Bridget had turned and opened the front door and as they walked out of the house into the hot street Ruby paused and looked towards the stairs one last time. ‘Bye, Ellie,’ she said under her breath. ‘I’m sorry.’ Sorry for bringing her to Newcastle; sorry for not seeing what Daniel was earlier and doing something about it; sorry for leaving her here now in a life of fear and degradation . . . This was all down to her. Somehow she should have protected Ellie better.

As though Flo had read her mind, she said, ‘You’ve done all you can, lass, and this isn’t your fault.’

They began to walk, Flo and Bridget either side of her, and despite telling herself she couldn’t break down, not here, in the street, Ruby’s voice was choked when she said, ‘I feel like it is.’

‘Well, don’t,’ Flo said stolidly. ‘She’s not a bairn, she made her choices. You’re not the only one who didn’t like him, none of us did. We all tried to warn her not to get mixed up with Daniel Bell but she wouldn’t have any of it. One of me sisters was the same. Our Kitty was a bonny lass and nice with it, you know? But she was determined to have this bloke who worked at the docks from the first time she laid eyes on him. Wouldn’t hear a word said about him, even though we all felt there was something strange about him. He had a way of looking at you, I can’t explain it. Anyway, they’d only bin wed some six months or so when she broke down to me mam one day and told her what’d bin going on in the bedroom. An animal, he was. Unnatural isn’t the word for it. Me mam an’ da said she could come home to them, and me da and brothers went round and knocked ten bells out of him that same night, but Kitty wouldn’t leave him, don’t ask me why. It was another month or two and then they found her with her head in the gas oven. Eighteen, she was. Me mam’s never got over it.’ And then, realizing the story was less than helpful in the circumstances, she added, ‘Anyway, all I’m saying is that you couldn’t have stopped Ellie going with him. The blighter played her like a violin from day one.’