With that he opened the passenger door for Kate and walked round to the driving seat. Kate got into the car in dead silence. Willy watched them closely all the time, shaking his head. Patrick started the engine and wheelspun the car out of the car park, sending stones showering everywhere. On the main road he settled down to sixty miles an hour and in the darkness Kate heard him laugh bitterly.

‘What’s the big joke?’ Her voice was flat.

‘That bloody Willy, sometimes I wonder why I’ve kept him on so long. He’s more like me mother than me minder.’

‘He’s a good friend to you, that’s why.’ Kelly’s criticism added to Kate’s annoyance.

Patrick pulled the car into a layby and cut the engine.

‘Listen here, I don’t need this crap, Kate. From the moment you saw Freddie Flowers you’ve had the bleeding hump . . .’

Kate interrupted him.

‘That’s not true! You had the audacity to take me to an illegal boxing match, Patrick. Just because my Chief Constable was there and having the time of his life doesn’t mean to say I had to. I thought it was barbaric, cruel and degrading, not just to the two men who fought, but to the people who paid money to see it.’

‘What this boils down to, Kate, is this. We come from different worlds. I ain’t apologising for taking you there, no matter what you say. I am what I am, Kate, you take me as you find me.’

‘And the same goes for me, Pat, I’m not apologising either.’

They looked at each other in the dimness of the car, the atmosphere thick and pungent. Kate felt her heart hammering; she had to let him know what she was feeling. Suddenly, this wasn’t about boxing any more, it was about them, the two of them as people. The differences between them.

Patrick lit them both another cigarette.

‘What do you want from me, Kate?’ It was a plea.

Kate paused.

‘I want a bit of respect. I want to be cared for. But most of all, I want to feel that I am not compromising myself in any way by being with you. That . . . that . . . spectacle tonight made me feel physically ill. When they began to really pummel one another, it scared me.’

Kate heard the whirr of the electric window being lowered.

Patrick stared out on to the road. Cars whizzed by, their engines intruding now into their world. A cold breeze settled around them. Patrick sighed. It was the sigh of an old man.