‘Aye, well, there you are. I’d appreciate you keeping it to yourself, lass. I don’t like others knowing me business but, well, you’re a different kettle of fish to Bridget and Anne. Known your own sadness I dare say. But as for Ellie, you can’t do nowt there. I’ve seen it all before, I’m sorry to say. He’s got his hooks into her and that type don’t let go easily.’

‘He’s played on her weaknesses.’

Mrs Duffy went back to mashing the tea, saying over her shoulder, ‘Be that as it may, you have to let her find out herself now. There’s only so much you can do. She’s made her bed and she’ll have to lie on it. But if she comes back wanting to live with you again, that’s all right by me.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Now come on and drink your tea.’ Mrs Duffy placed a steaming mug in front of her. ‘And I’ve got a slice of bilberry tart to go with it.’

Ruby sat drinking the tea and eating the tart in a kind of daze. If anyone had told her this morning when she had woken up that Ellie would walk out of her life and Mrs Duffy would walk in, she would have said they were mad. But grief-stricken as she was about Ellie, she felt Mrs Duffy was going to become a friend.

Life was strange.

Chapter Eight

Over the next few weeks when it became clear Ellie wasn’t going to return, Ruby was forced to take stock and acknowledge that yet another new chapter of her life was unfolding. The loss of Ellie was hard to bear, especially considering the circumstances in which her friend had left. Although in latter months Ellie had been out with Daniel every night, she had still been around first thing in the morning when they had eaten breakfast together and then gone to work. There was no denying Ellie had changed since she had been seeing Daniel, becoming quiet and withdrawn as time had gone on, which in Ruby’s opinion was the opposite to how love should make you feel, but there had still been occasions where the two of them had talked and laughed together. But Mrs Duffy – or Mabel, as her landlady now insisted Ruby called her – was right in that Ellie had made the decision to burn her boats and live with Daniel, and she had to accept it. There was nothing else she could do. But it didn’t stop Ruby worrying or having moments when she was on the brink of trying to find the house where Daniel lived. Ellie had been somewhat secretive about its location in the past, but she had let slip it was in Lombard Street, which was situated close to the docks.