Unflinching, Ella glared back, deliberately widening her eyes but she stopped swinging her legs; not in obedience but because it was Grandpa Godfrey’s chair. Ella loved her Grandpa Godfrey. He visited them in Lincoln three or four times a year and had done so for as long as Ella could remember, but her grandmother had never once come with him. Ella had known about her, of course; had listened as Kate always asked, ‘How’s me Mam?’ but the young girl knew too that her mother and her grandmother had quarrelled years ago. Now, today, she had witnessed for herself the depth of bitterness between them. Ella put her head on one side and stared at Esther Godfrey, pondering what could possibly have caused a quarrel so dreadful that a mother did not ever want to see her daughter? The girl’s gaze flickered towards Kate and for one awful moment Ella imagined how devastated she would feel if, for some reason, she were never to see her own mother again.

Her grandmother’s voice interrupted her wandering thoughts. ‘Wipe ya chin, Missy. Ya’ve got summat on ya face. Just here . . .’ The woman touched her own cheek, leaving a dab of flour.

Ella stuck out her chin, thrusting the tiny port-wine stain on her left jawline towards the woman. ‘It’s a birthmark. I can’t rub it off.’

Kate’s voice came softly. ‘Don’t you remember, Mam?’

For a moment the older woman looked startled and stared at Kate, her mouth slightly open. She glanced back, just once, at Ella and then dropped her gaze.

‘Can I mash a pot of tea, Mam?’ Kate said, as if trying to change the subject. ‘I’m parched. We’ve had nothing since leaving Lincoln.’

Esther’s shoulders lifted in a shrug. ‘Ya know where everything is,’ she said, neither granting permission nor withholding it.

‘Is he – is he still here?’ Kate asked as she moved between the shelves along one wall and the table, laying cups and saucers and spooning tea into the brown pot. Esther nodded and jerked her head towards a door leading out of the kitchen further into the house.

‘In his room,’ was her only reply.

Seeing Kate move towards the door, Ella jumped up.

‘No, love, you stay here . . .’

‘I’m coming with you . . .’ she began.

‘Do as ya mother tells ya,’ the older woman snapped, but Ella took no notice and moved towards her mother.

‘It’s all right, Mam,’ Kate said swiftly. ‘She can come with me.’

‘Lid’s off,’ Esther said bluntly, mystifying the young girl even more. Ella watched her mother’s eyes widen and saw her swallow hard, hesitating for a moment, but then she took Ella’s hand, opened the door and together they stepped out of the kitchen and into a living room.