‘Tell him you’ll give him a quick leg-over in the wash house if he leaves us a couple,’ said Paddy, and then he began to chuckle. ‘No, don’t do that, I’ll have them all feeling sorry for me down the pub if you do for he’s bound to refuse; the man is known for his good sense, even if he is married to Gladys.’

Eric couldn’t have heard a word big Paddy was saying, and he knew it, which was just as well because Peggy’s expression revealed that she might be about to lose her temper. But before he could say another word, Eric finally looked up. Peggy, spurred on by need, pushed her head well out of the window, holding onto her breasts with one hand and pushing up the sash window further with the other.

‘Ah, you’re a good man, Eric.’ Her voice held an assumption that Eric noted in the tone of his response.

‘What do you want, Peggy? You’ll have the whole street out.’

Peggy tried a flirtatious giggle, but it had been a long time. ‘God love you,’ she said, ‘what do you think I’d be wanting from a good-looking milkman like yourself? Would you just leave us a couple, for the kids’ breakfast like, and I’ll pay you on Friday.’

‘Come on, Peggy,’ Eric said, ‘don’t put me in this position. You know you owe me for eight as it and Gladys hasn’t forgotten it.’ He looked exasperated. ‘Peggy, you’re putting me in a spot here.’ He was arguing with himself whilst Peggy, minus her teeth, grinned down at him. He knew if he gave her a pint of the steri, which had a flavour similar to evaporated milk, she would water it down and make it stretch to three pints and it would last her for two days. If she had any stale bread and a scraping of sugar, her kids would have pobs for breakfast. It was just the thought of the kids, hungry, that got to the man who was childless and felt the pain of it every day. Peggy’s kids were half as wide as any others, with eyes that looked permanently haunted and hungry. They were fed by the street, by women like Maggie Trott and the nuns. Eric knew he had a moral obligation to play his part and he lifted four pints of steri out of his basket.

‘You win,’ he said, ‘and don’t worry about paying – you have an angel on the street who has covered it for you, because I can’t just leave free milk, Peggy. Our Gladys, she doesn’t trust me on Nelson Street now Maura has gone and isn’t there to tip up the cash for others and she wants to come on the four streets collecting round on Fridays now.’