‘I’m sorry, Mam.’

‘So am I, lass. I’m sorry about Jack being the way he was, and I’m sorry about the life I’ve led with your dad. But most of all, I’m sorry about the bairn.’ Haunted by guilt, Amy couldn’t forgive herself. ‘Happen if I’d wanted it enough…’ She covered her face with her hands. ‘It were too much! Another bairn, and Eddie only just two years old, Bertha not yet four… then Milly and Georgie. All bairns. All dragging on me, day after day. And at night your dad the same, dragging on me, using me for his own selfish ends, the same as he’s always done. A belly full o’ booze, and me underneath him while he satisfies himself. That’s all he’s ever cared about, the bastard!’

Concerned, Molly spoke firmly. ‘You mustn’t get yourself all worked up like this, Mam,’ she said. ‘I’m on your side, and I’ll do all I can to help you.’ Wiping the sweat from Amy’s face, she pleaded, ‘Be strong, Mam, or you’ll make yourself really ill.’

‘You’re right, lass.’ The rage began to die down. ‘We all have a cross to bear. Besides, it doesn’t do to rake up the past.’ She settled down into the bed, sighed, ‘What’s gone is gone.’ Yet it wasn’t gone, was it, because Jack was here, waiting for her. Not for long though. He’d clear off soon enough.

And with him would go her only chance of escape.

As Molly prepared to leave, her heart ached for this poor, unhappy woman who was her mother. It was not hard to understand how she felt and, given the same circumstances, Molly wondered how she herself would have coped.

For now though, there was little she could do to ease her mother’s heartache. Not least because there were things here she didn’t understand. Things that seemed to have taken place long before she was born.

Quieter now, Amy held her daughter’s hand, her pretty eyes shining with pride. ‘You’re the best of them all, Molly. All these years, it’s only you who’s kept me sane.’ Kept her sane and kept her dreams alive, because in Molly, she saw the past, and the past had been her greatest joy.

‘I’d best go now, Mam.’ Choked with emotion, Molly placed a kiss on Amy’s brow then eased herself away. ‘Rest now,’ she ordered. ‘I’ll be back later on today, with a clean nightgown and anything else I can think to bring.’ Apologising, she explained, ‘I can’t come straight back. I’ll have the young ’uns to see to.’

In the end, Amy wasn’t sorry to see her eldest daughter leave. Right now, she needed to be alone with her thoughts. ‘Bye, lass.’

‘Bye, Mam.’ Glancing up the ward Molly saw the nurse approaching with the breakfast trolley. ‘Try and eat something,’ she said. ‘Keep your strength up.’

‘Molly?’

She turned. ‘Yes, Mam?’

‘Thank you, lass.’

Molly smiled down on her. ‘It’ll be all right, Mam. You’ll see.’

In her heart though, she knew that nothing would ever be all right again.