‘One minute Nat was there, chatting away, a whole man, and the next he was like nothing on earth, Da. I wish he’d gone straight away rather than having to hear him scream for his mam for minutes. She’s been dead for umpteen years but he called for her like a bairn. Damn pit.’

Adam’s father had shaken his grizzled head. ‘I know, lad, I know, but at least he didn’t linger for weeks. Remember Doug Turner? Now that was a bad do—’ He had stopped abruptly, becoming aware of her listening, and that had been the end of the conversation, but now Olive mused that men died often, didn’t they, so why not—

She came to herself with a horrified jerk, clamping her hand across her mouth as though she had been speaking out loud. What was she thinking? She didn’t wish Adam dead, did she?

The answer, when it came, caused her to jump to her feet and whisk Alice out of the water. ‘Bedtime, hinny,’ she murmured as Alice protested at the sudden end to her fun, ‘and Mam’ll read you a story while you have your milk and a biscuit. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Course you would.’

She’d read her two; in fact, three. And when Alice was asleep she’d clean the kitchen from top to bottom and scrub out the cupboards and line them with fresh paper. She had been meaning to do that for ages. She needed to keep busy, that was the thing, and she wouldn’t let herself think. It did no good to man or beast, thinking.

Chapter Seven

Ruby stared at Ellie in horror, and her voice was a reflection of her face when she said, ‘You can’t, Ellie. You can’t. Think, lass, think. If he loves you as much as he says he’d marry you, wouldn’t he? Not ask you to go and live with him in that house. He’d ask you to get wed first.’

Ellie stood facing her but she looked at Ruby without answering, merely shrugging her shoulders and moving her head in a way that could have meant anything.