‘Bill, love, we have to talk sometime. I’ve sommat to tell you, and it ain’t good.’

‘Nowt you tell me can be worse than what you told me afore I went in for me operation.’

‘I knaw, Bill, and I wish I could change that and have it not to have happened, but I can’t. Look, there’s naw way this is going to get better, so I’ll have to just tell you . . .’

Bill didn’t move, but just stared at Betsy. ‘Court? He’s taking you to court over what he did? He’s not right in the head. He’s evil. How can he say that about you? Mags will – oh God, she can’t, for the same reason she can’t keep her promise and pay for me treatment. Poor lass, poor lass.’

‘It breaks me heart to think of her up there, Bill, but what can we do?’

‘Nowt. Bloody nowt. And now we’re landed with all of this, as well as a debt on our hands as we’ll never be able to pay. But, lass, I knaw as I didn’t take it well, and that’s understandable, but I’ve thought on it all while I lay in hospital, and I knaw as none of it’s your fault. I’m sorry I took on like I did.’

‘Eeh, Bill, love.’

Getting up, Betsy went to where Bill sat and sank down on the floor next to him. She leaned her head on his knee and felt some comfort from him stroking her hair.

‘We’ll get through this, lass, we will. When this mends,’ Bill tapped his leg, ‘I can look for work. Oh, I knaw as things are not good, with many a man out of work and the coal miners on strike, but I’ll find sommat.’

‘I knaw you will, love, and so will I. With both of us working, we’ll get out of this.’

Only the spitting and crackling of the fire in the hearth disturbed their silence. Each knew their solution was no more than a pipedream, for the slump didn’t look like easing, and even the mighty cotton industry was laying folk off.

‘Would they let you visit Mags?’

‘I doubt it, but I might try. It’s not an easy place to get to, but I made a few friends among the delivery men; happen one of them would give me a lift.’

‘Naw!’

This came out so sharply that Betsy read what lay behind it, and the implication hurt her. ‘What’s up: are you thinking I’ll go with any Tom, Dick or Harry? I’ve never given you cause to think that of me, and now, although you say you believe me, you don’t really – not in your heart, you don’t, Bill.’

‘Eeh, lass, I’m sorry. I don’t knaw what got into me. I didn’t mean owt, other than how it would look. Everything you do will be watched by someone; and aye, could be used against you an’ all.’

Betsy knew he was telling the truth and realized it had been his fear for her, not his fear of her, that had prompted his response. She sighed. Life was tough, but in a couple of weeks it stood to get a lot tougher.