Patronizing old fool. Nathaniel smiled, bringing his charm to play as he said quietly, ‘I will that and thanks – thanks, man.’

Once in the cab he sat back in the seat, his hands clasped between his legs and his stomach turning over. He’d taken the day off work to come to Gateshead, sending a message to the shipyard to say he’d got the skitters. The foreman wouldn’t be best pleased but he couldn’t help that. He couldn’t have gone in, not after what he’d learned last night.

A group of them had gone down the Queen’s Head to meet an old pal who’d left the shipyards and gone into the navy and was home on leave. It had been the usual sort of night, boozy and loud, but in a quiet moment the sailor, Percy Murray, had come and sat with him and asked after Rose, knowing that Nathaniel and Davey had been best pals since childhood. ‘His wife ever come back to these parts?’

Nathaniel had shaken his head. Any mention of Rose brought a physical pain.

‘Strange do that, wasn’t it, her taking off the way she did after Davey copped it. Me mam was going to see her sister in Gateshead the day Rose must have left because she saw her on the train with the bairn and bags and what-have-you. Thought it strange then, me mam did, but she didn’t think the lass was leaving for good.’

For a moment Nathaniel had been unable to speak, just staring stupidly at Percy, and he’d had to moisten his lips before he could say, ‘Your mam saw Rose on the train?’

‘Aye, that’s right.’ Percy had taken a swallow of his beer before he’d gone on: ‘Hard to miss, wasn’t she, Rose. Stunner if ever I saw one. Anyway, me mam said Rose got off the train at Gateshead and she saw her getting into a cab outside the station, so she must have had somewhere to go. Perhaps family? It was a week or two before me mam found out from one of the neighbours that Rose’d sold up and skedaddled. You don’t expect that, do you? Not with a bairn and all.’

‘No, you don’t expect it.’ He’d never forget the night he’d found her gone. He’d arrived at her door with a bunch of roses – hothouse blooms, cost him the earth they had – and found the house in darkness and locked up. He’d waited for a couple of hours in the back lane, thinking she’d gone out somewhere, and had finally decided to knock on the door of her neighbour, Mrs McKenzie, to see if she knew where Rose was.