She had to be strong over the next little while, she told herself painfully. She mustn’t think of Mrs Walton, or of Adam and Olive, and especially not of her mam. Her mam had made it plain that Olive could do no wrong in her eyes and that her sympathies were all with her elder daughter. The hurt this had caused had grown steadily over the last few hours, making her want to curl up into a little ball and die. But perhaps she should have expected it? Their mother had always favoured Olive. Strangely, though, it had never bothered her unduly before because she had known her mam loved her too. But now . . .

‘—what to do.’

Ruby came out of her brooding to the realization that Ellie had been speaking. ‘Sorry, what did you say?’

‘I just said I’m a bit scared ’cause I’ve never been on a train before but at least you know what to do.’

Ruby nodded but didn’t speak. The memory was too painful to dwell on. Adam had taken her out for the day as a surprise on her seventeenth birthday the year before. It had been the beginning of February and bitterly cold, the snow lying thick in the fields they’d passed on the way down the coast to Hartlepool, but the train had chugged along impervious to the weather, billowing steam and snorting now and again. She and Adam had wandered round the shops in the town before having fish and chips followed by sticky buns in a little cafe, and then in the afternoon they had gone to a picture house to see Rudolf Valentino in The Sheik. It had been a magical interlude.

Ellie, realizing she had been less than tactful, trudged along silently now, telling herself she would have to watch her tongue in the days ahead because in this overwhelming happiness at her change of circumstances, she had to remember that Ruby was suffering. The joy and sheer jubilation she was feeling at escaping her mam and da and starting a new life with Ruby, whom she loved best in the world, had only come about through her friend’s tragedy, and she wouldn’t have wished it to be like this for anything. And as though someone had challenged this thought, she reiterated fiercely, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. Ruby had always been more of a sister than a friend, a big sister, even though they were the same age, and she’d always known she could count on Ruby no matter what.