Jennet stared at him and then turned to Titus. ‘Is this owt to do with thee teaching her to read and write?’ she asked.

‘How should I know?’ he replied. ‘What sort of papers?’ he asked James. ‘Pamphlets and such like?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘That’s why I was hoping Hannah would be here, so I could ask her about it.’

‘She’d better not have done owt silly,’ Jennet told him. ‘She did well to get that job and she’d be a fool to lose it.’

‘Mr Feilden has no call to object to pamphlets,’ Titus told her.

‘Tha doesn’t know it were pamphlets,’ Jennet replied, wishing that she could see Hannah herself and find out what had gone on.

‘Well, she’s not been dismissed so it can’t have been anything of importance,’ said Titus. ‘Storm in a teacup, that’s all.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ said Jennet. ‘She’s a good lass,’ she told the schoolmaster, feeling the need to defend her sister. ‘She wouldn’t have done owt wrong.’

‘I’m sure she hasn’t,’ he replied. ‘I was concerned, that’s all.’

‘Is tha talkin’ about that maid at the Feildens?’ said a man who was sitting at the next table. He must have been listening all the time he had his back turned to them, thought Jennet, and now that he’d turned round she recognised him as the tall man who’d been enquiring about Mary.

‘What’s it to thee?’ she asked. She wanted to add that she didn’t like folk who listened in on other people’s conversations, but he sounded as if he knew something more and she needed to know what it was. If people were talking about her sister then she needed to set them straight.

The man shrugged his shoulders. ‘I heard she stole a valuable book and pawned it.’

‘Who told thee that?’ Jennet felt indignant anger rising like a flood inside her. How dare this man accuse her sister of stealing?

‘My brother was in Starkie’s shop when the Feildens’ butler came in and asked to have it back.’

Jennet was furious now, but worried too. She knew that Hannah hadn’t stolen anything but she also knew that when rumours began they could take on a life of their own and there were plenty of folk who would believe them and pass them on as if they were the gospel truth.

‘The book was never missing,’ James told the man. ‘Mr Feilden lent it to me.’

‘Oh aye,’ he replied. ‘Well, tha knows what they say. There’s no smoke without fire.’ He drained his pint and stood up to leave.

‘Who was that?’ demanded Jennet as she watched him bid goodnight to Mrs Hall.

‘That’s William Hart. One of the ropemakers.’

‘How dare he say stuff like that about our Hannah?’

‘Take no notice,’ said Titus. ‘James has explained it to him now.’

‘Well, he didn’t sound convinced. And I’m not happy about him going round saying things like that. He needs to be stopped.’

‘There’s nowt tha can do about it,’ Titus told her. ‘It’s just a story. No one’s going to believe it. Go up and see Mary. That’s what tha came for.’