‘What’s tha talkin’ about? We’re none of us criminals.’

‘Forgery’s criminal – and tha’s already served one prison sentence,’ she reminded him. ‘I just hope Mr Feilden doesn’t discover it were thee that wrote that letter and decide to press charges.’

‘He’ll not,’ said Titus, filling the bowl of his pipe with more tobacco. ‘Tha worries too much.’

‘What possessed thee to do it?’ she asked as she folded the sock with its pair and closed her work basket. ‘It were a stupid idea.’

‘It didn’t seem so at the time. She needed a character to get a job and Sudell had gone off without giving her one when he should have done. It weren’t fair on her. I just made amends. That’s all.’

He made it sound so reasonable, thought Jennet. Sudell’s thoughtlessness had been unfair on Hannah. But two wrongs don’t make a right, she told herself. And in the end it had all been for nothing because Hannah was without a job again and had even less prospect of finding another. She just hoped that Titus wouldn’t start grumbling about her staying with them.

‘It were still dishonest,’ she reminded him.

‘Aye. Happen so.’

She threw more coal on the fire and watched it smoke. ‘It’d be a cryin’ shame if James decided not to marry her because of this,’ she said.

‘Don’t talk daft. It’ll work itself out.’

Jennet looked down at him, puffing on his pipe and reading yet another pamphlet. She wanted to grab both items and toss them on to the fire to make him look up and acknowledge the seriousness of what he’d done. Because it was affecting Hannah rather than him he seemed to think it was of no consequence and she itched to force him to face up to his actions. Instead she said nothing and went upstairs. Peggy and Bessie were both fast asleep in the bed they had to share with Hannah and Peggy would grumble in her sleep when Hannah came in and shoved her up. They needed to get another bed from somewhere if Hannah was to stay, she thought as she eased Bessie’s thumb from her mouth. The child moaned and then slipped it back in and sucked on it in her sleep. She was such a good lass, thought Jennet as she crouched down beside her. So like George. It was at times like these that she wondered if she’d made the wrong decision when she’d let him go to America alone.

It hadn’t been an easy choice, but in the end loyalty to her husband had won. Now she couldn’t help but ask herself if he deserved that loyalty. He should have realised that if he was found out, it would make people question his trustworthiness. Since he’d come back from prison he’d campaigned tirelessly for Reform and he’d won the respect of many of the townsfolk and some of the gentry. Even the vicar’s wife would give him the time of day although he rarely graced a pew. And Mr Feilden had trusted his judgement enough to mention the maid’s job to him. Why couldn’t he just have been honest and explained why Hannah didn’t have a character? They might have overlooked it and taken her on anyway. But no, he had to try to be clever and show off his writing skills, never thinking where it might lead. Maybe she should have just gone with George, taken Peggy with them and sailed off across that ocean to a new world. She might have been happy, she thought. And little Bessie would surely have been happier with her real father instead of being the target of Titus’s resentment. It was a shame. He’d promised to treat the child as his own, and he probably thought he’d kept his word, but it didn’t take much to see that Peggy was his favourite.