Molly was beginning to see the whole picture. ‘You liked him, didn’t you, Mam?’ she said. ‘I mean, really liked him.’

‘Yes, lass, I did.’ Amy’s tender smile betrayed her. ‘I were that upset when he left. But he did come back a few months later. By that time though, I were promised to Frank.’

‘And did you never tell Dad how you loved somebody else?’

‘I daren’t,’ she admitted. ‘Frank had such a fiery temper even in them days. I did tell him I wasn’t sure whether we should get wed so soon, and happen we were being too hasty.’ She recalled the shocking rows. ‘Frank were that angry he took off with the fairground for a time. After he’d gone, me and Jack went out a few times, and for a while I thought he loved me, too.’ Resentment set in. ‘He didn’t care about commitment though, or family. He didn’t want to be tied down. All he ever wanted was a bloody good time!’

‘So what happened?’

‘Frank came back and did his best to warn me off Jack. “He’s no good,” he said. “He’ll use you then he’ll be off, like always.”’ Amy’s eyes clouded over. ‘He were right, o’ course. Jack Mason was a rogue and a charmer, and he’d have the drawers off you before you even knew what was happening…’ she chuckled at the memory ‘… but I was in love for the first time in my life, and I wasn’t about to listen to anybody, let alone Frank!’

‘But it obviously didn’t work out, did it?’

‘I always thought it would but no, lass. It all went wrong.’

Molly’s curiosity had built with the telling of the tale. ‘So, how did you come to be married to Dad, instead of to this Jack?’

‘It’s a long story,’ Amy answered warily. ‘All water under the bridge.’ Frank had married her without knowing she was carrying Jack’s child, and Amy had vowed she would take the secret to the grave. To this day, nobody knew.

Dear God, she thought now. If Molly knew she was Jack’s child, what would she say? How would she take it? Happen it was her right to know, and happen it would only turn her whole world upside down if she did.

‘Jack went away again, didn’t he?’ Molly realised. ‘And you picked up with Dad?’

Amy’s voice grew cold. ‘There was a terrible fight. Jack put Frank in the hospital. When he came out he went looking for Jack, but he was long gone. We never saw him again.’

And now he’s back, she thought bitterly. Oh, she was not an innocent, but some of the fault for what had happened had to lie with Jack. If only he had taken her with him all those years ago, she would never have given herself to Frank. She might have had a better life. She might have been happy, instead of being treated like the dirt under Frank’s shoes.