From that day onwards, as she walked back to Nan’s, May began to notice other women, alone or in couples, hanging around street corners or shop doorways. She always averted her gaze and hurried on, as if by simply looking at them she might be infected with their shame. Then, one evening, she saw a single, slight figure, not brazen and garishly dressed but huddled into a dark cloak. There was something about it that seemed familiar and as she drew closer the girl lifted her face to the light of the street lamp and she knew why.

‘Patty!’

The girl started, and then turned and began to hurry away down a side alley. May ran after her.

‘Patty, stop! Wait! It’s me, May.’

The girl stopped and swung round to face her. ‘Leave me alone! Mind your own business!’ The voice was husky, almost a growl.

‘But Patty, what are you doing? What’s happened to you?’

‘Dismissed without a character, that’s what.’

‘Why? Why were you dismissed?’

The angry tone vanished and suddenly Patty’s voice was the one May remembered, but cracking with tears. ‘I took a pie from the larder. It was only a little one, left over from the gentlefolk’s dinner. They said it was stealing. I was hungry, May. So hungry!’

May felt tears rising in her own throat. ‘Oh, Patty, that’s terrible. What can I do?’

‘You? Nothing. There’s nothing you can do.’

‘Are you hungry now?’

‘What do you think?’

May’s brain was whirling. She could not leave her friend in this state, but what could she do to help? She remembered that, back at the house she had begun to think of as home, there would be a warm fire and hot food from the pie shop.

‘Come with me,’ she said. ‘I’ll get you something to eat.’

‘How? Where? Back to the place you work? They won’t let me in there.’

‘I don’t work there any longer. I’m apprenticed now and I live near here. I’ll explain later. Just come with me now.’

She was pulling Patty back towards the lighted street. For a moment the other girl resisted, but then she gave way and followed May down the street to Nan’s house. As they went, May’s mind was in turmoil. She knew she could not just take Patty into the house. Nan was easy-going, but she would draw the line at that. But in a little while Nan would go out.

The house was at the end of a terrace and beside it an alley led to the back, where each house had a tiny garden and a shed, which had once – or in some cases still did – housed the privy. Nan’s was exceptional in having installed a water closet. May led her friend to the back gate and took her through.

‘Hide in there for now. It’s not a privy any more and at least you’ll be out of the wind. The woman I live with will go out in about an hour and then I’ll come and get you. Can you wait that long?’