"With Joe? Yes. With yer father? Less so. With you? No." Lottie drank her tea "that poor Anne Ward will need a friend. You'll support 'er, won't ye?"

That made her feel even worse. She looked down at her porridge but realized that she could not eat it before she had confessed her crimes. "Oh, ma!" she said, moving back and kneeling down at her mother's knee like a perfect penitent, though she dared not look her mother in the eye. "Ye must be angry with me too, for I've kept secrets from ye. I cleaned some other person's cake tin for Joe and helped him brush 'is coat to make it all nice, and promised not to tell ye in return for sweets and two ginger beers. If I hadn't kept it from ye, this might 'ave been prevented!" Kate felt so ashamed thinking back of how she had even thoroughly enjoyed the treats that had sealed her brother's fate. "I feel like Judas, ma, oh please forgive me!" She put her face in her mother's lap.

"For shame, Kate." Lottie scolded her youngest at this new truth. Had she raised a family of criminals? "Why didn't ye tell me?" She asked

That brought tears in her eyes. She wasn't afraid of what her mother would do, as much as she felt pain for having disappointed her. She looked up shamefully. "Because... I wanted those treats, ma. I wanted them more than I wanted to be a good girl, and I wish I could give 'em back now, because I'd rather be good."

Lottie stroked her child's head, the way a mother would. "I understand, I forgive ye. But promise me that'll be the last secret ye keep from me."

Kate looked up at her mother, desperate to make up. "It will be, ma. I promise." She got up, sat next to her mother, and hugged her.