‘Aye, well, it seems to be spreading. Papers are saying that it serves folk right for going out in the night air to listen to Dr Bowring – that they’ve caught cold and not looked after themselves.’

‘What nonsense,’ said Jennet. ‘It’s all the filth in this town that makes people ill. And we’re too near the bad smells from the river here!’ She could hear her own voice rising in panic as Titus stooped to pick up the spoon. ‘I saw Molly Chambers from next door filling her kettle from it.’

‘Yon’s a daft lass,’ agreed Titus. ‘Don’t thee be tempted, our Jennet. Not even for the laundry. Get clean water from the spring.’

‘Aye, I will. I’ve to go this afternoon,’ she said, wondering if he realised how hard it was.

Titus wiped the spoon on a cloth and handed it back to her. ‘We need to be careful,’ he said. ‘We mustn’t let our Peggy get ill again. Keep her away from the river. Make her cover her mouth if needs be.’

‘I will,’ said Jennet, noting that he made no mention of Bessie.

When he’d gone back to work and she’d washed up, she took her two big buckets and, giving Bessie a small one to carry and bidding her to stay close, she set off down to the Hallows Spring. There was only a short queue to use the pump at this time of the day, but the talk amongst the women who were waiting was also about the illness that was creeping through the town.

‘My Bert reckons as it could be the cholera,’ said one. She sounded as if she enjoyed being the voice of doom, thought Jennet, but the words sent a shiver through her and she hoped and prayed that the woman was wrong. The typhus fever was bad enough, but cholera was a threat that was terrifying. They’d had it up at Newcastle where it had come in on a ship and it had spread as far as London and Oxford. Blackburn had remained unscathed so far, but people were always afraid that it might take hold and spread like fire through the cramped streets and crowded housing.

‘They say that drunkenness brings it on and there’s plenty of that around here,’ said another woman as she pumped the handle to flush water into her buckets. ‘Stay sober, that’s my advice. We’ve taken the pledge.’

‘What? Tha’s given up drinking altogether?’ asked the first woman.

‘Aye. There’s not a drop passed our lips since we went to hear Mr Livesey speak about Temperance.’

‘I couldn’t do that. I needs a drop of summat after a long day, and my Bert enjoys his pint. There’s nowt wrong with a drink as long as tha knows when to stop.’

‘There’s too many as doesn’t know when to stop though,’ the other woman told her as she picked up her filled buckets by the handles. ‘Tha only needs to look around to see that.’