‘I know, Ronnie, and we’ll go together once you’ve eaten something and had a hot drink. I’ve got my own car so it won’t take long. Have you had anything inside you this morning?’

He shook his head and rubbed at his nose. ‘Me mam’s bin at the gates all night, she won’t leave.’

Once she had him settled in front of the fire in her sitting room she made him a cup of tea and a pile of bacon sandwiches, leaving him to thaw out while she went downstairs to explain the situation to the girls. They immediately rose to the occasion, assuring her they would be pleased to hold the fort for however long she was away.

‘We’ll stay late and finish all the alterations that need doing, Miss Morgan, and open up at the same time each morning. You stay as long as you’re needed,’ Polly said earnestly. ‘Family comes first every time, that’s what me mam always says and it’s true. We’ll keep a record of anything we sell in the book, don’t worry. We know what’s what by now.’

It was half an hour later by the time Ruby left, and Ronnie was looking considerably brighter for having demolished the heap of sandwiches and several cups of tea. Just before she slid into the driving seat of the car, Ruby looked up at the white sky. Why was it everything bad seemed to happen when it was snowy? she asked herself painfully, and what was she going to find when she got home? From what Ronnie had said she surmised her father’s heart had been affected by the shock news, and what about Adam incarcerated underground, his brothers too. They had to be all right; anything else was unthinkable.

On the way into Sunderland, Ruby found herself regretting that she hadn’t spoken to Adam since that first visit home. Not that they had parted on bad terms, not really, and she had made it clear to him that she had forgiven both him and Olive – she was glad about that – but she’d also told him that she had moved on and he must do the same. But what else could she have said? she asked herself. It was the truth, however unpalatable it had obviously been to him. And thinking about it logically, could things at home ever really settle into anything like normality with the ex-sweetheart becoming his sister-in-law and auntie to his child? It was best they didn’t meet; she’d resolved that in her mind before this present fall at the pit. Maybe years hence, when they were all old and grey and the passions of youth had settled into something less fiery, she and Adam and Olive could meet in a family situation without it being a problem.