‘Two boiled eggs and two slices of toast. You have to eat something, Frankie, or you’ll make yourself ill.’

‘I can’t face food until I hear some news. I’ve got butterflies in my stomach and I keep feeling sick.’

Babs sat down on the edge of the bed and handed Frankie a slice of toast. ‘Please, just eat that for me,’ she urged.

‘I spent the whole night wondering what they might look like now. When they were kids, Georgie was the extrovert out of the two. Harry was quite timid. Do you think they’ll recognise me? Say they’re happy living with Jed and they don’t like me or something?’ Frankie said anxiously.

Babs put the tray on the floor and hugged her worried friend. She had been astounded when she’d returned from her mum’s house and heard Frankie’s news, and she just hoped that at long last there would be a happy ending for Frankie. ‘Obviously it’s gonna be a little strange for Georgie and Harry at first, but they’ll soon adapt, kids always do. I’m sure they’ll remember you, mate, and I bet they’ve wondered how you are millions of times over the years. They are gonna love you, Frankie, everybody does, so stop worrying that pretty head of yours. Now, shall we go out and do something today to take our minds off things? How about going to the pictures or having a browse around the shops?’

Frankie shook her head. ‘I can’t concentrate on watching a film and I couldn’t face going shopping. I think I’ll ring Joey, get him to come over. He’s a great comfort to me when the going gets tough, he always has been.’

The journey up to Glasgow took Eddie and the boys seven-and-a-half hours. They’d spent over an hour stuck in rush-hour traffic, and had also stopped at a service station for some much-needed breakfast.

Ed wasn’t overawed by the vans that they’d acquired. Flatnose Freddie knew that Eddie didn’t like using big beasts for anything undercover, but because the vans had to be got at short notice, a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and a Renault Trafic was all Flatnose could come up with. ‘They’re both newish, clean and untraceable, so stop worrying, they’ll be fine,’ Freddie had assured him.

The B&B was clean, tidy, but also very basic.

‘Hardly the fucking Ritz, is it?’ Raymond complained to Eddie.

‘It’ll do us. Hopefully, we’ll only be here a couple of days – if all goes well, that is.’

Eddie unpacked his bag and hung his clothes up in the musty, old-fashioned-looking wardrobe. ‘Smells fucking rotten, that does. I’m glad I never brought any good clobber with me,’ he moaned.

Raymond laughed. ‘Come on, let’s go and meet the others.’