Molly kissed the children one after the other. ‘Do as Rosie says and be good,’ she told them, and they promised they would. Leaving Alfie to stroll up the passage before her, Molly took Rosie aside. ‘If Dad comes home the worse for drink, take them straight up to their beds,’ she urged. ‘And please… see if you can get that lazy sister of mine down. If he comes in and finds her still in bed, he’ll tan the arse off her.’

‘Aye, an’ it’d serve her right, so it would.’

‘All the same, I wouldn’t like her to get on the wrong side of him. You know what he’s like.’ When her dad got going there was no stopping him.

Rosie sighed. ‘All right, pet, I’ll do my best.’ Given half a chance she wouldn’t mind tanning Lottie’s backside herself. ‘And don’t you worry about the little ’uns. I’ll take care of them, you know I will.’

Taking a deep breath, Molly squeezed her hand. ‘When it comes to it, I don’t know if I’ll have the courage to tell Alfie… about him going to America without me, and me not wanting to get wed.’ She loathed the idea of deceiving him. ‘I’ve thought and thought about it,’ she confessed, ‘and I know I’m doing right. Oh Rosie, what else can I do?’ She paused to compose herself. ‘I love him too much to take away his future.’

Seeing the girl’s eyes fill with tears, Rosie was lost for words. She merely smiled and nodded, before, with a fleeting kiss on the cheek, she propelled her gently out the door.

With the cool breeze on her face and Alfie’s arm round her, Molly hurried along, her mind on what had to be done before the night was over.

‘Penny for them?’

Startled, she glanced up at him. ‘Sorry, Alfie, I was miles away.’

‘I know – I’ve been talking to myself for the past few minutes.’

‘It’s just… I’ve got a few things on my mind, that’s all.’

‘If you’re worried about finding work, you shouldn’t be. The minute your mam’s back on her feet you’ll be fixed up in no time.’ He planted a kiss on her head. ‘Besides, it won’t be all that long before we’re off to America.’ He chuckled. ‘Oh, love, you don’t know how much it means to me!’

When she didn’t answer, he went on talking, about America – the land of opportunity – and his plans for the two of them there. ‘It’s not as if we’re on the moon,’ he reminded her. ‘We can come back and visit. At first we’ll have to rent something small and reasonable, but when we’ve got a bigger place of our own, and money in the bank, we could fetch the whole family over, wouldn’t that be great?’

At the cinema kiosk he asked for, ‘Two one and nines, please.’ When the tickets were bought, the slim, uniformed usherette showed them to their places with her torchlight. ‘The big picture’s already started,’ she whispered. As they shuffled down the row, Alfie glanced at the big screen and tripped over somebody’s feet. ‘Sorry mate,’ he apologised, and quickly moved on.