‘I’m not, Mam. Like I said, I need to get the dinner on.’ If it was late there would be hell to pay but Olive didn’t voice this. Her father was having one of his bad spells and was in bed but she didn’t go to see him, merely calling out goodbye as she put her coat and hat on and then leaving the house quickly.

The air outside was muggy and thick with the smells of the streets as she walked home, housewives gossiping on their doorsteps as bairns played their games on the dusty pavements and in the gutters. One or two women she knew called out a greeting as she passed, which she returned smilingly, playing the part expected of her. She wondered how many other women hid behind a mask, pretending their life was normal when it was anything but, and feeling like they were going mad inside.

But Adam wouldn’t send her mad; she wouldn’t let him. Her features tightened. Alice needed her, and no matter what happened, no matter what she had to put up with from Adam, she would make sure she was here for her daughter. She glanced down at the little girl in the second-hand pram her mother-in-law had bought for them in the weeks leading up to Alice’s birth, and a bright, happy face immediately smiled back at her, bringing a smile from Olive in return. How could she bemoan her lot when she had such a gift?

Wrapped up in the child as she was, she didn’t notice the woman approaching her until a voice said, ‘Olive, lass, it’s been a while since I saw you last. How are things?’

Looking up, Olive’s heart sank although her face did not betray what she was feeling. She had gone to school with Susan Hannigan as she’d been named then, and Susan had been the ringleader of a group of girls who had bullied her relentlessly about her looks. Susan had been a spiteful, nasty girl and Olive had no doubt she’d grown into a spiteful, nasty woman. Keeping her voice neutral, she said quietly, ‘I’m fine, Susan. How are you?’

‘I’ll be better when this is out.’ Susan patted her enormous stomach. ‘I’ve told my Bill this is the last one. Mind, I said that with our Annie and look at me. Got tiddly at Christmas and this is the result.’ She gave a cackle of a laugh. Olive remembered that sound. Susan had always been at her happiest when she was tormenting someone, usually her.