‘Mammy… I’m cold.’ In the half-darkness, little Sal had seen the familiar outline of her mammy, bent forward on the edge of the bunk, with her head resting on upturned palms and a look of dejection about her weary frame. Now, when Molly raised her eyes to glance at the small figure climbing from the bed, the child faintly perceived the tears rolling down her mammy’s face. ‘Don’t cry, Mammy… please don’t cry,’ came the little voice.

‘Cry?’ At once Molly was on her feet and surreptitiously wiping away the tears. Opening wide her arms, she caught the child lovingly to her breast. ‘Whatever makes you think I’m crying, sweetheart?’ she asked softly.

‘You are crying,’ little Sal insisted, twisting her body round in Molly’s arms and peering into the dark luscious eyes. ‘I saw you!’

‘No,’ Molly lied. ‘Why should I be crying… when I’ve got the three loveliest children in all the world?’

For a long, brooding moment the girl pondered deeply, then in that open innocent way that children do, she said, ‘You haven’t got Daddy, though, have you, Mammy?… and I know you miss him.’ Her two skinny arms wound themselves tightly round Molly’s neck, as she asked in a small tearful voice, ‘When is he coming, Mammy?… When is Daddy coming to find us?’

Molly was mortified! This was the very first time that Sal had mentioned Jack in that way. Suddenly it was painfully obvious to Molly that she had been greatly unfair to little Sal – taking her for granted, making her grow up before her time, leaning on her as though she was another woman, instead of a small child who missed her daddy. She wondered now how often little Sal had woken up during the long dark hours when she herself was earning the money that fed and sheltered them. Had her daughter been afraid and lonely without her mammy close by? Was Molly placing too much of a burden on those narrow shoulders, by depending on Sal to mind her brother and sister? Had there been times when either of them had woken in a nightmare, looking for their mammy and, finding her gone, then turned to their elder sister for comfort? Every painful question stabbed at Molly’s heart and made her desperate. In that moment, she came to a crucial decision.

‘I don’t know when Daddy is coming to find us, sunshine,’ she told the clinging child, ‘but, somehow, I don’t think we’ll find him here in Liverpool.’ She put the girl to the floor and, keeping her voice soft so as not to disturb the sleeping babes, she asked, ‘Do you miss him, too?’ When little Sal slowly nodded, Molly smiled and went on, ‘Well then… where do you think we should look for him, eh?’

‘In Dock Street, because if he goes there… looking for us, he won’t know where we are.’

Molly smiled at the simple logic. ‘You’re right, sweetheart,’ she agreed. But her heart sank to her boots. If she were to return to Dock Street, it might not just be Jack that found them! She should have been elated at the thought of Jack being reunited with them. Instead, she felt cold and confused at the prospect. Yet she could not go on as she had done since fleeing the house on Dock Street, especially not now, having seen the true depth of her daughter’s feelings. It was possible that Jack might return to Dock Street looking for them – although, somehow, Molly thought it highly unlikely. With the thought came a spiral of disgust.