‘As you know, since Father died, Mother has slept downstairs in the living room, and so Kate, and her little one when it arrives, could have Mother’s bedroom upstairs. I’m still in my own room anyway, so it won’t be putting us about at all! And there’s still the tiny bedroom Kate had before, when the little one gets older . . .’ Peggy, bless her, seemed to be offering Kate a long-term home, not just a temporary stop-gap. ‘Besides,’ she went on, ‘it will be lovely for Mother to have more company in the day when I have to be at work – she gets very lonely. Do give Kate our best love and tell her to come and see us as soon as she can and we can talk everything over . . .’

The words blurred now for tears were coursing down her cheeks. How kind they were, even making it sound as if she, Kate, would be doing them a favour.

Mavis came thundering down the hut. ‘Kate – what’s up? Is it bad news . . .?’ The wooden slats creaked as she dropped her weight on to the bed at the side of Kate.

Kate shook her head. ‘No – no,’ she sobbed. ‘Just the opposite.’

Then she told Mavis what had happened when she had gone home and then about the letter she had just received.

‘Well, that’s all right, then,’ Mavis said in her matter-of-fact manner. ‘I thought there was something wrong – all that blubbering.’

Kate smiled and wiped away her tears. Dear friend though Mavis was, she could not be expected to understand the relief that Jonathan’s letter had brought to her. Her mother’s initial reaction had been expected, but Kate had not believed that Esther Godfrey would turn her face away from her own daughter quite so heartlessly and so completely. Kate had suddenly felt very alone; the only people who were on her side were powerless to help her – her grandad, old and increasingly infirm and dependent upon Esther, Beth Eland and Rosie and even, she had thought, her stepfather. But Jonathan Godfrey was nothing if not resourceful, and for once he had acted without reference to Esther.

Whether her mother approved or disapproved, she had no way of knowing for neither Jonathan nor Peggy mentioned Esther in their letters.

Two days later, Kate was able to hitch a lift into Lincoln and go to see Peggy and Mrs Godfrey.

‘It really is so kind of you,’ she began hesitantly, after the first flurries of welcome were over and she had been seated near the fire opposite Mrs Godfrey, a cup of tea balanced on her lap. ‘Are you sure you really don’t mind? I mean, the neighbours . . .’