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contrasted sharply with her playmate’s changing moods. Molly’s alert and agile mind was trapped inside her retarded body and it often made her frustrated and angry. Connie quietly bore the brunt of her anger and changing moods with gentle patience. When the street children chased a ball or followed coloured glass marbles in a scurry, Connie would stay close to Molly. It was as though she had made herself responsible for her cousin’s safety and wellbeing and, whenever Helen watched the two together, it tugged at her heart. She had cared and tended her sister’s child since Kate first took the job at Armitage’s. When she had suddenly left the factory after the outing in twenty-three, Kate had got a job as a barmaid and young Connie was left more and more in Helen’s care. Helen had grown to love the girl as though she were her own and she was aware of the deep bond between the children. It helped to quell the grinding bitterness and heartache at seeing her own child’s malformed body struggling to develop and mature.

Chapter Four
    During the early ’twenties the Government changed hands with almost monotonous regularity until, in 1924, a Conservative government under the leadership of Stanley Baldwin took office and remained in power for five years. Then, in 1926, a general strike paralysed the industrial areas, and in Bermondsey the trams stopped running and the docks and wharves closed. Some local factories shut, and in the Armitage factory some of the younger members of the workforce attempted to organise their own support for the strike by walking out and standing at the gates. The main section of the workforce was confronted with hastily prepared leaflets when they reported for work one Monday morning and many workers joined the protesters at the gates. Joe Cooper was standing amongst them. Joe had earned the respect of nearly every worker at the factory. He had been instrumental in helping to improve relations between the workers and management and in the process he had made an enemy of Gerald Armitage. Gerald saw that Joe could coax and cajole the best out of the factory hands and he was jealous of Joe’s influence. He was convinced that the foreman was the troublemaker behind the growing demands for the factory to become unionised. But Joe had also earned the respect and trust of Peter Armitage, the factory’s new managing director, and he was not afraid to take the shop floor grievances directly to Peter and bypass his more inflexible brother. Although this was a blatant infringement of normal procedures it was an arrangement which persisted, and it caused a few eyebrows to be raised.
    Peter Armitage stood at the window of his office, looking down at the yard. His father had recently handed over control of the business to him, and the realities of running the factory weighed heavily upon him . . .
    With a deep sigh he left the window and slumped down at his desk. His forefinger twirled the paper knife as he thought about the conversation he had had with his wife Claudette the previous evening. They had been sitting beside the log fire and Claudette was industriously working on a piece of embroidery. Suddenly she had looked up. ‘Will the factory have to close, Peter?’ she asked.
    ‘I think it’s more than likely, my dear,’ he replied. ‘The strike seems to be spreading everywhere.’
    Claudette clicked her tongue. ‘But you can’t allow yourself to be dictated to. You’ll have to stand up to them. Gerald was saying that it’s only a few troublemakers leading the rest and he thinks it’s about time you showed them just who’s running the factory.’
    Peter had given his wife a withering glance. ‘Exactly. I think Gerald should bear that in mind, too,’ he growled and flicked open the evening paper. And, just as he had turned to read it, he had caught a strange smile on Claudette’s face as she worked the needle through the tapestry . . .
    The sound of loud voices coming from the yard