‘I wanna go home, go back to London,’ Ronnie said, as his resolve crumpled and he started to cry.

‘I want my dad!’ little Sally bawled.

The policeman turned to the Reverend Mother, who rose from the ornately carved chair behind her vast desk.

‘Thank you for all that you’ve done, young man,’ she replied with dignity. ‘We’ll take charge from here, if you don’t mind?’

‘I should advise you –’ he muttered.

The Reverend Mother gave a tight little smile as she shook her head.

‘A formal charge would be all over the papers,’ she rightly pointed out. ‘It would do them no good,’ she added, nodding in the direction of the weeping children. ‘And it would certainly smirch the reputation of our Home. No,’ she said on a heavy sigh. ‘We’ll settle this matter internally, if you don’t mind?’

18. Hope Farm

Ada was appalled when Sister Mary Paul told her the next day of the recent goings-on at Mary Vale.

‘I don’t believe it!’ she gasped, as she supported her heavy tummy in one hand and a mug of hot tea in the other.

Nodding glumly, the old nun (who even in her haste to get to Ada’s had not forgotten to bring as much as she could spare of a loaf of freshly baked bread) filled in her friend further.

‘The evidence was stacked against those kiddies, but I have to say they did look pole-axed with shock. I don’t know how they ever thought they could get away with it.’

Ada didn’t look totally convinced. ‘It seems like a heck of a lot of stuff to steal,’ she said.

‘Mebbe it was stolen over a period of time,’ Sister Mary Paul suggested, as she topped up her tea from the pot on the table.

Ada still didn’t look convinced. ‘If things had gone missing, wouldn’t residents have raised the alarm earlier, one by one as they noticed? What you’re talking about seems to have happened suddenly, almost overnight,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘I know Ronnie’s sharp, but that kind of systematic thieving would take a lot of planning.’

‘I agree, it was complicated, but the young policeman had no doubts about it. He definitely thought the kiddies were guilty; how could he think otherwise with all the stolen stuff hidden away in corners all over their family room? If that young bobby had his way, I believe he would have charged them,’ Mary Paul declared. ‘Imagine what the press would have made of that.’

Ada nodded. ‘It would have been terrible for Ronnie and Rosie.’

‘And it would have reflected badly on the convent too,’ Mary Paul added.