Then, just a few days ago, she had come in from playing out in the cobbled yard, with its smell from the two privies shared between eight families, to find Mrs Johnson waiting for her. ‘Your mam’s poorly,’ she had said. ‘You’re going to stay with us for a while.’ She had watched people going in and out of the house where she had grown up, and one day four men had come out carrying a big box and Percy, Mrs Johnson’s eldest, had said, ‘Your ma’s dead. That’s a coffin. They’re taking her to be buried.’

As soon as they had eaten their breakfast, thin porridge made for six but shared out between eight, Mrs Johnson put on her cap and shawl and told Percy to keep an eye on the others and see they didn’t get up to mischief while she was out. When she got back she took Gus on her lap and pulled May close to her.

‘Now, listen to me. You understand your mam is dead, don’t you?’

‘What’s dead?’ Gus asked.

‘It means she’s gone to heaven to live with Jesus.’ ‘When’s she coming back?’

‘She can’t come back, love. When people die they can’t come back. But she’ll be watching out for you, looking down from heaven, wanting you to be good and brave. But now, there’s no one to look after you and you can’t stay here, because there’s too many of us already. You can see that, can’t you?’

May nodded.

‘So a nice man is coming today and he’s going to take you to live in a big house at the top of the hill with lots of other children. That’ll be good, won’t it? You’ll have your own beds again, and plenty to eat and friends to play with, so you must go along with him like good children. Understand?’

Gus just sniffed miserably but May nodded. Anything had to be better than sharing a bed with the other girls and hearing Mr Johnson shout at his wife.

The man arrived not long afterwards, a tall, thin man in a hat that made him look even taller and a coat that looked as if he had spilled something down it and not wiped it off properly. He and Mrs Johnson talked for a few minutes and then he said, ‘Right, you two. You come along with me.’

Mrs Johnson came to the entry from the court into the road to see them off. ‘Now, you be good children, and May, you look after your brother.’

‘I will,’ May promised.