‘Yes.’ Ruby’s voice grew a little more confident. ‘Mr James asked me to spend this evening with him and I said no, I can’t go out because I’m looking after Michael and Megan later. That’s right, isn’t it?’

‘Well, yes, that’s what I’d hoped,’ said Rita.

‘So I asked him to come round for the evening,’ Ruby went on, ‘and he said yes. He’s going to teach me to play chess. He promised ages ago, but his father was sick and he couldn’t come before now. Old Mr James is better now so Reggie can come after all.’ Her face glowed with excitement.

‘Chess?’ Rita echoed in astonishment. If only Winnie could see the young woman now, she thought. Her late mother-in-law had treated Ruby with nothing but meanness. She’d been horrible to Rita too, but Rita had had the support of her family to fall back on. Ruby had had nobody, no reason to disbelieve the common opinion that she was soft in the head and good for nothing. Maybe Winnie could indeed see her, from wherever she had been consigned to in the afterlife. Rita remonstrated with herself – Winnie must have had her good points once, she supposed; it was just by the time Rita had met her, they’d been well hidden. For years Rita had blamed herself for the failure of her own first marriage, but the cruelty Winnie had shown Ruby, never admitting that she was her daughter, palming her off to endure being raised by spiteful Elsie Lowe, then putting it about that Ruby was simple once she had come back into her life, never ceased to amaze Rita every time she thought about it. She could not understand how a mother could treat her own child like that – Michael, Megan and Ellen were worth more than life itself to her.

Even so, how would Ruby take to chess? The only person Rita knew who could play was Danny, and he’d taken it up only recently. You had to have a certain sort of mind, people said. Yet perhaps Ruby did. While she still struggled with plenty of everyday activities, she was strangely talented in many other ways, and so perhaps this would be another one of them.

‘Yes, he said it’s all about seeing patterns, and I can do that,’ Ruby said, growing more assured by the minute. ‘I’m really looking forward to it.’

Rita nodded in astonishment but in admiration too. ‘Make sure you get out the special Christmas biscuits that Kitty made,’ she said. Impulsively she leant forward and gave Ruby a hug. ‘I hope you have a lovely evening. I’ll take Michael and Megan over to Mam’s and then go straight to the hospital. I’ll see you in the morning.’

Ruby smiled, even though she had never really taken to being hugged. ‘Happy New Year, Rita.’