A figure came running over from the other side of the road. ‘What iz thiz? What haz happened? Betsy, Betsy. Pleaze, you must get up.’

‘Montel? What are you doing here?’

‘I couldn’t rest. I asked a friend to watch Sibbie. I wanted to be with you, Mags. But what iz it that has hurt Betsy like thiz? Pleaze, Mags, help me with her. Let’s get her inside.’

‘No, it will be too embarrassing for her.’ Helping Montel to lift Betsy, they steadied her on the wall once more. ‘Betsy, love. Nothing is as bad as it seems. You have to tell me now. I promise I will help you. We’ll help each other. Stay with Montel while I get you a drink. I think a stiff whisky for us both is in order.’

‘And I wouldn’t be saying no, Mags. It iz a shock to find you both like thiz.’

Mags wanted to smile, but a painful knot had formed in her chest. Did Betsy betray me? My best and only friend? No, please God, no.

It took a few sips of the burning whisky to calm Betsy, and for Mags to be ready to hear whatever was coming.

‘I know there’s naw other way but to tell you the truth, Mags. I cannot live with this guilt any more. Even if you don’t forgive me, I will knaw as I’ve been honest with you. I can never bring my Bill back, and I caused his death. Me lovely Bill.’

All of this was said through gulping sobs. Mags’s heart felt as though it was breaking. She’d half-guessed what Betsy was going to say, and though it couldn’t hurt her any more, it had done; it had caused so much pain – so much.

‘Harold Roford didn’t rape me . . .’

Mags listened in horror to Betsy as she sobbed out the truth. ‘Oh, Mags, that moment of sinning brought so much down on everyone. I didn’t think at the time it would. I just wanted to punish him, and to get you to see once and for all what a swine he was. It was when he threw the coins at me that . . . I – I, well, I snapped.’

Mags sat down on the wall. Her heart seemed ready to break in two. She’d been coping. Everything was turning out all right. She was willing to support Betsy every step of the way, believing she’d brought everything Betsy had to bear down upon her, but now she knew she hadn’t. Betsy had brought it upon herself. And on me, and Daddy, and Bill. Poor Bill.

There was a long silence, broken only by Betsy’s pitiful sobs.

‘Mags, thiz iz a lot for you to take in, but you can overcome it. You need to make comparisons and to think if it iz what Betsy did that was the real cause of everything that came az a consequence. It iz the only way you can get through thiz.’