From inside the soft, warm cocoon that encircled her, Bridget heard. She didn’t answer. There was no strength left. Just now, she had confessed to the young man, and he had understood. It was enough. And so she smiled, and drifted further away.

Nelly paced the floor, checking the street through the window at every turn. ‘If that little bugger’s led me a merry dance, God help him!’

She saw a carriage draw up outside the house, and out of it stepped Bob Morris. Behind him came a smartly dressed man carrying a large, dark bag. ‘Open the door, Nelly,’ Bob called through the letter box. ‘I’ve brought the doctor.’

Nelly ran down the stairs and threw open the door. ‘Oh, thank God! Thank God!’ she exclaimed, and ushered the doctor up the stairs and into the bedroom. ‘Please help her,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve done all I can.’

For the next hour, Nelly worked hard, doing as she was bid, running back and forth, up the stairs and down, until she felt her legs would fall off. ‘I’m not so young as I was,’ she said breathlessly as she came, puffing and panting, into the bedroom.

When Bob offered to help, she pushed him away. ‘This is woman’s stuff,’ she said proudly.

Once, when she took away a bucketful of soiled sheeting, she caught sight of Bridget looking at her through the pain, and her heart lifted. ‘You can do it, lass,’ she urged, and her reward was the smallest nod.

‘She’s in good hands,’ Bob told Nelly downstairs as she put the soiled bedding in the dolly tub. ‘I’ll be off now. Will you let me know how she gets on?’

‘Who’s going to pay the doctor?’ Nelly responded.

‘He’s paid.’

Choked, Nelly could only nod gratefully.

Some short time later, bending over the range, her head bathed in steam from the boiling water, Nelly didn’t hear the door open.

‘I’ve come to take her home,’ said a familiar voice.

Startled, Nelly swung round. ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph!’ she cried. ‘You gave me a fright, Tom Mulligan.’

‘Where is she?’

‘The doctor’s with her. She’s in a bad way, and he’s the only one who can help.’ Standing there, the neck of his shirt open and his hair tousled, he looked exhausted, as though he’d been to hell and back. Yet she knew where he’d been and with whom, and for a moment she was tempted to throw him out.

‘Please,’ he said quietly, ‘I need to make amends.’

Despite herself, Nelly couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. ‘If you’re real quiet, you can go and see how she’s doing. But you mustn’t interfere. It’s up to the doctor now. Like I said, she’s in a bad way.’

When he nodded, she wrapped her hand in a rag and took up the kettle. ‘Follow me,’ she said.

When he walked into that quiet room, Tom saw how serious Bridget’s condition was and thought he would never forgive himself for deserting her. He wanted to tell her this, but he knew there was a real fight going on at the bedside, so he kept his distance.