‘I’m writing a story.’

Mrs Feilden snorted. ‘You’re certainly very good at telling one. I wonder what other items you have concealed in your room.’ She tipped the flock mattress aside and the blankets and sheets pooled on to the floor. On the criss-cross of ropes beneath it lay a stack of papers covered with close writing. She picked up the top page and began to read. Hannah thought that her face could not get any redder and her heart was pounding in her chest and her ears. She moved to snatch the page back but Mr Horrocks caught her by the arm.

‘What nonsense is this?’ asked Mrs Feilden. ‘It sounds like one of the penny novels that they sell on the market. The kind of badly written tripe that I try to steer my daughters clear of. I will not have this in my house.’ She gathered up the papers and thrust them at Mr Horrocks. ‘Burn them!’ she told him.

‘No!’ Hannah grabbed at her precious pages. She caught hold of one but it ripped in two. ‘No,’ she moaned again as tears flowed freely. ‘They’re mine! I’ve worked hard on them. They’re mine. You can’t take them!’

‘And what is this?’ demanded Mrs Feilden. Hannah glanced round from where she was desperately clinging to her pages as Mr Horrocks tried to wrestle them from her grasp and saw that Mrs Feilden was holding up the blouse that belonged to Mrs Pickering. ‘You’ve stolen this as well!’ She turned it over and saw the brown burn on the back.

‘That’s not one of yours!’

‘It looks very much like it. Although you’ve ruined it with your carelessness. Is that why you’ve hidden it? So that you won’t have to admit your fault? The cost will be taken from your wages.’

‘It isn’t yours!’ Hannah was sobbing now but she was determined to clear her name. She’d done nothing wrong. ‘It was our Jennet that spoiled it. It belongs to Mrs Pickering from Richmond Terrace.’

‘So your sister’s a thief as well? Mr Feilden will be disappointed. He assured me that he trusted Titus Eastwood and that you would make a good employee. But you’ve let me down badly, Hannah. You and your family.’

‘I’ve done nothing wrong. I promised Jennet I would make a new one. She’s getting the material and then I was going to mend that for myself.’

‘And what does Mrs Pickering have to say about it?’

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Hannah as she watched Mr Horrocks go out with the pages of writing she’d laboured over. Her story about the maid and the schoolmaster.

‘Well. I’ll have to speak to Mr Feilden about this,’ said Mrs Feilden.

She walked out, followed by Cook, and Hannah gazed around the room. She thought about running down after Mr Horrocks, but her story would be on the fire by now. And she was probably going to be dismissed. And when James Hindle heard about it he would want nothing more to do with her. She was sure of that. And Titus would be furious. He might not even let her back into Water Street. Then what would she do? End up like Mary, who might well be lying dead at the Star by now, despite the best efforts of Dr Barlow.