With a grin James put the car into gear, executed a rapid three-point turn and drove back the way they had come. Providence Street – Gina saw the sign on the wall of the last house as James turned right and pulled away. Surely it couldn’t be more misnamed. Ahead in the distance was the most enormous chimney Gina had ever seen, dwarfing everything else, like some structure from a world of giants.

‘Something to do with waste disposal,’ James said, seeing where she was looking.

‘Heck, there must be a lot of waste in Blackburn,’ she marvelled.

‘A lot of wasters, at any rate,’ laughed James. ‘At least the people I deal with.’

‘Was it all right … the business you had to see to there?’ she asked tentatively. She was longing to know what it was all about.

‘It was fine,’ he said, making it clear that was the end of the conversation.

He continued driving in silence for a while, turning west towards Preston, then on towards Blackpool.

‘Are we going all the way to the seaside?’ asked Gina, seeing the signposts.

‘It’s all right, you won’t need your bathers,’ James answered. ‘I thought you’d like a walk along the Prom, dinner, maybe a visit to a club. What do you think?’

Gina beamed. ‘Thank you, I’d love it. You can make up for earlier.’

‘I intend to,’ promised James.

Gina had only ever been to the seaside once before. It was quite a long journey from Little Grindle to Blackpool, the nearest seaside town, by bus or train, and Philip had never understood why anyone would want to have a little holiday and some fun on the beach. Gina remembered the day – when she was about eight and Ellen nine, not so very long after the war – being an outing that mainly consisted of restrictions rather than treats; wanting to try new things and being told they couldn’t, that it ‘costs too much’ or ‘it’s a waste of money’ or ‘What do you want to do that for?’ Dora had tried to make it a happy day for her girls, with a fish-and-chip picnic on the Prom, but it hadn’t really been the fun that a day at the seaside was reputed to be at all.

A visit to Blackpool with James Stellion would be far more enjoyable, Gina decided. Or at least she hoped it would. So far the trip was not looking promising, but the prospect of the seaside raised her hopes.

By the time they arrived and James had parked his car in a side street off the front, Gina was excited and quite prepared to put up with the pain in her back and the cramp in her legs from being squashed in the tiny car seat.

‘What would you like to do first, Gina?’