'I just pray those people spare him. Just let him come home'

The two grocery bags Stan Bigley lugged across the street yesterday gave a fleeting glimpse of how his family was attempting to cope with a day it had barely dared contemplate.

The two grocery bags Stan Bigley lugged across the street yesterday gave a fleeting glimpse of how his family was attempting to cope with a day it had barely dared contemplate.

Two large cartons of milk suggested that plentiful supplies of tea were helping pass the agonisingly long hours behind the louvre blinds in Bedford Street, Walton, Liverpool.

Nothing could ease the wretchedness, though. It was a day of agony for the family of Ken Bigley as they grappled with hopes repeatedly raised and dashed.

Asked how he was bearing up Mr Bigley, the hostage's brother, glanced over his shoulder and muttered: "How do you think?" and disappeared through the front door to rejoin his elderly mother, Lil, brother Philip and Ken's son Craig.

For all the day's extraordinary twists and turns, the Bigleys are unlikely to have spent it glued to a television screen. Philip, who has assumed leadership of the family, has urged the others to resist the temptation to follow news bulletins and read newspapers.

No one has had much of an appetite for food - especially Craig, who has visibly lost weight in the past few days, according to Ken's cousin Ken Jones.

Only persistent telephone calls from the Foreign Office to Phillip and Craig's mobiles broke the monotony in the house. Each incoming call carried a dreadful weight of expectation but none could have been worse than Mr Jones's initial call to his cousin Phillip earlier in the week.

"I said it was Ken calling. He hadn't heard my voice for a number of years and, at first, thought it was Ken phoning from Iraq," he said. "It was terrible." Mr Jones is trying every conceivable means to keep his cousin in the city's thoughts, including an approach to Everton Football Club chairman, Bill Kenwright, about a minute's silence. Of the mood inside the house, he said: "Words cannot describe how it is. It is hell on earth."

There was a muted sense of optimism when news reached the house of the Iraqi Foreign Minister's suggestion that Dr Rihab Taha might be released. Stan Bigley, a retired lorry driver, emerged to say: "We have taken the news positively. It has given us some hope, but not too much." The conflicting message from Washington that swiftly followed must have dashed that slim hope.

The mood remained painfully subdued in the street, where older residents still remember young Ken Bigley kicking a ball around as an Everton-mad boy.

Peggy Mossman, who worked briefly as a young home help with Lil Bigley and her sister Peggy before their retirement years ago, had barely followed coverage of the Iraq conflict before this week. "It's here now, isn't it?" she said. "It's going back like years ago, when you had the guillotines."

The shock is made more intense by the neighbourhood's slow realisation that one of their own is caught up. The Rev Latham only realised that the Bigley family lived so close when he saw his sandstone church in the background on a television bulletin about the Iraq hostage.

The penny only dropped for Mrs Mossman when she heard news of the second beheading on television, on Tuesday night. "I thought 'Lil Bigley' - that must be her." She barely dared think about what the captive was going through. "I'll watch the news at 6pm, turn it off and pray," she said quietly.

A second candlelit vigil was also out of the question last night. Tuesday's had been punctuated by news of a second beheading. Mr Latham had to break the news to parishioners. Last night's risks were evident.

Instead, the rector arrived at Walton Hill Primary School, 100 yards from the Bigleys' house, to take a morning assembly yesterday, at which the children were told of the news unfolding around them.

"It was a beautiful, very quiet and thoughtful assembly," said a school spokeswoman. "Now we want to get back to our normal routine."

Mr Bigley's son Craig, 33, left the house in a black Audi car yesterday morning, followed late yesterday afternoon by two members of the family - thought to be Stan and Phillip. Accompanied by plain-clothes officers from Merseyside Police, they were driven away in a maroon car to an unknown destination, apparently leaving Mrs Bigley in the house. At 6.35pm they returned to the house.

A entire neighbourhood's prayers went with them. "I just pray those people spare them all," said Mrs Mossman. "Just let him come home."

Meanwhile, there is nothing else that anyone can do. Just wait. And hope.

HOW THE DAY UNFOLDED

Wednesday 22 Sept Malik Duhan al-Hasan, the Iraqi Justice Minister, says there are plans to release one of two high-profile women in US custody.

6.30am Paul Bigley urges his brother's release in the light of the possible release of Dr Rihab Taha.

8.30am The decapitated body of Jack Hensley, who was married and had a 13-year-old daughter, is found in west Baghdad.

1.30pm The Justice Minister reiterates plans to release Dr Taha and possibly a second female prisoner as part of a decision unrelated to the hostage situation.

2pm A US official states that neither of the two female prisoners would be released "imminently".

2.30pm Iraqi authorities backtrack. Qassim Dawoud, a security adviser to Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, says Dr Taha will not be freed immediately but "soon".

4.30pm Mr Dawoud says Dr Taha was one of three who may be given conditional release due to lack of evidence, but they would not be freed for some days.

5.30pm Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, tells the BBC that although they are continuing to do everything they can to secure the freedom of Mr Bigley, "it would be idle to pretend that there's a great deal of hope".

8pm A video of Mr Bigley making a direct plea to Tony Blair to save his life is posted on an Islamic website.