‘Bit posh, ain’t she?’ Ma said, putting the baby over her shoulder and patting his back, giving a satisfied grunt when he burped loudly. ‘Where’d you find her?’

‘On her way to the pawnbroker’s.’ Glad took Bert away from her and propped him in an armchair so he could see what was going on.

‘I needed some money in a hurry,’ Jenny supplied helpfully.

‘Folks don’t go to those buggers for any other reason.’ Ma cackled with mirth and slapped her knee in delight. ‘I’d love to have been a fly on the wall then. Who did you go to?’

‘Erm …’ Jenny hesitated, ‘he was called Uncle.’

That produced another rumble of laughter. ‘Did you get what you wanted?’

‘He finally paid up, with Fred and Glad’s help.’

The blue eyes were fairly sparkling now as she turned to Glad. ‘I’ll bet the crafty old devil thought he was on to a good thing as soon as she opened her mouth. She sounds like one of those posh talkers on the wireless.’

Once away from the pretence of hiding her identity while at the Stannards’, Jenny had quickly reverted to her natural way of speaking.

Glad was laughing as well. ‘We enjoyed squeezing a bit extra out of him, but Jen was no pushover.’

‘No, I don’t suppose she was. Now, why have you brought her to me?’

The explanation took no more than five minutes, and at the end Ma nodded.

‘Running away, are you?’

Jenny nodded.

‘Good for you. Nice to see a girl with a bit of gumption.’

The praise given with such obvious approval made Jenny square her shoulders, the defeated feeling of earlier completely vanishing.

‘I like her,’ Ma said to Glad. ‘We can do each other a bit of good.’

Then Ma set out her terms to Jenny. ‘I can’t pay you nothing, but you can have the back bedroom, and in exchange for that I’ll expect some help with the house, shopping and cooking. I’m not completely helpless, but I can’t stand for long and the shops is impossible for me now. However, my body might be feeble but I’ve still got all my marbles,’ she announced with a flash of pride.

What did that mean? Jenny frowned.

‘That means I ain’t daft yet,’ Ma said, guessing her thoughts.

Jenny’s grin spread. That the elderly woman was still in control of her mental faculties was obvious. ‘Thank you for giving me a room, and I think we shall get along just fine.’

‘You go and get your things, then you can get me a bit of shopping.’

As they left the house, Jenny heard Ma say quietly, ‘Thanks, Glad.’