She put the letter in her pocket before taking Peggy to school. They reached Thunder Alley just as the schoolmaster came out to ring his hand bell for the boys to line up. Since she’d seen him in church she’d asked Jennet about him and now she knew that he was called James Hindle and that he’d come from Bolton to teach here. He lived in the little cottage that adjoined the school, next door to the one that Miss Parkinson lived in. There was a rumour that they were sweet on one another. Hannah hoped it wasn’t true and she reassured herself that she’d never seen them give one another so much as a glance.

His cravat was tied today and his hair was combed and slicked down, though how long it would remain tidy Hannah couldn’t guess. It was never so neat at the end of the day when the boys came running back out, shouting to one another and jumping about the street like the lambs on the hills in their relief to escape the confines of the classroom. She watched as they lined up for the day to begin. She hoped that Miss Parkinson wouldn’t come out just yet so that she could stand and watch him for a while, but the schoolmistress was never tardy and the girls were going in.

Once the door to the girls’ school had closed, Hannah began to walk slowly down Thunder Alley. It would have been obvious to keep watching and embarrassing, too, if he’d noticed her, but she could savour the last of his voice as he called out to the latecomers to hurry or they would be sorry.

As she turned the corner she was almost trampled by two carriage horses, tossing their heads and pulling on their reins. Between them a young boy was struggling to keep them under control.

‘John?’ she said, not sure that it really was him.

He glanced at her and nodded his head, but the horses were on the point of dragging him away so she stepped well back to let them pass and turned to watch as he pulled them into the stable yard.

She’d always felt sorry for John. Even before the accident at the mill he’d seemed a downtrodden sort of lad who was always being shouted at by his father. She’d cringed sometimes at the language that had echoed through the walls from their neighbour’s house on Paradise Lane. To listen, anyone would have thought that John could do nothing right. And even after the accident in the spinning room, she’d had the impression that John’s father blamed him for his carelessness. It had been horrible. She remembered the sight of his hand, all mangled, after it had been caught in the machinery. It was what had caused the beginning of the trouble between them and Jennet. Hargreaves had given Nan’s looms to Jennet to run whilst Nan had been at the surgeon’s with John and when she’d come back she’d accused Jennet of stealing her job. There’d been such a row and it had ended with the neighbours being at daggers drawn, with her and Mary caught in the middle of it, which is partly why they’d left to go to Woodfold, to get away from it all, because Mary’s father had forbidden Mary to have anything to do with her. It was after that that Sam had turned up and got John into trouble and when Sam had got clean away and John had been sent to prison, his parents had made life so intolerable for Jennet and Titus that they’d had to move away. None of it had been John’s fault and she was glad to see him back, though he didn’t look happy and she still felt sorry for him.