‘Violet, are you sure you should lift that?’ asked Ruby anxiously from behind the counter of the shop. ‘Here, you come and check the change in the till and I’ll do it. You must be careful.’

Violet straightened up slowly, rubbing her back. ‘Maybe you’re right. Thanks, Ruby. It’s getting so that I can’t bend over properly any more. It’s all I can do to kick my shoes off.’ She made her way heavily to the counter as Ruby slipped out into the aisle, and found she could hardly fit in her usual space. She moved the stool to give herself a bit more room and collapsed on to it. ‘I’m sure Rita was never this big. She didn’t have this trouble.’

‘I suppose everyone’s different,’ said Ruby uncertainly, rubbing her hands and then plunging them into the patch pockets of her faded apron. Growing up with only mean Elsie Lowe for company, she hadn’t known any expectant mothers. Rita was the only person she had to go by, and she’d carried Ellen in a neat bump, managing to work almost up to the birth. Violet was struggling in comparison.

‘That’s what they say,’ Violet huffed. She’d seen her own mother carry four children, and she didn’t remember her ever being as big as this, but then again Violet was much taller than her mother had been, so perhaps it followed that her bump would be bigger too. She didn’t know. Dolly, Rita and Sarah kept reassuring her that she had no need to worry, and so she tried to take comfort from them. Between them they’d carried eight babies and tended to more births than they could count, so they should know what they were talking about. All the same, she could do without the nights of interrupted sleep and constant heartburn. It made her uncharacte‌ristically tetchy.

Ruby crouched down to try to shift the big box on the floor. She was not used to doing much of the heavy work around the shop, as Rita and Violet had always done everything between them. Even during the recent stages of her pregnancy, Violet had managed, as Rita was back at the hospital most of the time, but now it was physically impossible for her to get her arms around a bulky box as her bump was always in the way. Ruby tried to lift the box before her in the way she’d seen Violet do it, but nothing happened. Her arms were shorter and weaker. She hadn’t had a lifetime of building up her muscles, and the sheer weight of the box defeated her.

‘Oh, Violet, what are we going to do?’ She began rubbing her hands again. ‘We can’t leave it there, someone might trip over it.’