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the neighbours had seen Mrs Holden carried out kicking and screaming because she’d tried to stop them taking her husband.
    Her stomach churning, Pearl listened to her mother ranting and raving. Then suddenly, Kitty’s voice stopped, and she could hear one of the policemen saying something, his tone grim and sonorous. She was just wondering whether to creep upstairs and listen at the keyhole when the door to the lads’ bedroom opened.
    Shrinking back against the wall, Pearl watched the two policemen walk downstairs, her mother following. Kitty’s voice was plaintive when she said, ‘Look, I’m tellin’ you, I knew nowt about them things an’ nor do my lads. Likely they’ve bin stuffed up the chimney for donkey’s years, long afore we moved in.’
    ‘I doubt that, Mrs Croft.’ Constable Johnson was holding a cloth bag. ‘Some of this jewellery matches a description of property which was stolen over the Christmas period.’
    ‘Not by my lads.’
    ‘A robbery in which the butler of the residence was threatened with a knife until he showed the three thieves where the safe was hidden.’
    ‘There you are then. My lads wouldn’t know one end of a knife from the other. Good as gold they are.’
    Constable Johnson stopped and turned in the hall, staring at Kitty who remained on the bottom step of the stairs. She stared back, openly defiant. ‘We’ve had our eye on your lads for some time, so this is no more a surprise to us than it is to you,’ he said flatly. ‘We just haven’t been able to get any proof before.’
    ‘Proof!’ Kitty snorted. ‘Likely you slipped that up the chimney when I wasn’t look in’, to fit ’em up.’
    ‘You know that isn’t true, Mrs Croft.’
    ‘The devil I do. You lot are all the same, terrorism’ good, honest, godfearin’ souls like my lads while turnin’ a blind eye to the goings-on of the nobs. I know, I know.’
    ‘Shut up.’ The other policeman was clearly losing patience. He included Pearl in the sweep of his head as he said, ‘Go and sit in the kitchen. And quietly.’
    ‘Don’t you tell me what to do in me own house.’ Kitty’s chin was up, her thin lips clamped together, but as the policeman took a step towards her she quickly went through to the kitchen.
    Once Pearl and her mother were sitting at the kitchen table Constable Johnson opened the door into the yard and disappeared for a few minutes. Nothing was said until he returned. The other policeman stood in front of the range warming his buttocks as though he had forgotten their presence.
    When Constable Johnson walked in, Pearl noticed he wasn’t holding the cloth bag any more. Glancing at his colleague, he said, ‘No sign as yet, but we’re ready.’
    ‘More of you skulkin’ about, is there?’ Kitty said sharply.
    ‘Worry you, does it?’
    Kitty shrugged but she couldn’t hide her unease. Pearl’s hands were joined on her breast; she was feeling panic-stricken. Wild thoughts darted about her head. Could she jump up and run out before they caught her, and warn Seth and the lads? Or pretend she had to go and see someone? A neighbour maybe? Or say she had to go to the privy and then creep out and try to get away?
    But she didn’t know where Seth and the others were or when they were coming back, only that it would be soon and they would enter the house via the back lane. They always did. And the waiting policemen would catch them.
    Her mind whirled and spun; although it was hard for her to think clearly, she knew she and her mother were as helpless to change the next hour or two as her three brothers were. They were all caught in a trap.
    She could smell that the hodge podge was beginning to catch on the bottom of the pan and so she stood up and walked over to the range to stir it.
    ‘Something smells good.’
    Constable Johnson smiled at her but she didn’t smile back. She thought she heard him sigh but then from outside came the sounds she had been dreading. Men shouting, a policeman’s