‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord!’ Tilly threw her arms in the air and, clapping her hands together, she cried jubilantly, ‘Emma pushed her husband down the stairs to his death… and now, over twenty years on, her own son meets a sorry end, by falling down a cliff face in Corporation Park.’ Puffing out her narrow, bony chest, she shook her head and, just for a second, seemed about to express some small sympathy. But then she remembered her own part in Emma’s conviction all those years ago, and caution took over. She must always be careful to remind folk of what a callous woman Emma Tanner was. ‘Like I said, Molly… it’s the hand of justice, don’t you think?’

‘It’s a cruel hand all the same… that takes an innocent child from its mammy,’ Molly murmured. The news of young Bill Tanner’s tragic accident had subdued her. Being a mother herself, she could understand how devastating it must be to have the child you adored snatched away. She thought of her own lasses, little Sal and Peggy; she thought of her son Tom who, crippled though he was, had not lost his life. For a moment, that part of her that was a mother went out in sympathy to Emma and Marlow Tanner. But then she remembered how Emma had been convicted of helping to murder her own husband. She thought of how Marlow Tanner had betrayed his own darling sister, old Sal, who had brought him up after they had lost their parents in strange and mysterious circumstances. Molly was made to remember all of this. And more besides: how Emma Tanner was blood kin to Caleb Crowther, and how that fiend had set out to make Molly’s life a misery from when she was a child – even now he was hell-bent on destroying her, should she give him the chance.

Molly’s hackles were up. Caleb Crowther would not be given the chance to destroy her, because this very day she had vowed to tread more carefully in future. Since the other day, when she had come upon him in that carriage, Molly had been in a state of panic, even considering whether or not to move out of Dock Street. She had decided against that. Her reasons were twofold. Firstly, she was certain that she had not been followed, and secondly, should Jack ever come home again, it would be to this little house on Dock Street. So, for the time being at least, she had no plans to up sticks and take to the road.

She didn’t tell Mick about her upset with Caleb Crowther. He might renew his pleas to get her and the lasses living aboard his barge. Her mind was as stubborn as ever on that particular issue. Mick Darcy was to keep his place where Jack’s family were concerned. He knew that now, and that was the way Molly preferred it.

All the same, Molly was forced to admit to herself what a good and loyal friend Mick was to her and the young ’uns. In fact, of late she found herself comparing him more and more to Jack. Jack! A spiral of anger and disillusionment rose up in her. In all this time there had been no word. Soon, she promised herself, he’ll come home. In spite of everything, she knew that she would be waiting.