‘Course you do.’

‘Anyway, it don’t matter any more, because he’ll not be back. He had his chance. He knew she paid me to keep away, and he stood back and let her do it. Like I said, Billy’s dad is all kinds of a coward, and to be honest I don’t know as I’d have him back even if he did go down on bended knees. We’ve managed well enough without him all this time, gal. And, God willing, we’ll go on managing.’ She was silent for a moment. ‘D’yer reckon he will be back, gal?’ It might not be so bad after all, she thought wistfully, not now she’d got this beautiful wagon. They could take off and he could kiss goodbye to the farm, and the old battleaxe with it.

‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised,’ said Bridget. ‘There have been rumours that Bill and his battleaxe have been rowing and falling out, and that he’s at the end of his tether. Maggie Batley said in the paper shop the other day how the pair of them were going hammer and tongs at each other at their vegetable stall. The very next day, so I’ve heard, Bill were seen sporting a black eye.’

At that, Fanny laughed, and so did Bridget. ‘Poor thing,’ said Bridget.

‘Poor thing nothing! If he came near me he’d have two black eyes.’

‘Don’t you feel anything for him at all?’

Sighing, Fanny answered cautiously, ‘To tell you the truth, gal, I do. I allus have. I’m angry, though. Angry that he could let himself be dictated to by her and angry that he’s never once acknowledged his son. But it’s been six years since Billy’s birth, and he hasn’t shown his face. I swear I ain’t had a man since him.’ Turning to grin at Bridget, she added, ‘What yer ain’t had yer don’t miss, ain’t that right, gal?’

‘I know what you mean.’ Bridget had almost forgotten what it was like to have a man make love to her. Occasionally Bob Morris held her in his arms and kissed her, but it was nothing to get excited about.

‘I’m worried about the lad though,’ Fanny went on. ‘There’s bound to come a day when he asks after his daddy, and I’ll have to tell him some kind of a tale.’

‘Will you tell him the truth?’

‘If I don’t, somebody else might.’

‘When will you tell him?’

‘That’s my dilemma, gal. Do I wait until he asks me or he hears some nasty piece of gossip? Or do I sit him down and tell him now, before he gets much older? I’d tell him tomorrow but for three things.’

Bridget was ahead of her. ‘You’re frightened of telling him in case he thinks you’ve deliberately kept him away from his father. And, if you do tell him, you think he might seek Bill out. Then there’s the worry that Bill might reject him yet again. Am I right?’

‘Yer bugger! Yer know me better than I know meself.’