In the afternoon she went to some of the shops to see if they needed any assistants, but they all turned her down when they found she had no experience. Towards teatime she walked back to Thunder Alley to collect Peggy. Her pace increased as she turned the corner from Northgate, hoping that she might catch a glimpse of the schoolmaster again, but the door to the girls’ school opened first and when Peggy came out she was eager for home and Hannah was forced to leave, disappointed, before the boys were dismissed for the day.

‘What did tha learn?’ she asked Peggy as they walked along. She’d never been to school herself and she was intrigued by what went on behind the closed doors.

‘Reading and writing this morning, then knitting this afternoon,’ said Peggy.

‘Is that right? What does it say on that shop?’ she asked, wondering if the child really could read.

‘Mercer’s,’ Peggy told her, although, not being able to read herself, Hannah had no way of knowing if it was right.

‘Hast tha been to every mill?’ Titus asked her at teatime when she told him that she hadn’t been able to find work.

‘Aye, all of ’em – Brookhouse, King Street …’ She began to name them.

‘Not Dandy?’ he asked.

‘She’s not goin’ back there,’ said Jennet. ‘Not with that Hargreaves.’

‘He’s all talk.’

‘No, he isn’t. He tried to take advantage of our Hannah – would have an’ all if I hadn’t gone back to look for her.’

Hannah exchanged a glance with her sister, but knew not to say what had really happened in front of Titus. It was bad enough that her sister had gone with George Anderton. If she admitted that Hargreaves had raped her, Titus would kill him, and having her husband hanged as a murderer wouldn’t help anybody.

‘Well, she’ll have to pay her way if she’s to stay. Otherwise she’ll have to go home,’ he said.

‘I’ve put two and six in the kitty,’ Hannah told him, annoyed that he was talking about her as if she wasn’t there. ‘That should be enough for a week or so.’

‘Aye, I suppose so.’ He pushed back the chair, scraping it across the floor, and reached for his cap. ‘I’ll see thee later.’

‘Where’s he off to?’ asked Hannah as she watched him pass the window.

‘It’s the Reform meeting on a Tuesday night.’

‘Is he still involved with that? After what happened?’ she asked as she began to clear the table.

‘He’s been very keen since he came back,’ said Jennet. ‘They meet at one of the beerhouses and set to tryin’ to put the world to rights. I hate it when he goes. I worry as he’ll end up back in the prison again if he doesn’t learn to mind what he says.’

‘But I thought it was all over and done with now that the town’s getting members to send to Parliament.’

‘Aye. So did I. But Titus says it’ll make no difference because ordinary folks still have no say in the matter. He says that if we don’t keep pushing for change then we’ll be made fools of by the gentry for ever.’