Grabbing the broom from behind the door, Amy swung round to send them all running up the stairs. ‘You little sod. I’ll tan yer arse, I will! Into bed the lot of you!’ She was in no mood for a confrontation with Lottie, especially not with Jack there to witness it. Even after what he did to her, she still had some pride left.

From the top of the stairs, Lottie had the last word. ‘Why can Molly stay out late, that’s what I’d like to know!’ With that she scurried away, bundling the other four into their bedroom. ‘You lot had better not start fighting,’ she snarled, ‘or I’ll box your ears good and proper!’ Hot air and bully tactics, that was Lottie’s style.

Downstairs, Jack grinned ruefully. ‘Looks to me like you’ve got your hands full,’ he told Amy.

Sighing, she smiled back. ‘Not so’s you’d notice.’

‘Who’s Molly?’

‘She’s the eldest. Lottie gets a bit jealous of her. I keep telling her, “Molly’s eighteen and you’re only fifteen, that’s why she’s allowed to stay out later”.’

‘Out now, is she?’ He had to be certain they were on their own.

‘I’m not sure. She might be with Alfie, her boyfriend. He lives a few doors away. Or she could be with her friend Sandra – that’s Alfie’s twin sister, and a right little devil she is an’ all. If she didn’t have Molly to steady her, Lord only knows what sort of an end she might come to.’

‘Sensible lass, is she then, your Molly?’

Amy smiled fondly. ‘They don’t come any better,’ she revealed.

But what she didn’t reveal was that Molly was his daughter, too.

When Jack Mason ran off all those years ago, she was already three months’ pregnant, but he never knew, and now he never would. Not if she had anything to do with it.

Levelling her gaze on him, she thought he was still handsome.

He hadn’t lost any of his arrogance, nor did he seem embarrassed to be here in her home. Jack Mason was a law unto himself; he cared for no one and gave nothing away. He was ambitious and ruthless, and up to all sorts of tricks, but somehow all of that only added to his charm.

Suddenly feeling shy and ill at ease, she told him, ‘Say what you’ve come to say and get out.’ Bitterness flooded through her as she recalled what he had done, and how her whole life had been turned upside down because of it.

‘Do you really want me to go, Amy?’ His voice was soft, seductive. Same as always.

For a long moment she kept her gaze averted. She could feel his eyes burning into her. In that moment, in spite of everything, her heart began to skip.

‘Amy…’ His voice hadn’t changed; richer maybe, and aching with a kind of loneliness. But it was the same voice, the same Jack, creating the very same mayhem inside her. ‘Look at me, lass.’ He wouldn’t give up. She knew that from old.