‘I don’t want to go to America,’ he said. ‘And I certainly don’t want to be playing gooseberry between you and him.’

‘But it’s not like that,’ she told him. ‘I don’t want to be married to him. Once we get there we can find work and when we’ve paid him back we wouldn’t need to have anything more to do with him. We could make our own life, away from here.’

John looked doubtful. ‘What work?’

‘Tha could maybe find work as a clerk. It’d be better than this.’

The horse pushed its nose against John and he stroked it thoughtfully. ‘I like the horses,’ he said.

Mary sighed, exasperated. ‘Tha could make summat of thyself,’ she told him. ‘Say as tha’ll come and then William can make the arrangements.’

Her brother shook his head. ‘No, Mary,’ he told her. ‘Tha’s chasing a dream. I’m best off stayin’ put.’

No matter how much she pleaded and argued, John wouldn’t change his mind and in the end she stormed out of the stable, angry and disappointed. If he wouldn’t go then she couldn’t go either. She’d have to go back to her first plan and see if she could persuade him to go to Woodfold with her.

‘I can’t go,’ she told William later as they sat in the kitchen at the Star. ‘Our John doesn’t want to come.’

‘That’s his choice. It’s not stoppin’ thee,’ said William. He looked pleased that her brother had refused and it annoyed Mary.

‘I’ll not go without him,’ she said. ‘He needs me. My father takes all his wages and he’s nowt for clothes and such unless I help him out.’

‘I’ll not keep payin’ thy bed and board if tha stops here,’ he warned her. ‘And tha’s not been able to get any other work.’ She knew it was meant to be a threat.

‘I’m going to Woodfold tomorrow to ask there.’

‘They’re not takin’ on. I heard Mr Fowden himself say he had all the staff he needed.’

She wasn’t sure that she believed him. They glared at one another and William was the first to look away.

‘What if John had a better job?’ he asked after a moment. ‘One where there was a decent wage, enough to pay for lodgings. Would tha be willing to leave him then?’

‘What sort of job?’

‘I could try to get him summat in our office, as a clerk. And I’d enquire about lodgings if tha’s worried about him livin’ at home. Would tha promise to come with me if I managed it?’

‘He might not want it,’ she said, thinking how stubborn he’d been. ‘I’d have to ask him.’

‘But will tha promise to come with me if it can be arranged?’

‘Aye, I suppose so,’ she said at last, knowing that there wasn’t much of a choice.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Hannah sat beside James at morning service in the parish church. They’d been to see the vicar to ask him if he would marry them and this morning was the first reading of the banns. They were to be married in three weeks’ time on the Sunday afternoon and Hannah would move into the schoolhouse. She could scarcely believe that it was really happening – the happy ending she had so wanted and which she’d thought had been out of her reach so many times.