‘Thank you, sir.’ Kate backed towards the doorway. ‘Good night, Papa.’ She made her escape, hardly able to believe her luck. Her father seemed to have found a new friend, and she herself had been spared the advances of a singularly unattractive clergyman. She made her way upstairs to her bedroom. Perhaps Spears had been right – she had more in common with the criminal element than she had with the clergy. It was a disturbing and yet amusing thought.

Gradually, day by day, the word went round about the soup kitchen in Cable Street, and more and more hungry people arrived at noon for a nourishing meal. Kate worked tirelessly, spending all her pin money on ingredients, but she knew that she must find a way of raising funds. She alone could not support the growing numbers of men, women and children who were living on the edge of starvation. She had seen stick-thin children waiting silently in long queues, together with the elderly, and cripples who were barely able to stand. There were charities aimed at helping those who were sick or destitute, but there were a significant number who either did not fall into the right category or who harboured inbred suspicion of anyone attempting to save their souls. The fear of the workhouse seemed to be the main reason for these people clinging desperately to their independence and Kate was determined to do her best to keep them from that fate.

She had plenty of help from Ivy and Jenny when it came to cooking and serving the food, and Annie came every day to entertain the people waiting for their free meal. Spears, who had been a little more co-operative after the meal in Finsbury Square, grudgingly acceded to Kate’s request for a door key. She often rose early and walked to Whitechapel to make sure that the fire in the range had not gone out overnight, and she purchased fresh vegetables from costermongers’ barrows on the way. But no matter how frugal she was with her money, there was never enough to go round and she often had to ask Cook for scraps or bones to add goodness to the soup. Kate persuaded Cook to teach her how to make bread, and although her first attempts were a disaster, she improved quickly. Every day from then on the delicious aroma of baking bread wafted from the kitchen into the dining area.