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then you can let her know that it won’t be any problem because you have been booked into a private clinic to have the baby. When you come home afterwards without the baby, you can always say it has died or something. I’m sure you are capable of making up a suitable story.’
    â€˜Yes, and then I will be packing my bags and telling Mrs Maggie Nelson that I am going home to my mother until you come home from your unknown destination,’ Christabel told him.
    â€˜Good, that’s all settled and clear in both our minds,’ Lewis agreed.
    â€˜You haven’t told me about the clinic yet,’ Christabel reminded him as they left the Exchange and started to walk towards Scotland Road.
    â€˜I’ve written down all the details. They want you to go along sometime before you are due to give birth to provide them with variousdetails. Don’t forget, you are also booked in there as Mrs Montgomery,’ he added.
    As they left the busy office area behind, Christabel noticed the streets were becoming shabbier, and when they turned into Wilcock Court, she drew in a sharp breath of dismay because there was such an air of gloom and neglect over the place.
    It was mid-afternoon; most men were still at work, but there seemed to be women clustered together on every doorstep. A few were shouting at children who were playing in the gutter, or swinging from ropes tied to a lamp post, but most were simply talking to each other and the majority of them looked unkempt and even dirty to her fastidious eye.
    â€˜Surely this isn’t where the room is?’ she asked in alarm.
    â€˜I told you it wasn’t very salubrious,’ Lewis retorted in a disgruntled tone.
    â€˜Which house belongs to Maggie Nelson?’
    â€˜It’s the end one,’ he stated, ‘and since there’s no one standing outside gossiping, maybe she doesn’t fraternise with her neighbours very much.’
    To Christabel’s relief the heavily built middle-aged woman who answered the door to them looked reasonably clean and wholesome in her dark dress and clean floral apron.
    â€˜This way Mr and Mrs Montgomery,’ she invited.
    She led them up the stairs and along a narrowlanding to a medium-sized room that contained a narrow bed and wardrobe at one end and an armchair and a round wooden table and two straight-backed chairs at the other. Across one corner was a dark red cotton curtain which she pulled to one side to reveal a work shelf with narrower shelves above it containing an assortment of cups, saucers, plates and tins for storage. On the main shelf there was a gas ring, a tin kettle and a washing-up bowl; underneath the shelf were two buckets, one containing fresh water.
    â€˜There you are, everything you need,’ she said proudly. ‘You can refill the bucket with water from the tap in my kitchen whenever you need to do so. The other bucket is for your rubbish and you bring that down and tip it into the bin out in the back yard. By the way, that’s where the lavatory is. You’ll have to go through my kitchen to get out of the backdoor,’ she added as an afterthought.
    â€˜I see. I hope that’s not too inconvenient,’ Christabel murmured.
    â€˜It hasn’t got to be, has it?’ Mrs Nelson answered tartly. ‘That’s the way it is and I’ve been letting rooms out for so long now that I’m used to it. Anyway,’ she went on, ‘I’ll leave the pair of you to settle in. You won’t be staying as well, will you, Mr Montgomery?’ She frowned, looking over at the narrow bed.
    â€˜No no,’ Lewis said hastily, taking out his watch from his waistcoat pocket and consulting it.‘I have to return to my base, I must leave quite soon.’
    â€˜Then in that case, I’ll leave the two of you to say goodbye. I hope Mrs Montgomery will be very comfortable here once she’s settled in.’
    The moment the door closed behind Mrs Nelson,