As she spoke Jed McAnulty came into the kitchen. He had obviously been asleep. He looked at the money on the table and his face lit up. Nancy saw and turned on him. ‘You needn’t think you’re getting any of this, ’cos you’re not.’

George sighed and hastily picked up the two half-crowns. He couldn’t have the shoes and bus it to work. He’d have to save up. His newfound freedom dissolved around his ears while Nancy and her boyfriend fought. George walked into the front room and sat on the settee. A little while later he heard the back door slam and his mother’s high heels on the concrete pathway. Jed walked into the front room.

‘She’s gone to get the chips.’ Jed sat on the chair by the fire and ran his plastic comb through his hair. ‘I don’t know why you don’t get yourself a little place, Georgie. Don’t give that old bat your dosh.’

He was silent, staring into the fire.

‘Listen to me, son, she gets a fortune doing what she does. She don’t need your money, she’s taking it for spite. I’ve never known a woman like her in me life.’

George looked at the man calmly.

‘You live off her, Jed. That’s where all her money goes.’

Jed bit his lip and grinned.

‘Me and your mother’s got an arrangement. I supply her with the means to do her job, that’s all. But all that aside, son, she’s got a small fortune stashed, she don’t need your money.’

George knew it was true. Knew that Jed was trying to help him. But as always his loyalty to his mother came to the forefront.

‘All you men - the men she meets - you all take advantage of her.’

Jed grinned again. ‘Listen, boy, your mother likes her way of life. She’s one of the only Toms . . . I mean, working women . . . I know who loves her job.’

George closed his eyes. Jed brought men to the house for Nancy and then sat drinking downstairs while she plied her trade upstairs. The last man Nancy had had was a big Irishman who had made George part of his arrangement. Jed, in fairness, never tried anything like that on. When Nancy had mentioned it he had gone mad, saying that she was unnatural. George had quite liked Jed after that. He seemed to have taken over where Edith had left off.

‘Think about what I’m saying, son. You got a good little job, try and get yourself a room somewhere.’

Neither was aware that Nancy was standing in the kitchen listening to the conversation, having forgotten her own purse, which was stuffed full of money. Money that Jed knew about but couldn’t find. She had come back to the house and heard everything. Her face set in a deep frown, she went out of the back door quietly and off to the chip shop.