Fiona had begged her to take less, but she had remained adamant, turning a deaf ear to her pleadings.
Tonight Fiona realised she could not sleep there and once again she had refused Gladys’s offer to accompany her to the Tottenham Court Road and on to Shaftesbury Avenue.
She thought if she walked until four or five in the morning Gladys would then very likely be alone and she could creep into her room and shelter there the remaining hours of the night.
Everything she possessed had been pawned already, even down to her last decent set of underclothes and, as she wandered out now the evening air struck chill against the very poor resistance of her thin coat and the chiffon dress she wore under it.
She sauntered down the road looking into the shops and wondering how she could kill time un
