Ellen went through the narrow doorway and saw a steep staircase which, she guessed, would lead to his living quarters; in front of her was another door which opened into a dark and dusty room. A pair of old curtains shut out any light from the window behind them and she pulled them back, causing a scattering of dust but illuminating the contents of the room.

Filling all the space against the furthest wall, as Mr Foster had said, was a massive cast-iron cooking range with two ovens, one at each end, a door in the middle which she opened and saw was the fireplace for feeding in the coal, and a tall chimney above it going up through the ceiling. On top of the range was a long hot plate with a kettle perched on it as if about to boil.

‘Oh!’ She put her hand to her chest. She had never seen such a thing in her life. An army could have been fed from this cooking appliance. Attached to the range above the hot plate was a pierced metal shelf with tarnished copper pans set upon it.

She turned as she heard Mr Foster come in. ‘Bit of a mess in here, I’m afraid. Don’t know what my wife would think.’

‘Oh, it wouldn’t tek long to clear up, Mr Foster,’ Ellen said, ‘and it’s such a waste not to use it. Where does ’chimney go?’

‘There’s a little box room above here with a fireplace, and then the main chimney stack.’ He looked at her. ‘So what would a young woman like you want with this old thing?’

‘I’d bake bread. At least my friend and I would; she bakes better bread than I do. We could set up a business together if you’d be willing to sell it through your shop.

‘Would you buy your flour from me?’

‘We could probably buy it cheaper from ’flour mills, but I’m sure we could come to some arrangement.’

He put his head to one side and nodded. ‘I quite like the idea of selling bread again,’ he said. ‘Folks used to smell it and come in, and then they’d buy other things too to spread on it, jam and marmalade and such, those who didn’t make it.’

‘I haven’t made jam or marmalade since I came to live in Hull,’ she told him, ‘though I did when we were in ’country. Everybody did. But not everybody has a fruit garden or a cooking range either. It will still work, won’t it? The range, I mean.’

‘It would want cleaning, and the chimney might want sweeping, but yes, I think so.’

‘My friend’s husband is an engineer; he could check it to see if it’s workable.’ She felt a rush of enthusiasm. ‘Could I – would you be willing, that is, for me to bring Anna to have a look at it?’