Betsy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She looked up into Angus’s rugged, handsome face, framed with his curly hair and beard, both just a little more ginger than her own colouring, and smiled. ‘Aye, I can. And I’d like that.’

His smile brought a twinkle to his hazel eyes. ‘Then would the neet suit ye?’

‘Aye.’

‘Well, I’ll meet ye here, me bonnie lassie, in two hours. I’ve to wash the stink of the fish off me and have me tea.’

‘Naw, you don’t stink. I like the smell of fish.’

His eyes twinkled even more as he said, ‘Och, I know you do, hen. Don’t you come down to the dockside enough, or is there another attraction?’

‘Go away with you – there’s nowt down there for me but the purchasing of fish.’

‘Ha! Well, we will see.’

With this, Angus turned and went in the direction of his ma’s cottage, and Betsy was left feeling as giggly as if she were a young girl again.

‘Ma, if you walk out with Angus, does that mean you’ll marry him?’

‘Eeh, Daisy, shush. Naw, he’s just a nice person, and I like his company.’

‘Well, Roddie at school said he wants me to walk out with him, and he said that his sister walked out with her boyfriend and now they are getting wed. He said he wants us to wed one of these days when we’ve grown. He’s canny, is Roddie.’

This made Betsy chuckle even more. All the children had picked up the Scottish way of expressing themselves, but to think of her Daisy having a romance really tickled her.

‘Eeh, lass, you’ve time enough to think of walking out with lads. Though I agree, Roddie is a nice lad. And talking of that, I’m to have a few words with you. And Florrie. There’s sommat as I have to prepare you for.’

‘Aw, Ma, what? You sound as though this “sommat” is a big thing.’

‘It is, lass. We’ll have a talk when we get home, eh?’

Betsy thought back to her own time of becoming a woman. She’d been eleven, but their Ciss had only been ten, so Daisy could be starting her monthlies any time.

With Ciss brought to mind, Betsy thought of how it did her heart good to hear from her sister, and she loved the letters they wrote to each other. Ciss was so happy with her Patrick. Pat had kept off the booze, and Ciss was to have her second child. By, our Ciss with two young ’uns – I can’t believe it.

A longing went up in her to see Ciss, and her thoughts went to Mags going back down to Blackburn in the near future. Eeh, I’ll visit then. I’ll stay with Mags and see our Ciss. That’ll be grand.

After being teased mercilessly by Mags and Susan, Betsy set out to meet Angus. The lovely evening meant she could wear a light frock, and she’d borrowed one of Mags’s dresses – yellow, with little rosebuds dotted all over it. It flowed to her calf and had a cut-out square neckline that showed a very small glimpse of her cleavage, which was the only place the frock was a little tight. Her lovely curly hair flowed to her shoulders, with the side lengths plaited and pinned under a bow on top of her head. It was her shoes that the others laughed at most. Wedged cream sandals, they were hardly walking shoes, but Betsy was going for pretty, not practical, so she ignored them telling her to put on a pair of flat sandals.