They passed the workhouse and discovered many substantial houses on Beverley Road that would need staff to clean them and she mused over the possibilities; she would write several notes offering her services on a daily basis as a general maid or a washerwoman and describing her experience, which she worried about as she’d only been with Mrs Hodges for three years before she married. For references she would ask Mr Tannerson and Dr Lucan if she could give their names, and she was sure that Mrs Hodges wouldn’t mind in the least: if, in fact, anyone asked her when there were two eminent gentlemen much nearer at hand as alternatives.

Walking there and back again, she decided, would be possible, for she would be fit again by the time Harry came home from hospital. Spring would soon be here, and she convinced herself that the only difference from working for Mrs Hodges would be walking past factories and mills and noisy foundries rather than through meadowland, with the sound of the sea in her ears.

CHAPTER THIRTY

‘How are you, Mrs Randell?’

True to his promise, Dr Lucan came to see her two days later. Lizzie had taken the children upstairs; Edyta had told Ellen she could use her room if ever there was the need. She kept the fire in all night and topped it up with coal and wood in the morning before leaving for work, and Ellen always added more during the day so that Edyta came home to a warm room.

Ellen had asked her when she would be married and she’d said, ‘Soon. I want my mother to feel settled with Ezra first. Karl says that she could live with us, but I’m afraid it would make difficulties with Ezra again, and at the moment everyone is trying to be cooperative. For the sake of Mutter,’ she had added.

‘I’m quite well, I think, thank you, doctor,’ Ellen answered now, buttoning up her blouse, for he had listened to her chest with his stethoscope, and taken her pulse. ‘But very sad about losing the baby; though given our difficult circumstances …’ She left the rest unsaid, not wanting to admit that with another small child life would have been even more difficult.

‘And your sister is staying with you just now?’

‘Yes. Her husband died recently and being with ’children seems to be helping her.’

‘It’s good to have family,’ he said, as he packed away his instruments. ‘Has Mr Tannerson been to see you yet?’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘Not recently, but I expect he has a lot to think about with ’mill and everything.’

‘Indeed he has; the building is gutted. A miracle more people were not hurt.’

‘The child who was killed,’ she said softly. ‘Does his family know about him, or anyone know why he was there?’