‘I’m with mi brother, Ronnie. We’re going to London … if we can find a train to take us there.’

Sally’s weary voice trailed away as Ronnie returned with a scowl on his face, and, looking hungrily at his sister’s empty plate, he demanded, ‘What’ve you just had to eat?’

‘A sandwich,’ said the lady. ‘Would you like one too?’

‘Yes, please, two, if you don’t mind,’ Ronnie asked without reserve.

Like Sally, Ronnie talked more easily after he had eaten.

‘We’re going to see our dad in London, but we got on the wrong train and lost our bloody tickets.’

Sally glared at her brother for swearing in front of a genteel lady.

‘And where’s your mother?’ the lady asked.

Scared that her big-mouthed brother would swear again, Sally quickly answered, ‘She’s in the hospital having a baby – we’re on our own.’

Seeing the tears in Sally’s eyes and the misery in Ronnie’s grubby face, the woman’s heart melted.

‘I’m travelling as far as Peterborough,’ she told the children. ‘We could travel together, if you like?’

‘Not without tickets we can’t – we’ll get arrested,’ Ronnie mumbled.

The woman smiled. ‘We don’t want that, do we?’ Rising, she added, ‘I shall buy you both tickets and I’ll also arrange with the guard at Peterborough to see you both safely off the train when it arrives at Euston Station.’

Overwhelmed with gratitude, Sally wrapped herself around the woman. ‘Thank you, thank you,’ she gabbled.

Much to Sally’s astonishment, Ronnie held out his hand in a polite gesture. ‘Thank you, missis, we’re grateful to you.’

‘I’m a bit concerned about how you’re going to track your father down once you’re in London,’ the kind lady added anxiously.

‘We’ll go to our old address and search him out there to start with,’ Ronnie said with a confidence that Sally certainly didn’t share.

Relieved to be in a warm compartment and soothed by the steady rhythm of the thundering steam train, Sally laid her head against their benefactor’s shoulder and fell fast asleep. With his nose pressed to the window, Ronnie watched the landscape mist over as the sun began to set over the rugged Pennine range that flattened out as they travelled further east and the vast sweep of fertile fenland began.

‘I hope your mother isn’t missing you too much,’ the kind lady enquired of Ronnie.

‘We promised her we’d go to our dad in London,’ he muttered. ‘She’s not fit to travel, you see.’