‘Cotton. Or so we were told. Paid too much and can’t get his money back. He’s left on the quiet because of the shame.’

‘So tha’s lost thy job?’ she said, drying her reddened hands on her apron.

‘Aye. That’s the top and bottom of it,’ said Hannah. ‘We had nowhere else to go.’

‘Come inside,’ said Jennet. ‘Come on,’ she added to little Bessie, who was playing in a tub of water. ‘I’ll make a pot of tea. Hast tha eaten?’

‘Aye,’ said Mary. ‘We breakfasted in style, though it’ll be a while before we have another meal like that again.

‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Hannah put the parcel she’d been carrying down on the table for her sister to unwrap.

‘Bacon?’ said Jennet. ‘There must be a couple of pounds of it!’

‘Well, it would’ve been a sin to let it go to waste.’

‘I’ll get it in the pan. Titus’ll be home for his dinner soon and it’ll be a rare treat for him.’

‘How’s things?’ asked Hannah as she sat down on one of the familiar bentwood chairs at the table and unfastened her bonnet.

‘So so,’ said Jennet as she spooned tea into the pot. ‘I’ve started takin’ in a bit o’ washing to help make ends meet.’

‘So I see,’ said Hannah as her sister moved the maiden from in front of the fire and poured the boiling water from the kettle into the dark brown teapot. ‘Where’s Peggy?’ she asked as Jennet got down a towel to dry off Bessie.

‘She’s been given a place at the Girls’ Charity School on Thunder Alley. She’s learnin’ to read – doing champion at it an’ all.’

‘Really?’ said Hannah.

‘Aye. She’s a clever lass. She must get it from Titus. I were never any good at that sort of learnin’.’

‘Hast tha ever tried?’ asked Hannah. Some of the servants at Woodfold had been able to read – the butler, the housekeeper and the cook, Mrs Slater, who used to read to them in the evenings from the penny novels she bought when she went to market. Hannah had loved those stories and she longed to be able to read them for herself, but she’d always worried that it would be too hard.

‘Titus tried to teach me,’ said Jennet as she turned the bacon. ‘It made no sense, but our Peggy’s taken to it well.’

‘Is Titus still working on the road building?’ asked Hannah.

‘No. He’s back in the mill.’

‘Not t’Dandy Mill?’

‘No. They’ll not take him back there. He’s a weaver at Water Street, just across the way. That’s why we got this house.’

‘It stinks though,’ said Hannah.

‘Aye it does, especially on days like these.’

‘Is tha not afraid of the bad miasmas?’

‘Of course I am. But we were lucky to get it. And we had to get away from Paradise Lane.’ She glanced at Mary. ‘Thy father were doin’ all in his power to make it difficult for us.’