Joyce gave her a rather wobbly smile. ‘Thanks, queen, you’re a star.’

Roz headed into the yard and looked around to see if she could spot where Suzie had got to. Hearing quiet sobbing noises coming from the feed shed, she took a deep breath and stole over to the door, which was ajar, and knocked gently. She wasn’t expecting Suzie to invite her in, so she went in anyway.

‘I’ve come to see how you are,’ she said by way of explaining her presence.

Suzie was sitting in the corner hugging her knees to her chest, her face hidden from view. ‘Well, you needn’t have bothered, so you may as well sod off,’ came the muffled response.

Ignoring Suzie’s advice, Roz continued, ‘You’ve just had some pretty shocking news to say the least. Your …’ she hesitated, as she was still getting her own mind around the thought of Joyce being anyone’s mother, let alone Suzie’s, ‘… mum’s worried about you.’

Suzie raised her head to look at Roz, her face wet with tears. She viewed Roz through narrowing eyes. ‘Tell her she’s about six years too late!’

Roz sat down on the floor beside Suzie. ‘I think she’s always worried about you. I understand if—’

She got no further before Suzie erupted in an angry torrent of abuse. ‘Understand? Understand? How can you possibly understand anything about me or my life? You know nothing about me, you’ve no idea what my life was like before you came along, but let me tell you, it was a lot better before you arrived. You may not like my gran and dad, but at least they looked after me, not ran away and left me on my own.’ Standing up, she flapped her hands in despair. ‘For God’s sake, we’ve lived for years thinking my dad is a murderer, and he isn’t! He didn’t do anything wrong! It’s my mam’s fault that things were fraught at home, all of us treading on eggshells, my dad because he knew what everyone was saying behind his back, and me and Gran because we thought the rumours were true!’ Her lips wobbled as she tried to fight back the tears. ‘And I don’t know where he is so I can’t even tell him I’m sorry!’ she cried, before storming out of the shed.

Roz quickly got to her feet, but by the time she was out of the door, Suzie was already halfway down the drive and running fast. Roz headed back to Rose Cottage where she found an anxious Joyce being comforted by Adele. Seeing Roz walk through the door, Joyce looked up hopefully, but Roz was shaking her head.