"The Director of the North Eastern Railway.. pa-ha.. I'll tell you, ooh the bloody cheek" her words were disjointed with anger, a reflection of her thoughts. "William surely you can say or do something?"

As his mother vented, Joe looked to his father who had yet to say a word. Would he explode? Joe had laid it all out for the two of them. What more could he have done? Not get drunk, well obviously, but what would his father had done if things had been reversed.

The storm swelled under Lottie's words, but Bill remained quiet until she addressed him. He was still looking at Joseph. He breathed in deeply.

"Yer a bloody fool if ye thought ye were gonna be treated fairly. You ought to 'ave apologized to the gentleman." He wasn't shouting, but the words came out fast and sharp.

"But he poked me wit' a stick!" Joe replied, his tone higher, which might have sounded like whining.

William gave him a dark look. "Then you step back," he said, stressing each of the last two words in turn. "Ye don't mess with toffs!"

Joe bristled at his father's cowardly suggestion. "He wasn't a toff, he was gutter filth with a fancy hat and some tuppence."

"You did a good thing, Joe." his mother said pointedly. "Very noble."

Bill took a step in Joe's direction. "Don't get clever with me, son," he threatened. He cast an irritated look in his wife's direction. "If ye'd have told me what had happened then, I could 'ave told ye ye'd get in trouble for it!"

"So you'd have had me leave a lass upset and alone at the station at night? an' then grovel to some snotty prat? Sounds like a grand plan."

"Joe!" his mother exclaimed. "Don't use that tone of voice with your father." She admonished him, but she couldn't fault him for his heart. The world needed more young men like him. He was a good boy, and a women these days still needed to be protected. There were echos of her own past in all of this. Perhaps that's where dear Ruth got it from?