‘Ah, you poor love. Here, drink your tea. My name’s Mary, by the way, Mary Hathersage.’

‘I’m Diana … Thornton,’ said Gina. The name Thornton flew into her head and she realised she must have seen it on a destination board. It was safer not to announce she was Gina Arnold in case her name hit the headlines in the next day’s newspapers.

‘Well, Diana, what are you going to Blackpool for? Do you know someone there you can go to?’

Gina shook her head. ‘Not a soul, but I thought, what with it being a place with a lot of visitors, I might be able to get a job there … in a shop or a café, mebbe.’

‘I reckon you might. It’s the beginning of the holiday season. But where would you stay, love? I take it you’ve not made any plans for that?’

‘No, Mrs Hathersage. I thought I’d see what I could find when I got there.’

‘Mm …’

They drank their tea in silence and Mary poured Gina a second cup.

‘The thing is, love, I’m not sure it’s safe for a pretty young woman like you to be finding her own way in a vast metropolis like Blackpool. You come across all sorts of chancers and the like.’

Gina suppressed a smile. Vast metropolis?

‘What do you mean, Mrs Hathersage?’

‘It’s Miss Hathersage, but call me Mary, please, love. I don’t stand on ceremony. I mean folk go to Blackpool to have a good time and there’s other folk only too willing to relieve them of their hard-earned wages while they’re there. You know, landlords and landladies who offer cheap rooms and it’s not as nice as they advertise. Too late then when they’ve got their hands on your money and there’s nowt for breakfast but stale toast and a filthy bathroom shared with ten others.’

Gina nodded. Mary Hathersage sounded as if she might have been taken for a ride herself at one time and was speaking from bitter experience.

‘Now, I’m not saying there aren’t plenty of honest folk in Blackpool, too, but it’s not allus easy to tell the good ’uns from the bad ’uns straight off, if you get my drift. When accommodation’s in demand, that’s when standards drop or chancers move in.’

Gina was impressed. ‘I reckon you could be right, Mary. It’s lucky for me that I met you and have fair warning.’

Mary patted Gina’s hand. ‘Well, I couldn’t let a little lamb like you wander where there might be wolves, could I, love?’

Gina nearly spilled her tea choking back her laughter, and had to cover it with coughing.

‘So, what you do think I should do, Mary?’ she asked.