It had been an age before the old lady had come to the door on crutches, and then he’d thought she’d lost her marbles when she’d said Rose had left for good. ‘Sold everything she has,’ Mrs McKenzie had said, sounding slightly put out. ‘I’d have bought the dresser off her if I’d known she was going, lovely thing it was, but old Todd at the Emporium took everything.’

‘But – but that’s not possible,’ he’d stammered, his stomach dropping down into his boots. ‘She wouldn’t do that.’

‘Possible or not, that’s what she’s done, laddie. Brought the key round for me to give to the rent man and he won’t be best pleased. Likes a bit of notice, he does, if someone’s moving.’

‘Where’s she gone?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine. She just said she won’t be coming back, that’s all. Cagey she was, come to think of it.’

‘But – but she’s not left the district? I mean, she’s still living round here somewhere?’ He hadn’t been able to believe it.

‘Like I said, your guess is as good as mine.’

He hadn’t been able to get anything else out of the old woman and had walked away after a few moments, his head spinning and a feeling of nausea making his legs weak. He remembered he’d sat down in the snow in the back lane – for how long he’d never know – and cried like he hadn’t done since he’d been a bairn. And then a feeling of rage had brought him to his feet. How dare she think she could do the dirty on him and leave without telling him? Skulk away like a thief in the night? He’d take it out of her hide when he found her, and find her he would. She couldn’t have gone far, not with the bairn and all. Likely she’d rented another place in a different part of town, or taken a couple of rooms somewhere, that’d be cheaper with the bairn. Damn it all, what was the matter with her? He’d offered her everything, hadn’t he?