“We should take her in,” he repeated. He wasn’t sure if he was really concerned for Beth, or just wanted to get rid of her.

“No. She’s making too much noise,” Nicky said. “Wait till she stops crying. Dad’s still working.”

“You want Joe Bear, Lizard?” Tommy said, so that it wasn’t just Nicky taking charge, but Beth carried on wailing.

Nicky swung Beth about in his arms, so quickly that she stopped crying for a few moments, then began again, but more half-heartedly.

Nicky swung Beth again. “You like that?”

Beth had stopped crying now, and was clinging on to the collar of Nicky’s coat, the fabric bunched up in her hands. Tommy watched as she kneaded it uncertainly, a frown on her face. Experience told him she was deciding whether to start crying again. He went up and opened her coat and tickled her solid little body in the way she loved so that she started doing that weird deep laugh of hers.

“Good girl,” he said. “Good girl, Bethy.”

Nicky put Beth down again and knelt in front of her to wipe her face with the bottom of his T-shirt. “You’ll get better at walking,” he told her kindly. “More slowly you need to go,” he added in Yoda’s voice, which set Tommy off giggling again, and that made Beth chuckle because she could see that both her brothers were laughing.

The light was going fast by the time Fiona passed the Bairds’ house on her way back from the bins. As the house came into view, she saw Katrina coming out again to pick up Beth and usher the boys inside. The family was illuminated by the light above their back door, but Fiona knew she herself would be invisible on the track in the gathering darkness.