Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection. Josephine Cox

together, their hands lightly clasped in one another’s, relaxed in peaceful and instinctive understanding.

      Now they had met – and it wasn’t in circumstances Luke had envisaged at all. How could he bridge the gulf between these long-held dreams and this unforeseen reality?

      For one mad, inexplicable moment he wanted to go back. He wanted to look into those mesmerising dark blue eyes and talk with her, just to be near her and hear her voice.

      ‘You’re not making sense,’ he told himself. ‘She’s married, with a child.’ And the disappointment he felt was like a physical pain inside him.

      Deeply shaken, both by Johnny’s narrow escape and the brief meeting with Daisy’s ‘Tuesday man’, Amy watched him walk away.

      ‘That man likes you.’ Johnny said it as he saw it.

      Thankful that the boy couldn’t see her blushes, Amy asked, ‘How do you know that?’

      ‘Because I do, that’s all.’

      Amy laughed. ‘You’re an old head on young shoulders, that’s what you are.’

      ‘That’s what Mammy says.’

      ‘I know,’ Amy admitted. ‘And now I know why she says it.’

      ‘I’m hungry.’

      ‘I’ll get you some food soonever we get to Mrs Tooley’s.’

      ‘Who’s Mrs Tooley?’

      Amy was used to the boy’s constant questioning, but she was delighted by it because it told her he was losing his nervousness and wanting to know more about what went on around him. ‘Mrs Tooley owns the café where Daisy works,’ she informed him. ‘Now put your hand in my pocket and don’t let go!’

      Walking close to the shop windows she did not give way for anybody as they set off in the direction of Tooley’s Café. Even when a woman with a big pram tried to get between her and the wall, Amy would not budge. The last thing she wanted was for Johnny to get close to the road edge again.

      Daisy was delighted to see them. ‘Look at the pair of you!’ Grabbing Amy’s umbrella she shook it and left it in the porch. ‘You’ll catch your death o’ cold.’ Ushering them inside, she took Amy’s bags and went ahead to the table by the radiator. ‘I’ll be back with a pot o’ tea in a minute,’ she declared, marching off in a hurry. Meanwhile, Amy and Johnny took off their coats and hats, and draped them over the backs of the two chairs nearest the radiator.

      By the time they were settled, Daisy was back. ‘How does that do yer?’ she asked, planting the tray on the table. ‘One giant pot o’ tea.’ She gave Amy a wink. ‘I reckon I’ll join yer,’ she said, ‘being as there’s not much on at the minute.’

      Amy smiled to herself. Whenever the café was quiet, and even when it wasn’t, Daisy always invited herself to sit down. ‘Mrs Tooley’s out then?’ That much was obvious.

      Flopping into the chair, Daisy drew it up to the table and began to pour. ‘She’s off for lunch with Mr Leyton,’ she answered, rolling her eyes. ‘The way she’s tarted up, anybody would think she were off to the palace for a meeting with His Majesty.’

      She poured three cups of tea – one with more milk to cool it quicker, and this one she put before Johnny. ‘Sup up, lad,’ she encouraged with a friendly little grin. ‘It’ll warm the soles of yer feet.’

      Johnny took the cup, wrapping his hands round it. ‘But my feet aren’t cold,’ he told Daisy.

      ‘Oh, aren’t they?’ Giving Amy a wink, she asked the boy, ‘Where are you cold then?’

      ‘I’m not.’

      Daisy feigned surprise. ‘My word, yer a brave little thing aren’t yer, eh? You’ve been outside in all that rain and you look like a drowned rat, and you’re not even cold.’ She gave an almighty shiver. ‘I would be.’

      Johnny made a disappointed face. ‘I’m just hungry.’

      ‘Well!’ Staring at him in astonishment, Daisy’s eyes grew round as marbles. ‘Why didn’t yer tell me that before,’ she asked incredulously, ‘because I think I can help you there? Y’see, I’ve got some big fat pork sausages just waiting to be fried. Would you like that?’

      Clapping his hands excitedly, the boy jumped up and down in his chair. ‘Ooh! Yes, please … and a chukkie egg and a buttie?’

      ‘Right! I’ll have it back here afore you can finish that tea. Bacon buttie is it, lass?’ she asked Amy.

      ‘That’ll be lovely, Daisy, thanks.’

      While Amy and the boy supped their tea, Daisy got to work, and it wasn’t long before she was back. ‘Get that down you,’ she said, dishing out the food between the three of them. ‘I thought I’d join you.’

      The buttie on her plate was thick as a doorstop and oozing with butter and, like Amy’s, it was packed with crispy, fried bacon and thick slices of tomato. Now, as Daisy bit into it, the butter trickled down her chin, only to be licked up with the length of her pink tongue. ‘Though I say it meself, I can mek the best bacon buttie in the whole of Lancashire.’ Picking out a sliver of pink wavy bacon, she popped it into her mouth and quickly devoured it.

      ‘You say Mrs Tooley’s gone to lunch?’ Amy asked. ‘It’s a bit early for that, isn’t it?’

      Daisy nodded. ‘That’s what I thought, but she’s probably gone to have her nails done or summat, or the lines on her legs painted straighter.’ She chuckled. ‘Honest to God, lass, I don’t know why she can’t lay out a bob or two and buy herself some proper nylons. You should have seen the way she painted them lines … went down her legs like crooked tramlines.’

      Amy thought it was a shame. ‘You should have told her.’

      ‘Naw. Why should I? The old cow makes my life a misery, so what should I care?’ She laughed out loud. ‘Besides, if she thinks to fool that fella of hers into thinking she’s got a fancy pair o’ nylon stockings on, he’ll soon find out when he gets his hand under …’ Remembering Johnny was there, she dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘Once they get at it, if you know what I mean, there won’t be any lines left to talk about, will there?’

      Amy shook her head. ‘You’re wicked, you are.’

      Half an hour later, warmed and fed, Amy and Daisy were talking of their next dates with Jack and Roy, while Johnny played round the tables.

      ‘It’s not raining now,’ the boy told Daisy.

      ‘That’s good.’ Daisy hated the rain.

      ‘Can I have another sausage?’

      Daisy nodded. ‘I think I can manage that. You sit yourself down and I’ll get started on it, eh?’ And the boy slid onto his seat where he patiently waited. Then, as Daisy was returning, the door opened and all three heads turned to see who it was.

      ‘It’s him!’ Amy whispered, and before he had taken off his cap and coat, she had managed to fill Daisy in with the bare bones of what had happened earlier. ‘If it hadn’t been for him, Johnny might have been badly hurt,’ she finished.

      Daisy was full of admiration, and a few minutes later, on taking his order, she told him so. ‘My friend thinks the world of that little chap,’ she said. ‘It would have devastated her if anything had happened to him.’

      Luke smiled appreciatively and told her how anybody would have done the same thing. Then he gave his order and, as always, concentrated hard on his newspaper, while all the time taking quiet little glances at Amy. He saw how loving and protective she was with the boy and he thanked his lucky stars he had been there when it mattered. Now, though, his deep attraction to Amy was marred by the belief that she was not only married, but the mother of a child.

      He was acutely aware