‘Look, Molly.’ He stepped aside and beckoned her with a thin, heavily veined arm. ‘Come inside where we can talk things over,’ he suggested in a fawning voice. ‘I’m sure we can come to an agreement of sorts.’ He touched her on the shoulder, appearing astonished when she shrank from him.

‘Can I have my money?’

He stared at her, dropped his arm and inhaled an almighty breath which he noisily exhaled through his nose. ‘You’re a stubborn little bugger, an’ that’s a fact!’ he said, with a small chuckle. He stared a while longer, drinking in Molly’s dark beauty and calculating how he could take it to himself. Presently, his bony face split into a grim smile. ‘All right, girlie,’ he said, at the same time stepping aside. ‘You’d best come in. I can see you’ll not budge till you’ve got what’s due to you.’ When she looked both surprised and suspicious, he quickly urged, ‘Come in, I tell you… it’ll take me a minute or two to get the box open.’

‘All right, Mr Craig, but I can’t stay no longer on account of the children being on their own.’ Something about him made her feel uncomfortable. ‘Happen it might be better if I were to come back when we’re all packed and ready to go.’

‘You’ll do no such thing! I’m not dithering about waiting for you to knock on the door when it suits you! You’ll come inside now, and wait while I get your wages, or you can be off and leave me to think on how I’m gonna find a replacement for you at such short notice.’ The smile had gone from his face as he proceeded to close the door.

‘A minute or two, then,’ Molly reluctantly agreed, ‘but no longer.’

It was the first time Molly had set foot in her employer’s house. It was a big old house, with stained-glass windows, a regal air, and a sense of desolation about it. There was something especially forbidding about the outside – as though it was brooding for the grander age to which it belonged. It was rumoured that, at one time, the house had been the home of an industrialist who came on hard times and was forced to sell. That was the beginning of its descent. Over the years the house and its land were separated; the land was quickly developed, afterwards leaving only a narrow stretch behind where the outhouses stood, and a wider area to the side where the diner was erected, to serve the dockers and other passing trade.

Molly felt like a trespasser. The house was deep inside, with a long narrow passage going down to the sitting-room. She felt on edge, reluctant to stay for even one minute. But she so desperately needed her wages, and after all, she and the young ’uns would soon be on their way. ‘A few minutes’ – that’s how long he said it would take to get her wages together; a few minutes, and she would be gone from this house into the fresh air again. Quietly, she followed his long, thin figure, listening to his meaningless chatter and hoping that Sal would be all right with her brother and sister for the little while she would be gone.