Fortunately, the dustcovers had kept the worst of the grime off the furniture, and when Ann had hard-brushed the carpet, and Isobel had washed the black painted edges of the floor with a mop and bucket, and polished the mantelpiece and the tiled grate, the room looked quite presentable. Clean, but cold. It was still not somewhere anyone would want to linger, but that suited Ann very well.

‘Tomorrow morning, I’ll get up sharp and get the windows washed so we can get the curtains back up,’ said Isobel. ‘Mrs Stuckup isn’t coming until the afternoon, so we’ve got plenty of time.’

*

Isobel was as good as her word, and in the morning the sash windows were washed inside and out. And that was when it happened.

The storm door had been left ajar while the tiled vestibule and the front step were drying. A gust of wind blew through and caught one of the unhooked windows. It swung back suddenly, clattering against the frame. A large crack appeared in the glass, and then a second one, and then a third, and finally a section of the windowpane crashed to the ground, leaving a snaggle-toothed gap in the glazing.

Isobel gasped and lifted her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh my! Oh my goodness.’ She turned to look at Ann, who had heard the crash and run through from the kitchen. ‘I am so sorry. So, so sorry. I should have been more careful, Miss Ann,’ she said, reverting to the past.

Ann took Isobel by the shoulders and studied her closely. ‘Are you hurt?’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Isobel repeated.

‘Stop that. Are you hurt?’

Isobel shook her head. ‘No, I just got a terrible fright and I’m so—’

Ann left Isobel and walked over to the window to examine the damage. And then she started to laugh.

Isobel looked at her in astonishment. ‘This isn’t funny.’

‘Yes,’ squeaked Ann. ‘Oh yes, it is.’

‘I will pay for the window, I promise.’

Ann could barely speak.

Isobel waited, not seeing the amusing side of it at all.

Eventually, Ann managed to draw breath. ‘You will do no such thing.’ She sat down on a newly uncovered chair. ‘Look at us. We have turned ourselves inside out and back to front trying to get this room ready for a complete stranger and for what reason? So that we can look as though we are something we are not.’

‘We have?’

‘I think Mrs Beatrice Stuckup is going to have to sit in the kitchen like any normal person. I mean, this is a great improvement already, even though there’s a howling gale coming through that window, but I don’t think it’s fair to make her sit in such a draught, no matter how unpleasant she is likely to be.’

‘I said I—’