‘It’s not so bad really, Briony. She gets a raw deal, old Nellie. The girls are looked after, she gets a quack to them if they’re feeling a bit rough. My job’s delivering them around London to private parties and that. I only deal with the women though, not the little girls.’

His voice was thick as he said the last sentence and looked back across the park at the people strolling around the boating pool feeding the ducks. Tommy had hated the job he had first taken with Davie Dobson. It had sickened him to be expected to drag kids, some no more than six or seven, around London. Boys as wells as girls. Then taking the poor little blighters back again, their faces filled with fear and their sobs reproaching him. He’d kissed that job goodbye without a backward glance. He had gone to Nellie’s on spec, and with one look at the big strapping lad, she had employed him there and then. He had given Dobson the bad news through his friend Willy and had not looked back since.

Briony bit her lower lip. She decided that although he got on her nerves, she liked Tommy.

‘My dad took me to the house I live at now. Me sister went first and then me. I like it there, I’ve always liked it there.’

Tommy nodded as if he understood. And the funny thing was, he did. He understood only too well what an empty belly and a dead fire could cause. People sold their only assets, whether it was a woman going on the game or a man selling off a child. It was some people’s only way out. It had been his mother’s and his sisters’. He smiled at Briony and she smiled back. They were both aware of the other’s way of life and it bonded them together. Standing up, Tommy held out his arm and Briony took it. Together they strolled around the park and chatted. More than one pair of eyes strayed to the well-dressed young couple. Briony, with her brazen hair tied back, looked older and more mature; Tommy, with his new clothes and confident gait, led her around with the pride of ownership.

He looked down on to the china white face and felt a lurch inside his chest. Her green eyes were so trusting as they looked into his, he felt a swelling of his heart.

He gleaned from her that she came to the park every day for an hour, and decided there and then that he’d make a point of being here when she arrived.

Isabel poured herself a cup of tea. She had arranged dinner with Mrs Horlock and had set Cissy the task of hemming the remainder of the baby garments that she herself had made. She sipped her tea delicately, breathing in the aroma. Briony joined her a few minutes later.