For a moment she was back in the past, fancy free with a future and a sweetheart. It had been a long, lonely time since she had felt like that.

Lottie had seen it all, but said nothing. Instead, she brought Eddie down and watched while her mother took off his soiled nightgown. ‘There’s a clean nightie in the scullery cupboard, and a bar of carbolic under the sink. You’ll find a flannel there, too,’ Amy told the girl. ‘Fetch it for me, will you? Oh, and get the bowl out of the sink, while you’re at it.’

While Lottie followed her mother’s instructions, Amy brought the kettle from the fender and poured a measure of warm water into the bowl. Dipping her fingers into it, she made sure it wasn’t too hot for the toddler’s tender skin. ‘Just right!’ With a warm, wet flannel, and a good rub of carbolic, she soon had him comfortable again.

‘There!’ Planting a kiss on his mouth, she fastened the top of his clean nightgown. ‘He’ll sleep now,’ she told Lottie, groaning as she climbed up off her knees. ‘The bairn’s weighing heavy,’ she confided. ‘It won’t be too long now.’

The sooner the better, she thought. It was getting her down, more than the others ever had.

Before she went upstairs, Lottie gave her mother an accusing, quizzical look that unnerved Amy. ‘Is there summat on your mind, lass?’

‘That man…’ Lottie saw the fear on her mother’s face and was wickedly delighted. ‘Who was he?’

Wary, Amy gave a vague answer. ‘Somebody I used to know, that’s all.’

‘What did he want?’

‘He was just visiting – why?’

Lottie shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter.’

Worried now, Amy couldn’t let it go at that. ‘If there’s summat on your mind, it does matter. Out with it!’

A smirk crossed the girl’s pretty features. ‘He kissed you.’ Amy groaned inwardly; so Lottie had seen them after all. ‘Sometimes old friends do kiss,’ she said casually. ‘It doesn’t mean anything special.’

‘You blushed… I saw you!’

Angry now, Amy retorted, ‘You’re imagining things!’

‘No, I weren’t. He kissed you and you went red as a beetroot. I saw you!’

‘Go to bed, Lottie.’ Lifting Eddie into her arms, Amy carried him to the door. ‘I want no more of this silly talk.’

‘It’s a good job Dad weren’t here.’ Seeing how she had her mam worried, the girl continued relentlessly.

Amy gasped as an unexpected pain seemed to break her back in two. ‘There’s no need for your dad to know he was ever here,’ she said, taking a deep breath. ‘I don’t want you telling tales, causing trouble when there’s no need.’

Lottie saw the pain in her mother’s face and was afraid. ‘Is the baby coming?’

Amy shook her head. ‘No. Now go to bed, there’s a good girl.’ Momentarily shaken, Lottie assured her, ‘I won’t tell about the man. Not if you don’t want me to.’

‘Listen to me!’ Amy resisted the pains that swept through her. ‘He was just an old friend, come to say hello. Tomorrow he’ll be gone, and that’ll be the end of that.’ More’s the pity, she thought sadly.