‘Ellie?’ Mabel pushed her down on a chair and removed her hat and coat as though she was a child, saying, ‘Get them shoes off and I’ll put some mustard in a bowl of hot water for you to soak your feet in. You’ll end up with pneumonia at this rate,’ before repeating, ‘Ellie?’

‘I should never have agreed to her coming to Newcastle with me. She didn’t like the bakery much and her da was a horrible brute of a man, but she’d still be alive if she’d stayed in Sunderland.’ That thought was tormenting her.

Mabel stopped her bustling. ‘What are you saying, lass? She’s not dead?’

Hearing it put so starkly caused Ruby to flinch. She nodded, she couldn’t speak for a moment.

Mabel stared at her, her mouth falling open, before she shut it with a little snap. ‘I’ll get that bowl sorted and a cup of tea – you need warming inside and out. Now sit quiet, you’ll feel better with something inside you.’

Ten minutes later, with her hat and coat gently steaming on the clothes line strung across the kitchen ceiling and her shoes drying in front of the range, Ruby had stopped shivering. Her feet immersed in hot, mustard-smelling water and a blanket round her shoulders, she struggled through the slice of toast Mabel insisted she ate, the cup of hot sweet tea going down easier. It was only when every crumb had gone and she was holding a second cup of tea, that Mabel said quietly, ‘Tell me.’

And so Ruby did tell her, omitting nothing, and when she had finished the sorry tale there was silence for a short while before Mabel said, ‘Hanging’s too good for scum like that Bell.’

‘He won’t hang, Mabel. Hopefully the police will be able to put him away for a time on account of the drugs they found, but without Daisy and Howard it would be my word against his regarding Ellie, and I wasn’t even there when he made her go to this woman.’

‘And there’s no chance her friend, Daisy, will change her mind?’

‘Daisy does exactly what Howard tells her, and he’s too worried about his own skin, both regarding Daniel and the police too. He clearly knew about the drugs and so on, and he’s Daisy’s pimp, after all.’

‘Dear, dear.’ Mabel clearly didn’t know what to say, which was a first.