Bernadette and Kerry, who had come down the stairs at the sound of Eileen’s voice, stood like statues staring at their mother and father, fear in their faces as they realised that something bad was going to happen, and maybe even to one of them.

Molly looked from her daughter to her husband who was sitting in the chair, his head in his hands. Then Paddy got up, took his coat from the back of the door and tried to open the front door. He rattled it hard, trying to force it open, until Kerry ran to him and unlocked it with the key, all her excitement gone now as she watched her father leave the house.

Molly pulled Eileen towards her and cuddled her tightly.

‘Oh Eileen, my baby, my lovely girl. What did he do to you?’

She didn’t say we - what did we do to you? - because the knowledge that she had eventually condoned what her husband had done would not allow itself to surface. She held Eileen while she cried and Kerry cleaned up the mess made by Rosalee’s broth.

Henry Dumas stroked Briony’s hair. It was like stroking silky springs. Briony lay beside him and let him cuddle her. She liked this bit. After all the other business was out of the way, he cuddled her and whispered things to her. She didn’t always understand what he was talking about, but the tone of his voice always sent her off to sleep. She watched drowsily as he got dressed, saw him push his fat little legs into his trousers, and smiled to herself. He always looked funny undressed. But when he was dressed he was like a different person. Briony respected him when he was dressed, and didn’t answer him back or make as many jokes as she did the other times.

She’d turned on her side and closed her eyes to sleep when there was a loud banging on the front door. She sat bolt upright in the bed and stared at Mr Dumas. Then she heard her father’s voice, loud in the hallway, and her heart sank. He was drunk, she could hear it in every word he said.

‘Where’s me girl? I want me girl this minute!’

Briony heard Cissy’s and Mrs Horlock’s voices trying to quieten him. As Henry Dumas walked towards the door, Briony was off the bed and in front of him.

‘Stay up here. I’ll see to me dad.’ Instinctively she knew that as her father was, if he saw Henry Dumas, all hell would break loose.

Paddy looked up and saw her walking towards him. She looked beautiful. In the white lawn nightdress and with her spectacular hair unbound, she was like a vision. Through his drink-crazed mind he realised exactly what he had done to her and to Eileen, and it made him sick inside.