Her fears were unfounded. ‘It’s Sandra.’ Rosie sat on the edge of the chair, fiddling with her fingers and wondering how to begin. ‘You know I had to go and see the coroner and all that dreadful business?’

Molly nodded her acknowledgement.

‘The coroner… he…’ Catching her breath she went on, ‘He told me that our Sandra was with child.’

Suddenly she was crying, and Molly had to comfort her. ‘Can you imagine that? She was having a bairn and she never told me… her own mam, who loved her in spite of all her goings-on.’ Taking a shuddering breath, she tried to compose herself. ‘Why didn’t she tell me, Molly? Why?’

With Rosie’s tear-filled eyes on her, Molly didn’t know how best to respond. If she were to admit that Sandra had confided in her, while keeping it from her own mother, it might cause a terrible rift between them. Yet if she kept quiet and acted as if she knew nothing at all about it, wouldn’t that be a betrayal of Rosie?

She was in a terrible dilemma.

In the end, she knew what she had to do. ‘Good God, Rosie. How could she keep such a thing to herself?’ It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it was the right response, for her and Rosie both.

Rosie regarded her with wide, confused eyes. ‘Sure, I don’t know,’ she answered. ‘I’ve thought about it over and over, and I can’t understand it. Was she afraid of me? Oh, I might have stormed about and given her a lecture. I might even have given her a slap in the heat of anger. But she should have known I would have helped her all the way. I loved her, Molly. Surely to God she never doubted that?’

Molly was quick to reassure her. ‘I’m convinced Sandra would have told you in the fullness of time,’ she said. ‘One thing I do know, she never doubted your love for her, and her love for you was just as strong. She adored you, Rosie, but I don’t need to tell you that, do I?’

‘No.’ Although Rosie had already half-convinced herself of it, the girl’s kindly reassurance was all she needed. A smile lifted her sorrow. ‘Think of it,’ she murmured. ‘I would have been a grandmother. It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time, so it is.’ Drifting deep into thought, she went on softly, ‘I had hoped you and Alfie…’ Pulling herself up sharp, she looked at Molly with horror. ‘Oh, lass. Whatever am I saying?’

‘Nothing I haven’t thought myself, time and again,’ Molly replied, and quickly changing the subject she asked, ‘Do you intend telling Dave about the bairn?’

Rosie considered her answer. ‘At first, I didn’t know he wasn’t already aware of it. But then I realised if he had been, something would surely have been said. I thought Sandra would have wanted him to know, seeing as she’d gone there obviously to find him. I wanted him to bear the blame… to know he had fathered a child and my Sandra had died because of it.’