Betsy bent down and delved into the one kitchen cupboard of her ma’s that she hadn’t yet cleared out. Memories of when she was a little lass came to her, and she longed for the carefree life she’d had then. Oh, aye, we had it hard, me and our Ciss, but we were happy, and well fed, as Ma were a cook to be reckoned with. As the tears threatened again, she brushed the memories from her.

‘There you go. You can keep them with the bits and bobs you play with in the garden. You’ll have hours of fun with them, and Granny’ll be smiling down on you.’

Once the girls were outside and Rosie wasn’t paying them any attention, Betsy sighed. Bill had a worried look on his face that she knew she would only make worse.

‘What is it, lass, what’s troubling you now, eh? I thought we’d got through the worst and were looking towards a brighter future, or so you convinced me.’

‘There ain’t naw way I can make telling any easier for you, Bill . . . I – I’ve got me belly up.’

‘What? Eeh, lass, that’s good. But . . . wait a minute . . . Oh God, it ain’t mine – it’s not possible . . . Naw, naw, not that; not that.’ Bill backed into what used to be her ma’s chair. The back kitchen was overcrowded with furniture, now they’d moved some of their bits and pieces into it. They’d thrown some of ma’s furniture out, but kept her lovely dresser and the fireside chair that she’d loved.

‘I can’t take it, Betsy. I’ll allus be reminded of what keeps me awake at nights already – the thought of him inside you. I can’t take it, I can’t.’

‘Are you going to abandon me then, Bill, for sommat as ain’t me own fault?’ Guilt assailed Betsy as she said this. Her betrayal of her lovely Bill burned her heart with shame. But that was something she had to live with. ‘Bill, don’t reject me. You’ve stood by me this good while, through worse than me having a babby. No one’ll knaw. That Wendy up the road caught me being sick and made her mind up as to the cause, but I told her that you’d had me the moment you’d come out of hospital, and she believed me.’ Lass hadn’t the knowledge of how Bill ain’t been able to take me for a long time; hindered by pain, he’d seemed to have lost the ability even to be ready to make love to me, so it’s taken a while since his operation to get that back. Naw, there’s naw doubt whose child this is.

‘Well, that’s sommat, but tongues have a way of wagging till they start speculating.’

‘We’ll be gone from here afore I even show. You knaw as Doctor said that Mags didn’t go to France, but is staying a couple of weeks in London and then going to Scotland. He said she’d be sending for us just as soon as she sees how the land lies with her house.’