There was an awkward moment while Lottie quietly regarded her mother – the flushed face and that faraway look in her eyes. So tomorrow he’d be gone, eh? And that’d be the end of that. She suspected there was more to it.

‘Will you be sorry when he’s gone?’ she asked.

At the end of her tether now, Amy rounded on her daughter. ‘It’ll be you who’s sorry if you don’t get yourself off to bed, my girl!’ Thrusting the infant into Lottie’s arms, she muttered, ‘He won’t be back, that’s all you need to know. Now, for the last time, get off up them stairs afore your dad comes in.’

‘Were you sweethearts?’

‘That’s enough!’ Amy felt a warm blush running up her neck and over her face. ‘I’ll give you one minute… afore I run you up them stairs at the end of my foot!’

With a sly little grin, Lottie backed off. ‘All right, all right, I’m going.’

Grateful, Amy’s mood softened. ‘Goodnight, lass.’

‘Goodnight, Mam.’ Lottie’s smile was deceivingly innocent.

Eddie offered his face for a kiss; not Lottie though. She wasn’t that kind of child.

Amy closed the parlour door after them and leaned against it for a time, eyes closed. The encounter with Jack had set her pulse racing and her mind working. Then there had been the inquisition from Lottie. She had a pain in her lower back that was taking her breath, and the idea of Frank coming home, probably drunk and raring for a fight, was putting her on edge.

What with one thing and another, it was all too much. If only Lottie could manage to keep her mouth shut, things might work out all right. But Amy had a bad feeling about it all. She shook her head. ‘That lass has a spiteful streak in her a mile wide. If only she was more like Molly.’ Her eldest girl was a different matter altogether. Loyal and loving, she was a real treasure. ‘Lottie takes after Frank,’ Amy sighed. ‘The Lord only knows who our Molly takes after.’

She chuckled wryly. ‘One thing’s certain: she doesn’t take after her father. Jack was never loyal. He was loving though – too bloody loving!’ There was no denying they had had some good times together.

Amy settled her considerable bulk into a chair. ‘If Lottie does open her mouth and tells her father,’ she whispered tremulously, ‘it’ll be God help us all, an’ no mistake!’

Chapter Two

‘Will ye look at that? It brings a smile to your heart, so it does.’ Digging her old daddy in the ribs, Rosie Craig winked. ‘Sure they can’t keep their hands off each other!’ Laughing her loud raucous laugh, she threw the dishcloth at the young sweethearts. ‘Hey! That’s enough o’ that,’ she teased. ‘You’ll put me off me tea, so ye will, and besides, isn’t it time young Molly went home to her mam? The little ones will want putting to bed, and I don’t expect yer father will be home till the pubs close.’