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clearing tables. ‘How’s Maud?’
    ‘In bed asleep when I left.’
    ‘Best place for her,’ Ronnie said authoritatively.
    Diana went to the counter. ‘I’ll have a tea and a hot pie, please Tony,’ she said. He poured the tea and gave it to her.
    ‘I’ll bring the pie when it’s ready,’ he smiled.
    ‘Surely you’re going to stay with us, Diana,’ Haydn said as she moved a chair between him and William.
    ‘Your mother says there’s no room.’
    At the mention of Elizabeth everyone fell silent. Haydn could almost taste the air of oppression his mother carried with her whenever she walked into a room.
    ‘If Maud is ill you can’t share with her, that’s for certain.’ Haydn replaced his cup on his saucer. ‘But there’s always the box room. We can squeeze a single bed in there – just.’
    ‘But there is no single bed,’ Diana protested feebly, not wanting to tell her brother and Haydn about Elizabeth’s decisive pronouncement on her presence in the house.
    ‘You took your furniture over to your Uncle Huw’s, Will. Was there a bed?’ Haydn asked.
    ‘Five.’ William finished his tea. ‘Three single and two doubles. I saved all of Mam’s bedroom suites, bedding, rugs and china, as well as all the downstairs furniture. Uncle Huw threatened to hold an auction there when I left.’
    ‘That’s settled then.’ Haydn rose from his seat and reached for his coat and muffler. ‘Soon as you finish on the stall you can go over and get whatever Diana needs to furnish the box room. Dad can take it up on the horse and cart.’
    ‘Your father and Eddie will be calling in here before they finish for the day,’ Ronnie shouted above the hissing of the steamer. ‘They’re bringing my flour over from the canal wharf.’
    ‘In that case nothing could be simpler. You stay and wait for them, Di,’ Haydn suggested, ‘then you can go over to Bonvilston Road, pick out whatever you want, and they can take it up.’
    ‘Wouldn’t it be easier if I just moved in with Uncle Huw for a bit?’ Diana pleaded.
    Haydn looked at her and instinctively knew where the problem lay.
    ‘Not with Will living the other end of town. It would look funny.’
    ‘Come on, Di, you don’t need me to tell you what a tip Uncle Huw’s house is. I don’t think he’s cleaned it since the Great War,’ William said drily.
    ‘Open horse and cart isn’t ideal in this weather,’ Ronnie commented practically. ‘The Trojan’s empty at the moment. There’s more than enough room for a bed and bedding in the back.’
    Diana squirmed uncomfortably. ‘Aunt Elizabeth isn’t expecting me back,’ she said slowly.
    ‘Dad’s got a tarpaulin,’ Haydn said tactfully. ‘And the yard doesn’t close until late on a Saturday, so he won’t be in a hurry to take the horse and cart back. Best to leave it to him.’ Everyone took that to mean leaving Elizabeth to him, not the moving of the furniture.
    ‘If he needs a hand between six and seven, come and get me,’ Will offered. ‘There’s usually a slack time then. It picks up around eight o’clock, because people know Charlie cuts the price of any joints that are left, rather than see them get knocked down in the nine o’clock bell when the leftovers are auctioned. But if it’s not between six and seven, it’ll have to wait until after nine.’
    ‘I doubt there’ll be anything that Dad and Eddie won’t be able to handle between them.’ Haydn squeezed Jenny’s hand and whispered in her ear. She smiled and clung to him.
    ‘Walk me over to the Town Hall?’ he asked her.
    ‘It’s a hard life being a callboy,’ Will joked. ‘Nothing but pretty chorus girls, chocolates and nips of whisky backstage.’
    ‘I’d swap jobs with you any day!’
    ‘Need muscles to hump meat around, not pretty-boy looks,’ Will teased, flexing his biceps and wrapping his arm round his sister. ‘See you later, sis.’
    ‘Thanks, Will. Haydn.’ She wiped her eyes hoping that everyone would think she