She heard the door and Hannah came up the stairs. ‘Tha’s been a while?’ Jennet was hoping it was a good sign.

‘Aye. I explained it all to him.’

‘Everything?’ Her sister nodded. She looked close to tears. ‘And what did he say?’

‘Not a lot. He’s furious with Titus.’

‘I can’t blame him for that. I’m furious with him an’ all. But how was he with thee?’ she asked.

‘I don’t rightly know.’ Hannah sat down on the bed to unfasten her boots. ‘He took me to the poets’ corner and he bought me a drink and some supper. But it wasn’t the same. I’m worried that it were his way of saying goodbye. I think he’s concerned for his own reputation and I don’t know if he’ll come again.’

‘I’m sorry, Hannah. I thought that, in time, he might have asked thee to marry him.’

‘Aye.’ She wiped away a tear and tried to pretend that she didn’t care, but Jennet could see that she was badly upset by it. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ she said after a moment.

‘Tha could always help out with t’ laundry.’

‘Aye. I could.’

Jennet knew that it wasn’t a real answer to what was troubling her sister, but she was at a loss to know what else to suggest. ‘Happen he’ll come round,’ she said.

Hannah was glad when Jennet left her alone and went to her own bed. She undressed and slipped between the sheets next to Peggy. One good thing about sharing a bed with her nieces was that it was already warmed when she got in.

She lay awake for a long time thinking about what had happened. She went over the things that James had said again and again in her head, trying to tease the meaning out of them. It had been a shock for him. He’d been all fired up to protest on her behalf when he thought she’d been dismissed over her writing, but the truth had extinguished that. There was nothing he could protest to the Feildens about. She turned over in bed, making Peggy mutter, and thumped at her pillow to try to get comfy. But sleep wouldn’t come and she cried quietly. She’d thought that she would get her happy ending, but now it was all spoiled and there was nothing at all she could do to change it.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Mary put on a clean, ironed blouse and brushed her hair carefully before pinning it up. Her reflection in the little mirror still looked pale and she pinched her cheeks with her fingers to bring some colour to them. It was Sunday afternoon and William was taking her to meet his parents. She was terrified. She knew that they would judge her and not want her to have anything to do with their son. In a way it would be a relief. If they forbade him to see her again, then she would be free of him. But all her attempts to find work had come to nothing and she knew that if he didn’t give her the money for her rent she would have to go to the workhouse because, even though there were plenty of Mrs Hall’s customers who she knew would pay her for her services, she couldn’t do that again.