‘Nonsense!’ Harry put the finishing touches to the jacket. ‘We can’t have you turning up for a function with a jacket that’s too tight.’ He snipped off the thread and handed the jacket over. ‘Try it now,’ he urged. ‘It should fit a treat.’

Sure enough, the jacket fitted like a second skin. ‘You’ve saved my life.’ Reaching into his purse, the man pulled out four silver shillings. ‘My boot boy said you were a treasure, and he was right.’

Picking up two of the coins, Harry instructed the man to return the others to his pocket. ‘I have a set fee for altering jackets,’ he said. ‘Two shillings, that’s the charge.’ He smiled and the gentleman was struck by how handsome Harry Little was. He had a reputation as a sombre man who never smiled or indulged in conversation. ‘A miserable bugger’, that was how the boot boy had described him.

‘You’ve done me a great favour,’ the man argued. ‘I really would like you to have the extra two shillings.’

‘If you should need other alterations on your expensive clothes, will you seek me out again?’

‘Without a doubt!’

‘Then it’s your boot boy who’s done me the favour. I suggest you give the two shillings to him.’

‘If that’s what you want.’

‘It is.’

Surprised and humbled by such a generous act, the gentleman picked up the coins and returned them to his pocket. ‘Then that’s what I shall do. Good day to you, sir, and thank you once again.’

Harry saw the man to the door, then went straight upstairs to his mother’s room. ‘All right?’ he asked fondly.

Propped up in her bed, the old woman was pleased to see him. ‘I heard the front door close. Did you have a visitor?’

‘You don’t miss much, do you?’ he laughed.

‘Who was it?’

‘A gentleman – a customer.’

‘Well, he had no right to disturb you on Christmas Day.’

‘He needed a jacket for an official function. Apparently he hadn’t worn it for some time, and when he tried it on, it was too tight. I altered it while he waited. Twenty minutes, that’s all it took. And anyway, Ma, I don’t mind. Christmas Day is just another work day as far as I’m concerned.’

‘Where’s Alice?’

‘Somewhere about.’

‘Why isn’t she here? Fetch her. Tell her I want a word.’

Before he went he made sure Maud had everything she needed; he checked her water jug and her tablets, and asked her if she was ready for something to eat.

‘Stop fussing,’ was what he got for his trouble. ‘I need to talk to my daughter, damn and bugger her.’

‘Has she upset you?’

‘No.’ Maud gave him a fond smile. ‘But you will if you don’t do as I ask.’

‘Then I’d better get a move on, eh?’ He kissed her and departed, wondering what had unsettled her.

Maud sighed wearily, a tear shaping in the corner of her eye. ‘Oh, lad! You should be wed, with childer and a house of your own, a table set for Christmas cheer, and a fire to put your feet up against.’ It broke her heart to see her son so lonely. ‘Instead of that, you’ll spend the best years of your life looking after an old woman who doesn’t deserve it.’ A scowl darkened her face. ‘I only wish your sister were as loyal as you, my boy. It’s always been the same. You were always the giver and Alice the taker – she still is. Where you’re good and reliable, that madam is selfish and spiteful, and I rue the day she were ever born!’