Bob swung round to look but there was no one there. ‘You’re seeing things,’ he chuckled. ‘You’d better take water with your gin from now on.’

‘Whisky’s my tipple,’ she told him with a nudge. ‘I’m a woman with expensive tastes.’

‘What’s your name then, lady?’ he mocked.

‘Alice,’ she replied haughtily. ‘Alice Little, and I don’t give a sod who knows it!’

Pressed against the wall at the top of the alley, Ruthie prayed he wouldn’t come looking. When she realised they’d gone, she ran on, out of the market square, and down towards the open road. ‘Got to find Billy,’ she kept saying. ‘Got to find Billy!’

It was only a matter of minutes before Bridget returned to the stall carrying an armful of comet-shaped bags filled with piping hot crusty potatoes. ‘Quick now,’ she said as she rounded the stall. ‘Ruthie, take these from me, sweetheart. There’s one each for us, and two for Joe.’

‘She ain’t here,’ Joe called out. He was serving a customer.

Bridget dropped the bags on to the wooden crate that served as a table. ‘What do you mean, she ain’t here?’

‘She’s on an errand.’

‘You mean she’s gone next door to Aggie’s?’ Ruthie often popped round and helped Aggie sort out her bric-a-brac.

‘’Ere! I’m in a hurry, mister!’ Holding out her hand for change, the customer was growing irate. ‘Yer can do yer gossiping when I’ve gawn.’

Joe counted out the change. ‘No, she ain’t gone to Aggie’s. She’s gone to fetch Billy.’

‘What?’ Gripping him by the shoulders, Bridget swung him round. ‘What do you mean, she’s gone to get Billy?’

Joe was so startled by her reaction that he dropped the change all over the stall. ‘Bugger me, lass, what’s wrong with you?’

‘What did she say, Joe? What exactly did Ruthie say?’

‘The lass told me she were going to find Billy and you’d know all about it, that’s what she said.’

‘Oh my God, Joe, she’s gone looking for Fanny and her boy!’ The colour drained from Bridget’s face. She looked frantically up and down the stalls. ‘Which way did she go?’ When he seemed slow to answer, she shook him. ‘Answer me, Joe! Which way did Ruthie go?’

The old fellow was beginning to realise just how serious it was. ‘Fanny’s boy?’ he said frowning. ‘But I thought you didn’t know where they were.’

‘Joe! Which way did Ruthie go?’

‘Down towards the clock, I reckon.’ He had never heard Bridget raise her voice like that before.

‘I’ve got to find her, Joe, I’ve got to find my lass,’ she called as she took off after Ruthie.

Aggie poked her head round the stall. ‘What’s going on? Where’s Bridget gone running off to?’

‘The young’un’s gone to find Billy and his mam,’ Joe told her. ‘They’re on the road somewhere, God only knows where!’ Frantic now, he asked, ‘Will you watch the stall, Aggie, while I go after her?’

‘Get going! Don’t worry about the stall. I can keep two as well as one.’