Josephine Cox Sunday Times Bestsellers Collection. Josephine Cox

A moment later, the door opened and Vicky emerged, looking distraught as she searched for Susie. On seeing Lucy she was visibly relieved. ‘Oh, dear God, Lucy, I don’t know what to do. It’s like my whole world’s falling apart.’

      Trembling and distressed, she took Susie by the shoulders. ‘Run inside, sweetheart, and fetch our coats.’ Calming herself for the girl’s sake, she suggested with a shaky smile, ‘We’ll go for a little walk, eh, you, me and Lucy? When we come back, happen it’ll all have sorted itself out, eh?’

      Relieved to see her mammy smiling and comforted by her words, Susie ran to get their coats. ‘What’s happening?’ Lucy asked worriedly. ‘Is it Barney?’ In her troubled mind she could still see him and the woman.

      ‘Yes.’ Vicky shook her head. ‘There’s something very wrong,’ she said. ‘Barney’s been so odd of late – wandering off and not coming back till all hours. He’s not been sleeping easy, and sometimes when I wake in the middle of the night, I look out of the window and he’s pacing the yard like a trapped animal. He’s suddenly got the devil of a temper on him, too, snapping and snarling and jumping down our throats at the slightest thing; he even smacked Susie last night because she came downstairs crying after having a bad dream. It’s not like him, Lucy. He’s always been such a loving man.’

      She took a long, weary breath. ‘And now, Ronnie swears he saw Barney in Liverpool today … “arm-in-arm with a trollop”, he says, and he swears that the pair of ’em were drunk.’

      With raw eyes she looked into Lucy’s face as though searching for some kind of reassurance. ‘I didn’t believe it of him, Lucy. “It couldn’t have been your father” – that’s what I told Ronnie. “He would never do such a thing”.’ Her voice broke. ‘But to be honest, Lucy, somewhere in the back of my mind, God forgive me, because of the way Barney’s been behaving, I’m half-inclined to believe what Ronnie saw.’

      When Susie returned and they had on their coats and scarves, the three of them wandered away to the spinney; these days they were reluctant to go near the river, because of the bad memories.

      Lucy made no mention of the fact that, like Ronnie, she too had seen Barney on the streets drunk and laughing with a woman. Instead she told Vicky, ‘I’ve an idea Barney might still be suffering the effects of that night. It was a terrible thing for him to witness. Grief and shock can affect us all in different ways,’ she said in a low voice. God knows, she herself was half-demented with it. ‘Maybe Barney is not able to deal with the horror of what happened?’

      Vicky had already considered that. ‘Of course he suffers from remembering, as we all do.’ She reached out to squeeze Lucy’s hand. ‘But it’s more than that,’ she went on sombrely. ‘Now I think about it, I’ve seen a few changes happening in Barney, long before that night. He’s been getting more preoccupied and distant, as though he’s always got something on his mind, and none of us are a part of it.’

      She shrugged. ‘He’s been working so hard – pushing himself until he hurts. It’s as if he’s trying to prove something. He’s changed, Lucy, and now it’s got so I can hardly recognise him as the man I married.’

      In spite of her determination not to let young Susie see her upset, Vicky began to cry, softly at first, and when she could no longer hold it back, the crying became wrenching sobs that tore her apart. ‘I’m sorry,’ she kept saying. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’ For the first time in her married life, she did not know how to deal with Barney.

      Running to her, Susie threw her arms round Vicky’s waist; in a choked voice she told her, ‘Don’t cry, Mammy, it’s all right. Please don’t cry.’ The normal roles of mother and child were reversed, and Vicky was ashamed.

      After a time they walked on; Lucy lost in her own thoughts, Vicky also quiet now, and Susie with her hand clutched in her mammy’s.

      All three were thinking of Barney. Lucy was determined to get him alone and have a heart-to-heart with him; Vicky wondered how she could win back the man she loved; and her frightened daughter silently brooded over the night’s event, her heart alive with all manner of emotion – and shockingly, even the smallest beginnings of hatred towards the father she adored.

      When they got back to the house, despite the cold, Ronnie was seated on the garden bench. With his head down and his hands over the back of his neck, he did not hear them approach.

      ‘Ronnie?’ Going immediately to him, Vicky put her arm around his shoulders. ‘What are you doing out here in the cold?’

      Ronnie looked up. In the half-light from the windows she could see that he’d been crying. ‘What is it, love?’ She sat beside him. ‘What’s happened?’

      For a long anxious moment, Ronnie gave no answer. Instead he glanced back at the house, then he looked at his mother and the tears ran down his face. ‘That man in there,’ he whispered brokenly. ‘I don’t even know who he is any more.’

      Rising to Barney’s defence, Vicky told him firmly, ‘Whatever he says or does, and whatever you may think of him just now, he is still your father!’

      Ronnie shook his head. ‘No, he’s not. I know my father like I know myself, and that man in there is a stranger.’

      Vicky understood but was horrified all the same. ‘Your father is ill,’ she said lamely. ‘He doesn’t seem to understand how he’s hurting us. Barney is a good man. He’s stood by all of us at one time or another, and now it’s our turn to stand by him.’

      Scrambling to his feet, Ronnie looked down on her in amazement. ‘How can you say that?’ he demanded. ‘I saw him with my own eyes! He was drunk in the street, in the company of a woman like that … They went away laughing – laughing at you, Mother! He’s not only cheating on you, but he’s doing it openly. He gets himself drunk and then he comes home arguing and causing trouble in the family.’

      His voice shook with rage. ‘You can stand by him if you like, but I won’t! I can’t forgive him.’

      Seeing her brother stride off angrily into the night, Susie wailed, ‘Stop him, Mammy. STOP HIM!’

      Grabbing her close, Vicky held her tight. ‘I can’t,’ she said, ‘but he’ll be back. You’ll see, sweetheart, Ronnie will be back.’ In her heart though, she could not be certain of that.

      ‘Do you want me to go?’ Having witnessed the distress in this close-knit family, Lucy was afraid for them all, including Barney. She wanted to stay but sensed that Vicky needed to be alone with her family.

      Vicky nodded. ‘I’m sorry, Lucy,’ she apologised. ‘I’ll get Thomas to see you home.’ Because the night was cold and because she had great affection for Lucy, she invited her to come inside first.

      She led the way, with Susie at her side and Lucy following.

      When she walked into the sitting room, Lucy was shocked at the sight of Barney. Unkempt and unshaven, he sat in the armchair, his shirt undone to the chest and his head lolling sideways. Lucy thought he looked ill and quietly said so to Vicky.

      Thomas had been standing before the fire, his eyes alive with anger as he stared at his father. ‘He’s not ill.’ He spat out the words. ‘He’s drunk!’

      ‘I’ll deal with your father.’ Taking hold of him by the arm, Vicky led him away. ‘I need you to take Lucy home in the trap.’

      Thomas nodded. ‘Will you be all right?’

      ‘I’ll be fine,’ she answered with a smile. ‘Oh, and take Susie with you.’ When the girl protested, she told her gently, ‘Lucy would like that, wouldn’t you, lass?’

      Realising Vicky’s intent, Lucy nodded. ‘Yes, I would.’ Addressing Susie she told her, ‘I need to know all about the new clothes you and Mammy have bought for the journey to America.’

      At Lucy’s remark, Thomas gave a grunt. ‘That’s if we ever go!’

      Susie