Ruby had looked after her, protected her and never once made her feel a burden; she didn’t know what she would have done without her. All the girls in their class had wanted Ruby to be their best friend but from the outset Ruby had chosen her, and woe betide anyone who had poked fun about her smelly clothes or holey shoes in those early days. Ruby had been on them like a ton of bricks, and through her friend’s championing of her the other girls had accepted her.

Ellie hitched the cloth bag containing the sum total of her clothes and the indoor shoes she wore at the bakery further up her shoulder as she said in a subdued tone, ‘We’ll be all right, lass. You know that, don’t you? We’ll stick together like we’ve always done and things will work out. Olive will rue the day she started all this, but you’ll come out on top. Your conscience is clear.’

That didn’t feel as though it counted for much right now. Ruby forced herself to say, ‘Thank you, Ellie,’ because she knew her friend meant well, but this wasn’t about winning or losing. She was leaving everything behind – Adam, her old home and the new one she and Adam had been going to move into this very day after the wedding celebrations, her mam and da, Mrs Walton, her whole way of life, the essence of what made her her. She supposed she ought to be feeling terrified, but ever since she had woken up this morning on Mrs Walton’s sofa and realized the horrific nightmare she’d been having wasn’t in fact a dream but the hard cold truth, she’d known there was nothing more to be terrified of. The worst had happened. Now it was a matter of getting through the rest of her life without Adam the best she could and she didn’t know how she was going to do it.

Chapter Four

‘What do you mean, she’s gone?’