Josephine Cox Sunday Times Bestsellers Collection. Josephine Cox

for almost two hours, Bridget was ready for refreshment. Stretching and groaning, she leaned away from the desk. ‘I think we’ll down tools for a while, Amy me darling,’ she said now. ‘It’s been a long two hours, and the old bones are threatening to seize up.’

      Pushing the ledger away, she gave Amy one of her winning smiles. ‘I’m ready for a drink, so I am.’

      ‘I couldn’t agree more.’ Getting out of her chair, Amy began her way across the room. ‘Fancy a nice cup of tea?’

      Bridget was horrified. ‘Have ye lost your mind? It’s not tea or coffee I’m needing. It’s a drop o’ the good stuff I’m after. It’s in the top drawer of the filing cabinet, same as always. An’ don’t be sparing with it neither.’

      When it came, Bridget took a tiny sip, then another longer one. ‘Ah sure, there’s nothing like a wee dram to warm the cockles,’ she said, smacking her lips. ‘Unless it’s a randy man with a trim body and no clothes on.’

      Grinning like the Cheshire Cat, she went on to tell the bemused Amy, ‘Did I ever tell you about the time me and Oliver found a quiet spot in the countryside? Well now, he got to feeling frisky, so we climbed into the back of his car … and ye know there’s not much room there at all.’

      Amy couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘Honestly, when will you ever grow up? Don’t you think you’re too old to be rolling about in the back of a car?’

      ‘You’re right, and I won’t be doing it again, I can promise ye that! Only the dear Lord knows how I ached from top to bottom for weeks after. But y’see, poor Oliver was so frustrated. He tried Gawd knows how many times to get his leg over, and well – you’ve never seen such a carry-on in all yer life! First off, he got his foot caught between the front seats, then he couldn’t get it out …’

      She could hardly talk for laughing. ‘When I say that, I’m not just referring to his foot, though that was the divil of a problem, so it was. No, I mean he couldn’t get his little pecker out neither, whichever way he turned.’

      Amy tutted. ‘It’s a wonder you weren’t arrested.’

      ‘Ah, but that’s not all.’ Taking another healthy measure of her good Irish whiskey, Bridget got a fit of the giggles. ‘When we realised it was no use, we got out of the car and laid on the grass. Within minutes we were fleeing for our lives, him with his trousers round his ankles, and me with me drawers in me hand.’

      Amy could hardly contain her curiosity. ‘What happened? Did the police come along and find you?’

      ‘Oh no! It weren’t the police. We were just getting down to business, if ye know what I mean, when we must have disturbed a nest of wasps. Sure I never ran so fast in all me life, and as for poor Oliver, he got bit twice on his dangly bits. Jaysus! They came after him like he was their next meal. And him screaming and shouting like a banshee. Never mind that I was falling behind and likely to be got any minute. As far as that bleddy coward was concerned, I could get stung to Hell and back!’

      Amy almost fell off the chair laughing. ‘I always knew you were mad as a hatter,’ she roared. ‘Whatever will you get up to next, I wonder?’

      ‘Well, I can tell ye one thing. Next time he feels amorous, he can bugger off.’

      ‘So, does that mean you’ve finished with him?’

      ‘Oh no! Sure, I never said that. But it’s the last time he manhandles me in the back seat of a car. And as for pulling up in the hedgerow and rollicking in the long grass, he can forget it.’

      She took another helping of her drink. ‘He can have his wicked way any time he wants, but I told him, I did. “I’m a lady with taste,” I said. “From now on, it’s a bed covered in silk sheets and a feather pillow under me, or it’s nothing at all”.’

      ‘And what did he say?’ Amy was enthralled.

      ‘He liked the idea. Especially when he couldn’t sit down for a week, seeing as his precious little bits were all full o’ bumps and lumps.’

      There was a flurry of laughter and more naughty talk, before the conversation ended and the two of them returned to their work.

      Shortly after that, they had completed the accounts and having filed away the paperwork, began to pack up for the day.

      ‘Isn’t it tonight when Vicky arrives?’ Amy recalled Bridget telling her as much earlier on.

      Bridget nodded. ‘Yes. She disembarked at Southampton last night, and will be in Salford by tea-time tonight.’ With the effects of drink beginning to wear off, her face reflected the seriousness of Lucy’s situation. ‘It’ll be a strange meeting, that’s for sure,’ she remarked thoughtfully. ‘There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since those two last met. Oh aye, they’ll have a lot to talk about, so they will.’

      ‘Do you think Vicky will be resentful?’

      ‘In what way?’

      ‘Because Lucy never told her about Barney?’

      ‘Oh sure, there’s bound to be resentment.’ Of that Bridget had no doubt. ‘According to what Lucy wrote me, on the night she discovered the letter to Leonard, Vicky walked out on him and she’s never been back since. Cleared off for two whole months, that’s what I’ve heard. But then she got in touch with Lucy, and today is the day they finally meet after all these years.’

      She shuddered. ‘I don’t mind telling ye, it’s thankful I am that it isn’t me who has to explain why I didn’t get in touch with Vicky long before now.’

      Amy was torn two ways. ‘Do you really think Lucy should have broken her word to Barney?’

      Thinking deeply, Bridget took a moment to answer. ‘For what it’s worth, I believe Lucy did what she thought was right, for Barney’s sake, and for the sake of the family. I mean, look now at the heartache and trouble that’s been caused by the telling after all these years. Vicky’s life seemingly in tatters, and Lucy riddled with guilt at having sent the letter. It’s a tragedy, isn’t it?’

      Amy agreed wholeheartedly. ‘I for one wouldn’t want to be in Lucy’s shoes when she meets up with Vicky.’

      Bridget was momentarily preoccupied in thinking of Barney’s children. ‘Isn’t it strange how Vicky never even mentioned the children when she contacted Lucy? She wrote of how she and Leonard had split up, but there wasn’t one word on the three children.’

      Amy’s heart went out to Thomas, Ronnie and Susie. ‘I know what it’s like to see your family torn apart,’ she said. ‘It’s a terrible thing – and those three had the added agony of being sent away believing their father was a drunk and a womaniser, a bully who thought nothing of hurting them every which way he could. And now, they discover that he was nothing of the sort, and that he loved them all along.’

      ‘Whatever did they think when they learned how desperately ill he was?’ Bridget mused. ‘And that what he did, he did for the love of each and every one of them. He saved them from the pain and anguish of seeing him deteriorate with every passing day. Moreover, he secured them a decent future. If that isn’t love and courage of a very special kind, I’m sure I don’t know what is.’

      They each reflected on that, and after a time they shut up shop and went their separate ways. ‘And don’t get up to any hanky-panky!’ Amy quipped as she went.

      ‘Away with ye,’ Bridget replied haughtily. ‘Why would I ever want to be doing that? Sure, I’m a woman in the sunset of me life, so I am.’

      Amy laughed. ‘Sunset nothing! You might have been around a long time, but you’ve not lost the come-on twinkle in the eye yet. Sixty going on sixteen, that’s you.’

      Bridget prided herself on keeping active and fit. ‘You know what the secret is, don’t you?’ she said cagily.

      ‘No, what’s that?’

      ‘When