‘Jesus and Mary, you’re a daughter any woman would be proud of. Look at the way you handle your businesses. But sometimes, when I remember how it was, how it could have been, I feel the old sadness creep over me. It’s hard to see your babies hungry, you know. To hear them cry themselves to sleep. It’s a sound that never leaves you. You hear it sometimes on the wind when it’s whistling around your house. It still taps on the windows, taunting you in the cold weather.’

Briony smiled a smile she didn’t think she had in her.

‘Well, stop remembering! The old man’s dead, and we’re all alive and kicking. We’ve plenty. Even if I never made another penny we’d have enough to keep us all for the rest of our days. So stop worrying. Now, what’s happening about Eileen?’

‘Well, we thought we’d have the wedding in six weeks’ time. I’ve booked the church, and she’s waiting ’til you’ve a minute to yourself to help her pick the dress. You, Kerry and Bernie and Eileen can all go out together one day. What do you think?’

‘That would be lovely. I know a dressmaker in Bond Street who’ll knock her up a stunner. Real silk and all. She makes my clothes.’

Molly felt as if her heart would burst. Wait till she bragged about this to everyone! A real seamstress making Eileen’s dress. She’d knock their eyes for them.

‘I don’t think it’ll be long before our Kerry’s giving us a bit of news. She’s got a man or I’m Anne Boleyn. Do you know who he is, like?’

Briony shook her head.

‘It’s news to me. I’ve never seen her with a bloke. No one in particular anyway. There’s a young fellow at the club ... he’s an Earl’s son. A second son mind, so he won’t get the title, but he’s besotted with her. Moons over her all the time. But so far as I know he ain’t got anywhere. She’s a dark horse, old Kerry. She’ll do her own choosing, her, and once she chooses, that’ll be it.’

Molly smiled and nodded.

‘An Earl’s son. Oh, that would be nice, that would.’

‘Anyone you think is gentry, as you put it, would do for you, wouldn’t it? Even if he had a hump on his back and a club foot! Mum, believe me, they’re no different from us. They eat, sleep and shit, same as we do. They just do it in nicer surroundings!’