‘I thank thee for offerin’, but I need to get to Malin Bridge.’

‘Son.’ The man peered at Silas as if he was simple in the head. ‘This is Malin Bridge.’

Inside the public inn, Silas joined a group gathered around the roaring fireplace and accepted a tot of rum. Lamps glowed in the gloom. It was comforting after the harsh reality outside where the early spring sun cast too bright a light on the devastation. Somebody here would know where Mrs Armitage lived and point him in the right direction. He hadn’t even a proper address, had no idea what street his lodgings were on. He’d gone straight out with Fred, thinking he’d have time to get the address and pay his rent later, time to relish his new life, all the time in the world.

The landlady was handing out bowls of steaming soup, thick with chunks of potato and carrot, and Silas took one gratefully and wolfed it down, earning another brimming ladle and weary smiles from those seated around him. The warmth of the room and the hushed talk had a soothing effect. He listened, lulled, his eyelids drooping.

‘It were a deafenin’ sound.’

‘Like thunder when it’s right o’erhead. Right in the ’ouse, in fact.’

‘It were like that, reight enough. So loud I din’t even see the water at first, cun’t take that in at all…’

‘Me and the mester got the kids on the roof an’ prayed the ‘ouse wouldn’t go. We saw the neighbours sail off like they were on a raft.’

‘People screamin’ in the water.’

‘I’m glad in a way that it were dark.’

‘They’re laying out some o’ the bodies in’t stables next door.’

‘We lost all the stock in the shop.’

‘Sheffield Harry come off worse.’

‘’ow so?’

‘He’s among them bodies at stables.’

‘Him that reckoned it were nowt to be worried about? Allus were a cocky sod.’

‘Tha shun’t speak ill o’ the dead.’

‘D’you know, I saw Armitage’s place fall reight before me eyes.’

Silas jerked upright.

‘… the whole front o’ it just sank like lead and ‘twas gone, and all inside swept away.’

‘Same wi’ Megsons’ place on’t other side. No warnin’.’

‘Terrible, terrible.’

‘I ’eard a man screamin’ his head off. Couldn’t see him, though.’ A pause. ‘He soon stopped.’

Silas leaned forward. ‘What were that about the Armitage house? Is that Mrs Armitage? Hilda who has the baby?’ He searched the faces around him, but nobody was paying him any attention.

‘We got out on our roof an’ all, never been so bleedin’ scared.’

‘He had to punch a hole through wi’ a broom, din’t you, love? That saved us.’

‘Me mother’s in Wadsley so we’re goin’ to her. I had a roof o’ me own yesterday.’

Silas sprang up to stand in front of the fire and face the people sitting around it. ‘What about Mrs Armitage?’

‘Out the way, lad. All yer doin’ is warmin’ yer own arse.’

The landlady came over and put her hand on his arm. ‘D’you know her?’