Ruby smiled at them both. She had been awake most of the night making plans and formulating the ideas that had been at the back of her mind since Adam’s death. Over the last few days her mother had suddenly become an old woman; it was as though with her husband’s death the main spring that had kept her going through all the ups and downs of the last years had snapped. And Olive was like a lost soul. Most of the time she sat quietly turning the little ring that Adam had apparently bought her for Christmas round and round on her finger, her face ashen and her eyes pools of pain. Ruby didn’t know if it had made her sister feel worse or better when Walter had relayed Adam’s last message to her. At the time she had broken down completely and she hadn’t spoken of it since.

Now Ruby said briskly, ‘The way I see it, this would be good for all of us. I need someone to manage the new shop and the couple of staff I’ll employ, and the flat above the premises would mean that you, Mam, could take care of Alice while Olive’s working. The flat, of course, would be rent free as part of Olive’s salary and you could bring anything you like from here, both of you, to furnish it as you please.’

Olive stared at her sister. She hadn’t really slept since Adam had gone; partly because of her grief but also because she had been racking her brains as to how she and Alice would survive. It had been clear that either her mother would move in with her or she and Alice with her mam because two lots of rent was impossible, but even then anything she might earn – supposing she could actually find work of some kind – wouldn’t cover the rent along with food and other bills. A hundred scenarios had been played out in her head every night, and in the depths of the dark hours the spectre of the workhouse had loomed closer and closer. Even if Ruby took their mother to live with her, how would she and Alice manage? She couldn’t survive on charity from her sister, she wouldn’t, whether or not Ruby could afford it for a time. It would be too humiliating. But now Ruby had presented a proposition that changed everything. She would have a job, one that would provide a roof over their heads and a secure home for Alice at a time when the slump was getting worse and worse and unemployment was increasing with terrifying rapidity. There had always been a chasm between rich and poor, but now gaps were opening up between those who had work and those who did not.