‘Elbows off ’table please, Thomas,’ Ellen said as she dished up a cottage pie, still marvelling that she could cook a nourishing yet cheap meal in her own oven at last.

‘I was just saying that Harry looks well today,’ Lizzie commented. ‘I think he’s on the mend at last.’

‘Hope so.’ Harry forked up some mince and mashed potato, but before beginning to eat he added, ‘It’s about time I was back at work. Mebbe I could find a temporary job until ’mill is built. I don’t like to think that Ellen’s having to get up so early in a morning to pay ’rent.’

‘Needs must—’ both women began, and then laughed. Sarah looked up from her plate.

‘When ’devil drives,’ she finished for them.

‘It’s what Gran says,’ Mary added. She had gravy on her chin. ‘I don’t know what it means.’

‘I’ll explain one day,’ Ellen said, wiping her younger daughter’s chin with a clean rag.

‘When you’ve read Ro—Mr Tannerson’s letter, you’ll have some idea of ’plans for ’mill. It might seem that nothing’s been happening but he’s been talking to various people, and Filip Bosco has been very helpful in discussing ’equipment. He says we should scrap the old machines and begin again.’

‘Can Mr Tannerson afford to do that?’ Ellen asked.

‘If ’insurance company agree, and they have in principle. In confidence, there’s a meeting with ’insurers tomorrow and Filip will put forward his suggestions and show how ’running costs will be less in ’long run.’

Once they’d finished their meal and the children had gone upstairs to play before bedtime, Harry opened the letter and read an invitation to attend a preliminary meeting to discuss the formation of a new company under the name of Tannerson and Partner.

‘I don’t understand.’ He looked up. ‘Why has Tannerson sent this to me? I’ve no money to put into a company!’

‘He hasn’t asked you for any,’ Lizzie said bluntly, ‘but he’d like to hear your ideas on how it should be run.’

‘How would I know?’ he objected, his confidence still at a low ebb. ‘I’m a farmhand.’

‘You ran Ozzie’s farm, didn’t you?’ Ellen said.

‘Aye, true, I did.’ He paused and considered. ‘Well, I suppose, yes, it comes to ’same thing, whatever kind of business it is. It has to be efficient or it fails. When I went to Tannerson’s I thought it was being run too casually, which is dangerous when there’s moving machinery.’

Ellen nodded. Tannerson had admitted as much.