‘Or at least them as don’t make fools of themselves by losin’ all their money,’ remarked Hannah.

Chapter Four

‘It’ll be busy tonight,’ Mrs Hall had warned. ‘There’s a Reform meeting.’ So Mary wasn’t surprised when Titus Eastwood walked in. He frowned when he caught sight of her, but had the manners to say ‘How do’ and to thank her when she brought his beer to the table. Mary knew that he was a Reformer. It was how he’d ended up in prison, but it hadn’t deterred him. In fact, he seemed to be in charge of the group of men who gradually filled up the benches and the stools, supping their beer and lighting their pipes and filling the parlour with such a fug that Mary could barely see to put the cups on the tables.

When everyone had been served, Titus rapped on the table with his knuckles and the men fell silent to hear what he had to say.

Mrs Hall ushered her into the kitchen.

‘We’ll take the chance to have a sit-down whilst yon lot does their talkin’,’ she told her.

‘What do they talk about?’ asked Mary, lingering in the doorway, wishing that she could stay to listen. At Woodfold she’d been interested to hear the discussions around the servants’ table at dinnertimes. Mr Cox in particular had had firm views on the rights of the working man and had lectured them at length on the coming Reform of the Parliament.

‘I expect they’ll be talking about Sudell,’ said Mrs Hall. ‘Everyone else is.’

It was true. Wherever Mary went to ask for work she was told there was none, but when she mentioned that she’d been a maid at Woodfold the questions came thick and fast. Mr Sudell’s flight had caused quite a stir.

‘Let’s get this supper on,’ said Mrs Hall after a while. ‘They’ll be hungry and thirsty again when they’re done. I might not have much interest in Reform, but it’s good for business.’

‘Where’s Alice?’ asked Mary as she prodded at the potatoes in the hotpot to check that they were soft all the way through.

‘Upstairs,’ replied Mrs Hall.

‘Is she poorly?’

‘No.’ Mrs Hall’s tight lips warned her to say nothing more. Mary stirred up the hotpot and put the lid back on. She wasn’t stupid and she suspected that Alice had taken a man upstairs, and done it with Mrs Hall’s blessing. The sooner she got herself some other lodgings, the better, she thought.

‘Will tha tell Hannah where I’m stayin’?’ she asked Titus later as she served the food.

‘Aye. Hast tha got work?’

‘Only helpin’ out here.’

‘Aye, well, mind what tha gets mixed up in,’ he warned her.

‘I’m all right,’ she replied, thinking that he could easily have saved her from the situation if he’d allowed her to stop at Water Street. She moved away to put a bowl down in front of the man sitting next to him. He smiled up at her and said, ‘Thank you.’ He seemed a cut above the usual customers and she wondered who he was. There were all different sorts in for the meeting. Even the schoolmaster had come and she wished the usual customers were as clean and polite as him.