ll start over again.’ He tucked the covers in over Maggie’s shoulders.

‘Eric, if she doesn’t, put your bag on the float as well as the milk. You can move in here.’ Her heart raced; she had broken the spell of loneliness and she didn’t want to return to that life ever again. This big giant of a soft and gentle man was the one she wanted to be with.

‘What will they say on the street? I couldn’t bear to ruin your good name,’ he said.

Maggie smiled. ‘Eric, you were married to Gladys – they will be relieved for you, ’tis only the priest who will make life difficult. It’s not like I had to fight for my honour, is it?’

Eric looked down on her and smiled. ‘Maggie, as far as I am concerned, I was never married before God; according to the Holy Catholic Church, I’m probably still a single man.’

Maggie smiled, and freeing her arms from the bedclothes, reached up. ‘It just gets better and better,’ she said in the moment before his lips came down on hers.

*

Dr Cole left Kathleen’s house, smiling. The midwife had called him to check on mother and baby and little was said about the birth. The midwife, no stranger to the acts of desperation mothers were driven into in the face of extreme poverty, was just relieved that Peggy and the baby were still alive.

‘It’s grand to see you back home, Mrs Doherty,’ Dr Cole had said. ‘Mammy said she saw you in the hospital in Galway.’

Maura preened; having the doctor speak to you in the way Dr Cole just had was on a par with being a favourite of the Mother Superior. Her pleasure was heightened by imagining the peevish look on Deirdre’s face had she been there to witness it.