‘Because he hates goodbyes and so do I.’

Marion desperately wanted her mother to go. She needed to be alone to think. This was a big day. The biggest. She wanted to set herself straight, to think through, again, the enormous change that was about to happen in her life.

She just wanted to get to Windsor and start the job.

To find her feet.

‘You will write when you arrive, won’t you, Marion?’

‘No, I thought I’d let you worry until I come back.’ She flicked a glance at her mother, before muttering, ‘I’ll only be away for a couple of months. I have told them I have to be back for my university place.’

Her mother’s breasts gathered up under her folded arms. ‘And what happens if you’re not back in time to start university? The worry your stepfather and I have had getting you through your exams.’

Marion almost stamped her foot in desperation. ‘Of course I will be back for university. Mum, please don’t make this so hard.’

Her mother sniffed and turned her back. Both of them kept their furious thoughts to themselves.

As mothers went, Maggie was challenging. She had told her daughter only this morning that the neighbours thought Marion was distant. ‘I don’t want people thinking you are getting too grand for us here,’ she’d said.

Tall, thin and in possession of a rather plain face, Marion knew that she often came across as aloof. In her two years at Moray House, part of Edinburgh Provincial Training Centre, she had found it hard to make friends with her fellow students and most of her tutors. The principal had seen through her façade, though, and the end of the final term she had sought Marion out. ‘Miss Crawford, would you come to my office after lunch? I would like a word.’

When Marion was shown into Miss Brown’s sanctum, she seemed the picture of calm, though she was shaking within.

‘Do sit down, Miss Crawford.’

She took the seat in front of the desk as the older woman sat opposite.

‘I hope you have been happy here?’

‘I have, Miss Brown.’

‘You have worked hard for your place at Glasgow University. Their child psychology course is said to be the most enlightened and forward thinking of its kind. I am certain you will make a success of it.’

Marion flushed and looked down at her lap. ‘Thank you.’

‘I have had a note from the university saying it was suggested that it might be worthwhile for you to take a summer job to get some first-hand experience with children. Have you had any thoughts about that?’

‘I haven’t found anything yet.’ Marion sat forward. ‘You see, I want to help the children who need it most. If I could find something with children who have no chance in life, children who have no opportunity for a good education, children who live in such poverty that the little food they have is not helping to develop their bodies and their brains. I want to give every child a chance to learn how to read, write and know their numbers, to have at least one good meal a day at school, if not at home, to have manners so that they will never feel inferior to anyone.’ She stopped. ‘Sorry. But it does feel so important.’