‘That goes without saying,’ Molly said quietly. ‘They’ve got nobody else.’

‘I’ll help you all I can, you know that.’

‘You’ve always been a good friend to Mam and me, Rosie. Thank you for that.’

Just then the front door slammed, the shock of it waking Eddie, who began yelling upstairs at the top of his lungs. Leaping up from the sofa, Molly hurried to the door. ‘Lottie!’ She found her sister leaning against the wall, giggling to herself. ‘What in God’s name are you playing at?’

Rushing up the passage she took hold of the girl and marched her into the parlour. ‘I waited up for you last night. Where the devil were you? What mischief have you been up to now?’ When Lottie went into a sulk, Molly shook her hard. ‘Answer me! I want to know, and you’re not going up those stairs until I do.’

‘Who says so?’ Staring up defiantly, Lottie couldn’t take her eyes off the vivid red mark across Molly’s cheek. Reaching out, she poked her in the face, making her cry out. ‘Been scrapping with your Alfie, ’ave yer?’ she sneered. ‘Yer want to watch out, or he’ll end up like our dad… knocking you from one end o’ the house to the other.’

‘Hey! You mind your tongue, young lady!’ In spite of her decision not to interfere, Rosie took offence at Lottie’s remark.

The girl gave her a hostile look. ‘What’s she doing here?’

‘Rosie’s a friend, that’s what she’s doing here,’ Molly replied angrily. ‘Now you tell me where you’ve been all night, and who you’ve been with. NOW!’

‘Get off me!’ Fighting and kicking, Lottie was impossible to contain. ‘I don’t need to tell you nothing! Wait till Mam gets back – I’ll tell her what you’re like. I’ll tell her how you bully me at every turn. She’ll have summat to say about it, and then you’ll be sorry!’

Already drained by the news of her mother leaving, and then the fight with her dad, Molly was exhausted. Releasing Lottie, she said flatly, ‘I’m only looking out for you, can’t you understand that?’

Scrambling up, Lottie glared at her sister, her face hard as brass. ‘I don’t want you looking out for me,’ she retorted, ‘I can look out for myself. And if you must know where I was last night, I was with a girl from Argyle Street… we went to the fair and I stayed the night at her house, so there you are. That’s all there is to it!’

Molly breathed a sigh of relief. ‘That’s all I needed to know,’ she answered. ‘All the same, you should have got word to me somehow, and then I wouldn’t be thinking the worst.’

But Lottie had won the day and she knew it. ‘That’s the trouble,’ she snapped. ‘You allus think the worst!’ She flounced off upstairs, secretly smiling and promising herself that the wonderful night she’d spent with the lad from the fairground would not be the last. Not if she had her way.