“Now then, what all this abaht young lady” said Slugger, in his usual matter –of- fact- but -caring way. He sat in his favourite fireside chair, with a tea towel slung across his shoulder and listened intently while Dora blurted out the whole story, assisted by Hazel interjecting whenever Dora was overcome with her customary tears.
After Dora and Hazel had finished, Slugger stood up from his fireside chair. He picked up his trusty frying pan and said “right you gels, nuffink was ever sorted on an empty stomach. I bet you ‘avent’t eaten since breakfast. So old Slugs is going make you both a lovely bacon sandwich. And woe betide anyone who don’t eat it.”
“I’m not hungry, thanks Slugs” said Dora. “No – you might not be, but I am” said Hazel, eyeing the pan of beautiful, thick country back bacon which Slugger had already put in the pan over the embers.
Within a few minutes the bacon was cooked, the tea was made and Hazel and Dora sat at the kitchen table. Hazel tucked into the baconfest as if she hadn’t had a meal for weeks, but Dora picked at hers, and then pushed the plate away and drank from her mug of tea instead.
“All right you two” said Slugger. When you’ve finished you can both take yourselves up the wooden hill to bed. Young Steve won’t have gone far and we can set about finding him in the morning. He’s a grown lad – there’s no point in sending out a search party tonight.
“Oh Slugger” said Dora. “How do you know he won’t have gone far? He might have gone back to Liverpool, to his mother, or anywhere else for that matter”.
“Don’t be worried about that” said Slugger. “Stands to reason ‘e ain’t gone far. After all, you’re still ‘ere ain’t you?”
“What do you mean?” said Dora.
“”Don’t be daft, gel” replied Slugger. “If you’re still ‘ere, then young Steve won’t be far away. Think abaht it.”
And with that, he guided both girls to the foot of the stairs and watched while they both made their way up to their rooms.
A little while later, when Dora was sure that Slugger had gone to bed, she put on some warm clothes and slipped outside silently, making her way across the moonlit yard to Copper’s box. He whickered gently to her as she quietly opened the door and let herself in - it was only there that she found any comfort, as Copper’s warm nose nuzzled at her hands in the dark and she buried her head into his warm neck and let the tears flow. Then, she wrapped herself in his spare blanket, settled down in a corner of his box and tried to find sleep.