Hannah found her eyes straying towards the schoolmaster time and again as the service went on. She hardly heard a word of the sermon and at the end she lingered, just to watch him walk down the aisle and to try to follow him out of the door. She hoped that he might recognise her, but he was chatting with the Feildens when she got out into the churchyard and Mary had already linked an arm through hers and was asking if she wanted to come back to the Star with her.

‘We can sit in my room for a while and talk,’ she said. ‘Mrs Hall doesn’t need me on a Sunday.’

With a final glance back, Hannah allowed herself to be led away. She knew that she was being ridiculous. Just because he’d smiled at her once didn’t mean that there was any chance he was interested in her.

‘I wish Titus had let thee stay with us,’ said Hannah, not for the first time, as they reached the beerhouse and Mary held the door open for Hannah to follow her in. The place stank of beer and tobacco. She followed Mary up the steep steps and into the small attic room. It was nicer than she expected. Too nice for a lass to have all to herself, she thought as she heard voices talking outside – a man and a woman – and a door opened and closed, muffling the laughter.

‘Tha can’t stop here,’ said Hannah, realising what was going on. ‘It’s not respectable.’

‘And where does tha suggest I go?’ asked Mary. ‘It’s not as if folk are fallin’ over themselves to take in a non-paying house guest.’

‘But there must be other lodgings?’

‘Aye, for them as is in work. If tha knocks on the door and tells them tha has no money comin’ in and little prospect of things changing then tha gets sent on thy way.’

‘But this is a …’

‘A brothel. Aye. I weren’t born yesterday.’

‘But tha hasn’t …’

‘No, of course not! I’ve been payin’ rent.’

‘But what’ll tha do when thy money’s gone?’

‘Well, if I can’t find owt else, I’ll be on the street. There’s no way as I’m doin’ that,’ she said, nodding her head towards the other room. ‘That’s Alice. She entertains the gentlemen.’

‘Oh Mary. This is horrible. I wish there was something I could do. Why doesn’t tha go home? It can’t be any worse than this, can it?’

‘It can,’ said her friend. ‘I told thee what my father did. I’d rather sleep under t’ bridge than go back there.’

Chapter Six

‘I’ve heard as Mr Feilden is looking for a new parlour maid,’ said Titus one evening a few weeks later when he came back from his Reform meeting.

‘Out at Feniscowles?’ asked Hannah, looking up from the sheet of paper where she’d been practising her writing. Jennet had gone out to take back some laundry and Peggy and Bessie were in bed.