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and care to her and Kate didn’t really want that responsibility. It wasn’t fair to ask that of her.

      ‘Is it really bad?’ Sally asked, alarmed by the look on Kate’s face.

      And because the news was as bad as it could be, and there was no way of shielding her, Kate nodded her head and said, ‘Mammy said she has disowned you and doesn’t want you to go back at all. In fact, she says the farm is no longer your home.’

      ‘Disowned me?’ Sally repeated disbelievingly, for she didn’t think either of her parents would ever do that.

      ‘That’s what she said,’ Kate said. ‘It’s because you stole the egg money. She says neither she nor Daddy will ever be able to trust you again.’

      ‘Oh, Kate, what am I to do?’

      ‘Well, I know what I’m going to do, and that is write to Mammy and beg her to reconsider and say you are desperately sorry and that you will promise to never ever do anything like this again – and see if that does any good. I advise you to do the same; if we get them sent off this evening she will get them by Saturday at the latest.’

      The two girls set to work right away and Kate poured her heart out to her mother, telling her how contrite Sally was and how even as the boat sailed across the Irish Sea she’d known she’d made a grave mistake, but that it had been too late to put it right. She begged her mother to give her one more chance. Sally’s letter was similar, though some of the words were smeared from the tears that had fallen as she wrote. She went out to the postbox right away to post them.

      ‘D’you think she’ll come round?’ Susie said at work the next day when Kate told her about the letter. ‘Like, you know, it was done in the heat of the moment?’

      ‘It can’t really be done in the heat of the moment when you are writing a letter,’ Kate said. ‘It’s not like saying something and then regretting it. Mammy wouldn’t have said she was disowning Sally without talking it over with Daddy. And then Mammy has always been rigid. Once she has made up her mind, then that is usually that.’

      ‘So, you haven’t much faith in the letters you sent?’

      ‘To tell you the truth, Susie, no, I haven’t,’ Kate said. ‘But if Sally can’t go home, I am landed with her. I can hardly put her out on the streets.’

      ‘No, course you can’t. Hope you are wrong about those letters making a difference then. Is she very upset?’

      ‘What do you think?’ Kate said. ‘She is still only sixteen. Anyway, after leaving her on her own all day, I can hardly do the same half the night as well, and so I won’t be at the dance tonight either.’

      ‘All right,’ Susie said. ‘I do understand that, but I might go anyway.’

      ‘On your own?’

      ‘No,’ Susie said. ‘Nick asked to take me when he came round last Sunday. We were going to call for you too.’

      Kate felt strangely hurt and yet she knew that was an unreasonable way to feel. ‘Well, now you don’t have to,’ she said briskly to hide her pique. ‘And I hope it stays fine for you.’

      Susie shrugged. She was sorry to upset Kate, but it couldn’t be helped, and she went to the dance that night and tried to help David get over his disappointment that Kate hadn’t been able to make it again.

      Kate and Sally’s energies and thoughts all over the weekend were totally centred on the reply their mother would make to their impassioned plea, but it didn’t come until Tuesday, and in it she said that she had talked it over again with their father and he was in agreement that they stand firm. Sally was no longer their daughter and would not be welcomed at the farm, which she could never again consider her home.

      ‘That’s it then,’ Kate said that night when she had read the letter. She handed it to Sally as she said, ‘You are stuck with me in Birmingham, whether you want to be or not and things are going to be a bit different now.’ She sighed and said, ‘You will have to get a job for a start because my wages won’t run to keeping the two of us. I’ll start bringing in the Mail and Despatch at night and see what’s going. After Christmas, we will have to look at finding a larger flat, because this will probably be a bit cramped with the two of us living in it on a permanent basis. We certainly need a bigger bed at least – I nearly landed on the floor again last night.’

      ‘Sorry,’ Sally said. ‘I am causing you an awful lot of trouble, aren’t I?’

      ‘Yes,’ Kate said candidly, ‘you are, but I suppose this is what big sisters are for.’

      In the end, it wasn’t hard to find Sally a job. On the following Saturday morning, Sally had been buying food at the shops at Stockland Green for the evening meal. She’d crossed to the Co-op to buy the bread Kate had specifically asked for, when she saw an advert in the front of the Plaza cinema for a trainee usherette. It was exactly the type of place she would love to work in, and she turned to the commissionaire who was outside having a smoke. She wasn’t surprised that he smiled at her – most men smiled at Sally – and so encouraged, she said, ‘Do you know if they are still looking for an usherette?’

      The man nodded. ‘Oh yeah, they’re still looking,’ he said. ‘Freda only left yesterday; she couldn’t give proper notice see, because she had just had word that her mother had been knocked down by a car and was in a bad way. She just had to go quick like.’

      ‘Oh I see.’

      ‘If I were you, I would go in now and see the manager,’ the man advised. ‘Could you start straight away like?’

      ‘Oh yes,’ Sally said. ‘I’m looking for a job and I’d love to work in the cinema.’

      ‘Well, you have a good chance of being able to,’ the man said. ‘The boss has a soft spot for Irish girls and that’s a lovely brogue you have. I’d go and see him if I were you. Name of Winters and he won’t bite.’

      And Sally found that he didn’t bite and she was able to face Kate across the room a little later and tell her in a breathless voice that she had a full-time job as an usherette in the Plaza cinema. Kate couldn’t have been more pleased because she knew it would be a job that Sally would enjoy and therefore would stick at. And however little the pay was, it was better than nothing at all. ‘When do you start?’ Kate asked her sister.

      ‘Oh,’ Sally said. ‘That’s the even better bit. See, the girl I’m replacing left them in a bit of a fix, because her mother was knocked down and was in a bad way, the commissionaire said, and so she didn’t work her notice or anything, and so the manager wants me to work as soon as possible – tonight if I can.’

      ‘Oh,’ Kate said. ‘That is short notice. Still, I suppose you weren’t doing anything else pressing and I assume they supply the uniform.’

      ‘Yes, except for the white blouse,’ Sally said. ‘I’m supposed to buy that.’

      ‘You’ll need more than one white blouse if you are to be working there full time,’ Kate said. ‘And that will cost a pretty penny.’

      ‘I’ve got some money, Kate,’ Sally said. ‘It was left over after I paid the fare to come here, but I never spent it because I was going to give it to you so you wouldn’t have to pay the whole cost of me going back home. The only thing is, I haven’t really got time to look for blouses now because he wants me to start at two o’clock and it’s after eleven now.’

      ‘I can loan you one for now,’ Kate said. ‘When are you working next?’

      ‘Monday, and I start again at two o’clock. Every day I will start then and finish at eleven o’clock. I will get another two days off in the week, but that’s worked out on a rota.’

      ‘Oh, well that’s all right,’ Kate said. ‘First thing Monday morning you go and get yourself a couple of white blouses, but if you have to start at two and won’t get home until after eleven, then you’d better have something

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