‘Yer say he’s never mentioned it?’

‘Not once.’

Fanny could see only one solution. ‘You’ll have to talk to him about it, gal. Ask him outright what he thinks of you and if he’s ever told anybody else. Yer must get his promise that he’ll never betray yer trust, especially not to Harry, or Ruthie. Tell him that Harry doesn’t know the child is his, and that the lass has been brought up thinking her father died in a quarry accident.’

‘God willing, she’ll never know anything different.’

‘Happen Bob’s forgotten what you told him. You’re sure yer told him, are yer? I mean, from what Nelly said, you must have been out of yer mind at the time.’

‘I’m sure,’ said Bridget. ‘But you’re right, the very next time I see Bob, I’ll ask him if he remembers what I said that day.’

Fanny started giggling. ‘I’ll tell yer what, gal, it’s a good job it weren’t me making me last confession.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Well, I’ve so much to confess, the poor bugger would have been there till Doomsday!’

Outside in the wagon, the children were also confiding in each other.

‘I know who my daddy is,’ Billy was saying. ‘He’s called Bill, and he lives with this horrible woman. She came to our house and started fighting with Mammy.’

‘Did you see your daddy?’ Ruthie was sitting cross-legged on the bench, her attention riveted by what Billy was telling her. ‘Did he send the woman away?’

Billy shook his head. ‘No. The woman said my daddy didn’t want me, and if I ever showed my face at her door, she’d kick me all the way down the street.’

‘Do you want to see your daddy?’

Bill shook his head determinedly. ‘No! If he doesn’t want me, I don’t want him, and anyway, me mammy says we’re better off without him.’

‘I’m sorry, Billy.’ Ruthie didn’t fully understand, but she wanted whatever Billy wanted. ‘Is that why you’re going away?’

‘Me mam says it’s for the best.’ He bowed his head. ‘I want to go, but I don’t want to leave you behind.’

Close to tears, Ruthie said, ‘I don’t want you to go away. I’ll miss you too much.’

Older than his years, Billy put his arm round her. ‘I’ll never forget you,’ he promised. ‘And Mammy said we’ll see you every birthday.’

Ruthie looked up at him, her big blue eyes wet with tears. ‘You’re my bestest friend, Billy,’ she said. ‘Please don’t be gone for ever.’

‘I won’t.’ Holding her close, he tightened his arm about her and said with childish innocence, ‘I do love you, Ruthie.’

From the doorway, Bridget and Fanny watched. ‘Will yer look at that. Bless their hearts,’ said Fanny, deeply touched by the children’s obvious affection for each other.

‘We’ll both miss you,’ Bridget murmured. ‘Keep safe, and keep in touch.’

Like the children, they embraced tearfully. All these years they had been like family, and now they were going their different ways.