‘I’d rather not say, if you don’t mind,’ Betty said. She’d have to make up a lie if Miss Scott pressed her. She should never have asked for time off. Just taken it. She was entitled to sick pay, not a holiday at short notice.

‘I’d like you to be straight with me. This family crisis, is it of a personal nature?’

Betty swallowed. ‘Sort of,’ she said. ‘Yes.’

‘Mmm.’ She lifted up the sash window, leaned out and shooed away a pigeon. Betty watched it fly off. It’ll be back, she thought.

‘I knew a young woman once, before the war,’ Miss Scott was saying, peering out of the window. ‘Madly in love with her boss, a married man. He promised he was going to leave his wife.’ She paused and Betty saw her shoulders rise and fall with her breathing. ‘The young woman got pregnant and when she told him, he didn’t want to know. He fired her, instead. She was destitute. No job. No money. No family to speak of. It’s the loneliest place in the world, to have no means and be expecting a child, don’t you agree, Miss Fisher?’

Betty stared at her lap, not daring to look up. ‘Yes. It must be.’

‘It was the loneliest decision that young woman ever made,’ Miss Scott went on. ‘To go on a short holiday like that. Will you be alone, Miss Fisher, on your little trip?’

Betty hoped Miss Scott would not notice her eyes welling up. ‘Yes,’ she said.

‘And which hotel did you say you were staying in?’

‘I didn’t,’ Betty said, sniffing hard. How did Miss Scott know? The nurse had said she shouldn’t be on her own, not that first night. They’d be blood, she’d been warned. She couldn’t be at Dee’s. It wasn’t fair on her, or right for the children. Kevin would suspect something. There was only one lavatory. There’d be people in a hotel, so she could get help if needs be. There were some cheap B & Bs near Paddington. She could stay in one, just for the night. She could just about afford it.

Miss Scott had returned to her desk, had put on her reading glasses, was staring into a drawer, tilting her head so she could see at the back. She stopped, peered over the tops of her spectacles.

‘I know you girls think I’m an ogre,’ she said, and smiled with those strange, twisted lips. Betty hadn’t expected her to react like this. It was possible that Miss Scott would turn her over to the police, but then, Betty thought, she hadn’t actually admitted anything, or incriminated herself.