They walked in silence until they reached the marketplace when William suddenly said, ‘I hated seeing thee with that Starkie.’

‘Aye, but I’ve reason to be grateful to him,’ she told him. ‘I’d have been on the street or in the workhouse if it weren’t for him.’

‘Not necessarily,’ he replied.

‘No. But if it hadn’t been him it would have been someone else.’ She almost said even thee but she held her tongue. She didn’t want to give him any ideas.

‘But tha’s not the sort of lass that does that.’

‘I am – if it’s a choice between that and starvin’.’

‘But look how it ended.’

‘I’m all right now. Anyway, it’s nowt to do with thee.’

They turned down Shorrock Fold to find it was filled with drunks who’d been moved on from the town centre and who’d begun to stagger down the smaller alleyways looking for trouble. A couple of men were knocking seven bells out of one another outside the pawnshop whilst a third was throwing up on the doorstep.

‘Tha can’t stop on here,’ said William as they waited for Mrs Hall to answer the door. ‘Is there really nowhere else tha could go?’

‘It’s nowt to do with thee,’ she told him again.

‘Tha looks tired. I’m worried about thee.’

‘Tha needn’t be. I can take care of myself.’

She would have liked to linger by the fire and have a drink and a bowl of hotpot, but she was keener to shake him off and Mrs Hall seemed in no rush to turn him out, even though the beerhouse was officially closed. So she climbed the stairs to sit alone in her room, listening to the rumpus outside. He was a nuisance, she thought. And if he thought that she was going to take up with him now that Mr Starkie had gone, he could think again. She picked up the sponge with its ribbon attached and after heaving open the sash window she threw it out into the street to be trampled underfoot. She had no clear idea of what she was going to do, but she was finished being made a fool of by men.

Next morning, Jennet brushed her hair and put on her best bonnet to take the new blouse to Mrs Pickering. It was an errand she would have liked to postpone, but she reasoned that the sooner she did it, the sooner she could put it behind her.

The sun was trying to break through an overcast sky and although it kept brightening a little, it never really shone and the gloom added to Jennet’s mood as she walked down Richmond Terrace. Peggy was in school and she’d left Bessie with Molly for half an hour.

She climbed the steps to the black-painted door of the Pickerings’ house and rang the bell. Footsteps sounded in the hall and a young maid opened the door.

‘I’ve brought this for Mrs Pickering,’ she said. ‘It’s her laundry.’ She half hoped the maid would just thank her and take it, meaning she wouldn’t have to face the owner of the garment she’d ruined, but she knew that she needed to apologise and explain about the new blouse.