‘Hannah?’ He hesitated and looked embarrassed. ‘Did you say your parents lived up at Ramsgreave?’

‘Aye, that’s right. Why?’

‘I wondered if we could walk up there this afternoon?’

‘We could,’ she said, thrilled that he was asking her, but wondering at his reason.

‘I think it’s time I met your parents,’ he said. ‘I’d like to ask your father if he’ll give me permission to propose to you.’ Hannah stared at him. ‘Would you, Hannah?’ he asked. ‘Would you marry me?’

‘I thought tha wanted nothing more to do with me!’ she confessed. ‘I thought tha were too concerned about thy position.’ She could scarcely believe what he was asking her. It seemed too good to be true.

‘I was for a while,’ he admitted. ‘But I went home to see my own parents last Sunday and I talked it through with them. They helped me see that what other folk think isn’t the most important thing in the world. There’s bound to be gossip. Folk always like to gossip, but in the end if they think I’m wrong then that’s their affair. And if I lose this job, we’ll go somewhere else and I’ll find another. There’s a need for good teachers now that more and more schools are opening.’ He paused for breath and reached out to take her hand. ‘Will you marry me?’ he asked again.

‘Aye, of course I will,’ she said. She’d never imagined it would happen like this. All the stories she’d written down and all the ones she’d simply imagined had always ended with him proposing to her, but none of them had the scene taking place on a cold Sunday morning in the graveyard with her hands chapped and his cravat come undone.

‘So shall we go to see your parents?’

‘Aye, we will,’ said Hannah, imagining their surprise and astonishment when she came in with the schoolmaster and told them that he wanted to marry her.

‘Where’s Hannah?’ asked Titus, looking up from his paper when Jennet came in and told the lasses to run upstairs and change out of their Sunday best before dinner.

‘Talking to James Hindle! I didn’t like to interrupt so I left ’em to it.’

‘Why? Were they talkin’ about summat important?’

‘I really hope so,’ said Jennet. ‘He had the look of a man set on proposing marriage.’

‘Oh, aye. And what does that look like?’

‘Tha’s a fool, our Titus,’ she told him. ‘Tha wants to take thy nose out of thy paper for a while and see what’s going on around thee.’

‘I thought he were keeping well out of her way. He’s never been to any more meetings.’

‘Perhaps it’s thee he’s avoiding,’ she told him and saw from the look on his face that he hadn’t considered that.

Moments later Hannah came in, looking fit to burst with excitement. ‘He wants to marry me! We’re going up to Ramsgreave so he can meet Mam and Dad and ask permission!’

‘Hannah! I’m that glad!’ Jennet pulled her sister into her arms and hugged her. ‘I knew it would turn out all right in the end. He’s lucky to have thee.’