Joyce studied her beautiful daughter. She was no longer a little girl. She was all grown up. Joyce held both of her hands. ‘Let me give you some advice, darling. True love is extremely hard to find, I should know. So if you’re lucky enough to have found it, make sure you hang on to it. I mean, Eddie’s thirty, isn’t he? And when a man’s been married, he’s obviously used to a sexual relationship. Don’t let him get away, Jess, you do what you’ve got to do to keep him happy.’

Embarrassed, Jessica stood up. She was close to her mum, but wasn’t used to discussing her sex life with her. ‘I’m tired now, Mum, I’m gonna go to bed. I understand what you’re saying and don’t worry, I won’t let him get away.’

As Jessica left the room, Joyce couldn’t stop smiling. She couldn’t wait to tell all of her friends at her dressmaking class. None of their daughters had captured a bloke half as good as Eddie, and she couldn’t wait to brag about her daughter’s rich, handsome boyfriend.

* * *

After a restless night, Eddie got up early and sorted out a meet with his father. Two o’clock at his aunt’s house was the arrangement. His Auntie Joan lived locally in Whitechapel and she allowed them to hold all their urgent meetings upstairs in her house.

His Auntie Joan had all but brought him and his brothers up, and Eddie was still very close to her. His mum had died when he was five years old. Ed could just about picture her face and he remembered her giving him lots of cuddles. The only other memory he had was of her coughing continuously and spitting blood into a bucket. One day he’d gone off to school and when he returned, she was gone.

He was too young to understand what was happening at the time, but he found out years later that she had been taken to a sanatorium and had later died there. Apparently, she’d contracted tuberculosis, better known as TB, and it was that, and pneumonia, that had killed her.

Harry, his dad, had never remarried. His house was still a shrine to the woman he had lost and he spent hours tending her grave. He visited a woman called Sylvie and sometimes took her out, but he refused to get too close. ‘Your mother was the kindest, most beautiful woman in the world. No other woman will ever hold a candle to her,’ he repeatedly told Eddie.

Eddie looked at his watch. His stomach was rumbling and he needed a nice cooked breakfast to start his brain functioning properly. He opened Ronny’s bedroom door.

‘Wakey, wakey. You getting up today, or what?’

‘What’s the time?’ Ronny mumbled.