Betsy left her gloved hand in Rose’s but kept her head down. How could she tell her mam, her lovely mam, what the other girls had said, or how she had slapped Dora Finnigan across the face and had had to stay in at playtime? Even Flora and Sally hadn’t stuck up for her, only Alice and Rachel and Violet, but that was probably because their mam worked for her mam, not because they didn’t believe what the other bairns were saying. No amount of blinking would keep the scalding tears from falling and she walked blindly, wrapped in misery.

‘Betsy?’ When she didn’t reply, Rose stopped, lifting Betsy’s chin so the child was forced to look up into her face. ‘What is it?’

The lump in her throat choking her, Betsy shook her head. She didn’t fully understand what Dora and some of the other older girls had said but she knew it was bad.

Alice, Daisy’s first born, who was the closest in age to Betsy, tugged on Rose’s sleeve. ‘It was Dora Finnigan and her gang again.’

‘Dora Finnigan?’ Rose knew Dora’s mother, a small, thin-faced woman with sharp eyes who always hung about hoping for half-price bread at the end of the day, if and when she had any left. ‘What has Dora been doing?’ she said to Betsy, crouching down regardless of the snow and the bitter wind so her head was on a level with her daughter’s.

Again it was Alice who replied. ‘She was being nasty about you, Mrs O’Leary. They followed Betsy round the playground and when Betsy hit her, Dora told Miss Walton and Betsy had to go in. Playtime had only just started an’ all. It wasn’t fair ’cause it was Dora’s fault but she’s Miss Walton’s favourite, everyone knows that.’

Rose stared first at Alice and then at Betsy. Straightening up, she said quietly, ‘Let’s get home and then we’ll sort this out, all right?’ Betsy was the gentlest of creatures; for her to hit someone she must have been badly provoked.

Once they arrived at the shop Rose told Daisy to put the closed sign on the door and they all went upstairs. She felt she needed Alice to get to the bottom of this, and it was only right that Daisy was present. Once the children had taken off their hats and coats and were sitting in a row on the rug in front of the fire warming their hands – all except Betsy who stood to one side, still looking at the floor – Rose said, ‘I’ll get us all some cocoa and biscuits in a minute, but first I need to know what Dora was saying. Betsy? Do you hear me?’