‘He doesn’t do charity work, as well you know.’

‘Well, that’s strange, as I knaw different. Anyroad, it ain’t charity I’m after. I just need to speak to him. Please, Phyllis, I knaw as you look out for him, and you do a good job, but I have to have a word.’

‘Very well. Stay there and I’ll speak to him.’

To Betsy’s relief, Dr Lange came to the door. ‘How can I help you, Betsy? I thought everything was settled for you. Oh, I know you have to move, but that’s a small price to pay.’

‘I have nowt to pay for, Doctor, and it’s a pity as the likes of you can’t take that in. I’m a victim. Anyhow, that’s not what I came about. I want to talk to you about Mags – Mrs Roford.’

‘Come in.’

He stepped back, allowing Betsy to enter the hall. A smell of polish assailed her, and she found herself in a nice-looking brown-painted hall, which was a bit dingy, but lightened by the colourful tiles on the floor.

‘Go into that room there, it’s a waiting room – we can talk in there.’

The same tiles covered the floor of the waiting room, but there was a lighter, more airy feel about this room, provided by the large window and the light green-painted walls. A row of chairs was placed against three of the walls, and a table stood in the corner with a neat stack of magazines on it.

‘Sit down.’

Betsy took a seat near the window.

‘I have thought about talking to you before on this matter, Betsy, but you had so much to contend with. Forgive my remark – I didn’t mean it as it sounded. I only meant compared to what could have happened to you, guilty or not. But that’s not the issue here. Mrs Roford is. I’m afraid my hands are tied. You see, Mr Roford dispensed with my services, and that is why I was able to come to the court and speak for you. Had he still been a paying customer, I might not have been able to agree to do so.’

‘Does that mean as you can’t help Mags?’

The doctor didn’t pull Betsy up on her use of the name. ‘It makes it more difficult. I did want to visit Margaret, as her doctor, and that would have been the right and acceptable thing to do. You see, I feel responsible in a way. And as I am no longer her doctor, I can tell you: Margaret had been through a lot during the war, and she’d just lost her mother, so when I was approached by a psychiatrist who had been called to see her, I affirmed that Margaret was in a low state of mind. I had no idea then that he would do anything other than treat her, and I thought it would be in her own home, as at that time I didn’t know about the incident between you and Mr Roford.’