‘I need to go and tell Mary,’ said Hannah. ‘I can’t go now, but I’ll go tomorrow if tha can spare me for an hour or so. I want to make it right with her before I get wed. I want her to be at the wedding.’

‘Aye,’ said Jennet. ‘This falling out has gone on for far too long. And I know that Mary wants to make up with thee as well. She were lookin’ for thee at the hustings, and she’s told me how grateful she is for what tha did that night. She might not have lived otherwise.’

‘Aye, but she did say some nasty things to me,’ Hannah reminded her.

‘Put it behind thee,’ advised Jennet. ‘Tha were such good friends with Mary for a long time, despite her family. Go and make it up with her tomorrow.’

That afternoon, Hannah walked hand in hand with James up to Ramsgreave. It was the first time in many months that she’d been home and she realised how much she missed the fresh air and the wind that whistled down from the hills.

As they approached the cottage she increased her pace. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘I can’t wait to see their faces when we tell them!’

When she pushed open the door everything was the same. Her father’s handloom stood idle for the Sabbath but a length of woven cloth was hanging from it ready to be finished the next day and her mother’s spinning wheel stood close to the hearth with a bobbin of cotton half spun. Her parents looked up in surprise when she swept in, smiles lighting their faces as she rushed to kiss them.

‘What’s all this?’ asked her father, noticing the stranger in the doorway.

‘This is James Hindle,’ said Hannah, taking his hand to pull him further into the room. ‘He’s the schoolmaster on Thunder Alley. He wants to marry me.’

Hannah heard her mother squeal in delight before she got up from her chair to hug her, then she gathered herself and began to hunt in her pantry for something special to offer them to eat.

‘Well I never!’ she kept exclaiming as Mr Chadwick got to his feet and shook James by the hand.

‘Sit thee down,’ said Mr Chadwick, offering James his rocking chair.

‘No. No.’ James urged him back to his seat. ‘I’m fine here,’ he said, bringing one of the upright chairs over from the table.

‘So tha’s a schoolmaster?’ Her father sounded impressed.

‘That’s right.’

‘And tha wants to marry our Hannah?’ She wished he didn’t sound so surprised.

‘If you’ll give me your permission to ask her,’ said James.

‘Aye, tha can have that, lad, and no mistake. I never thought I’d see our Hannah wed to a schoolmaster, though she always were determined to go up in the world.’

‘Well, don’t mistake me for a man of importance,’ James told him. ‘My family are only ordinary folk like you. My father’s a silk weaver and my mother’s a seamstress, but they wanted me to move up in the world too, so they made sure I was educated and I was lucky enough to do well and become a teacher. It’s a good job and there’s a little schoolhouse to go with it, so Hannah will be well cared for.’