‘Yes, please, Ed. And I think – I just know – there’s going to be some good news when we get home.’

‘Are you allowed to tell me now, lass?’

Ellen laughed. ‘I have just two names to give you, Ed: Mum and Uncle Tom.’

Ed was laughing then, too. ‘And about time. My mum will be made up about that – Dad, too.’

‘So will Gina. She may have been envious of a lot of people, but she wanted only the best for Mum and Uncle Tom. She’d known for a long time that they loved each other, she told me. And I realise she never betrayed them or sought to take advantage of what she had overheard. I’ll write to tell her this evening that Mum and Uncle Tom have their happy ending.’

‘Aye, you do that, love. Do it straight away.’

‘Yes. This is the very best news and I can’t wait to share it. I’ll never give up on Gina. She knows that, but just in case she ever forgets in the horrible place she’s in now, I always sign my letters, “With love from your sister, Nell”.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

‘… With love from your sister, Nell.’

Gina folded her letter from Ellen and put it back in the envelope. So, Mum and Uncle Tom were going to get married. About time. She herself had wanted that all along, right from the first spell she had cast, when she wished for her father to disappear from their lives. Now, at last, the future she’d plotted would come about, although Dora would be living at the Lodge with Tom alone before long, when Ellen married Edward. Doubtless they would go to live in Highview Cottage, as it belonged to Edward’s parents.

Gina sat on her high, hard bunk bed and examined what she really thought about the news of the forthcoming marriage.

The answer was, in truth: not very much. She tried to conjure up a picture of Mum wearing a pretty new frock and hat, Uncle Tom smiling down at her, outside a registry office, Nell and Edward showering them with confetti – tried to be pleased about it all – but it seemed like some strange dream about people she used to know a long, long time ago, and about whom she now felt indifferent. They could do as they wished; she didn’t begrudge them their happiness but she wasn’t there to be a part of it and it was pointless to try to work up any enthusiasm. That would lead only to disappointment, and Gina was careful to guard against any raised hopes about reality while she was serving her punishment.