Fanny nodded. ‘The lad heard everything.’

‘Oh, no.’

‘That’s why I were so bloody angry! The lad stood at the top of the stairs and she saw him there, yet she still ranted on. “You’ll get no more money out of me,” she said. “And if you start spreading your filthy lies, you’ll be the one to come off worse, believe me. I’ll make sure folk round here know that lad is not my husband’s. He could belong to anybody.” That’s what she said.’ Fanny was growing angry just talking about it.

‘Don’t let her get to you. She was bluffing, that’s all.’

‘Oh no, she weren’t! But I tell yer, gal, I saw red. When I bundled her out the door, she started lashing out, so I gave her a taste o’ my fist. She couldn’t handle that. What! She were off up that street like a scalded cat.’

‘And young Billy?’ Bridget recalled how distressed he had seemed just now, before Ruthie came down. ‘How did you explain?’

‘I told him everything. I said as how me and his daddy had known each other a long time, that we’d loved each other, and that I’d fallen with child. I told him his father had had to make a choice, and he’d chosen to stay with his wife.’

‘So you didn’t paint him in too bad a light then. I mean, you didn’t tell Billy how his father deserted you when you needed him most. You didn’t say how she bought you off, and he let it happen. And you didn’t tell Billy how his father had never once asked after him, nor come round to see him. You left all that unsaid?’

‘Aye. I came to the conclusion that some things are best left unsaid.’ A troubled look shadowed Fanny’s face. ‘Did I do right, gal?’

Bridget nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You did right.’

‘Would you have done the same?’

‘You know I would. If you’d told young Billy all those things, he might have thought you were being too hard on his father.’

‘My very thoughts exactly.’ Already, Fanny was beginning to feel better.

‘This way, he’ll have an open mind,’ Bridget went on. ‘He’ll either find out what a coward his father really is, or he’ll touch a sense of goodness in him, and maybe one day they can be friends. Either way, you’ll have done the right thing. To my mind, there’s nothing worthwhile to be gained from setting the lad against his father.’

Fanny’s soft smile enveloped Bridget. ‘No wonder I think the world of yer,’ she said fondly. ‘Whenever I need to talk, yer allus there, allus willing to lend a helping hand.’

‘You’ve done the same for me over the years,’ Bridget murmured. ‘It’s what best friends are for. That’s why I don’t want to hear any more talk of you leaving.’

‘Oh, but me mind’s made up.’ Sitting up in the chair, Fanny looked unusually serious. ‘I’m setting off for pastures new.’