The waiting room was crowded: a poky parlour in one of a row of tired terraced houses with a doctor somewhere in the back, living over the shop in a makeshift flat no doubt. This surgery was about as far away from Dr Begg’s gracious premises as it was possible to imagine but it would do, thought Netta. She sat huddled in her camel coat in the corner chair, listening to the thick Yorkshire accents, the hacking coughs and rusty voices of old men in caps and women in curlers and carpet slippers. Now and again someone would glance at her with interest as if to strike up a conversation but she buried herself in the dog-eared magazines, trying to be invisible. She had registered herself as an emergency, a visitor, showed her identity card and was told a Dr Anwar would see her at the end of his list.

How had she managed to land herself in this foreign mill town amongst a forest of black chimneys, cobbled streets and terraces of some West Riding town? It was just like a Lowry painting come to life as she stepped out of the station and made her way up the parade of shops, sheltering from the drizzle under the gracious wrought-iron canopies which kept the shoppers dry enough to browse along the row.

Somewhere behind the main street she sampled the greasy mysteries of a fish and chip bar but couldn’t stomach the food and asked directions towards a decent bed and breakfast establishment. She was pointed towards the Skipton Road where the houses were bigger but still blackened with soot.

Netta knocked on several doors before a landlady eyed the cut of her best camel coat and sensible brogues and decided she was indeed a respectable young war widow looking for work in the district. The room was basic, drab and worn. It would suit her purposes. Netta said she was feeling unwell after a long journey and needed to see a doctor.

‘Up the road, turn right down the side street. Doctor’ll see you, I’m sure, but don’t go falling sick on me in the night. My man’s on day shift. He needs his sleep. Staying long, are we?’ said the landlady in her flowered overall and turban headscarf.