Harry took hold of her hand. ‘Ellen, I’m so sorry that you’ve even had to think of such a thing. I feel as if I’ve failed you for a second time. Bringing you away from all you’d ever known in Holderness and now …’ He shrugged despondently, words failing him.

‘Harry, don’t! Don’t blame yourself. When have I ever complained about coming to Hull? We’ve met wonderful friends, we have a dear little house, the children are happy.’ Emotion made her throat close up and her words were teary, and Harry frowned. ‘What happened at ’mill wasn’t your doing. Besides, things are changing for the good.’

She glanced round at everyone and then back to Harry. ‘We’ve all had troubles in our lives and I think we, you and I, have been luckier than most, but ’thing is …’ She sniffed. ‘Thing is, I’d like to do this. I’m a good bread-maker, and if Mr Foster decides that we can rent his range I believe a success can be made of it. Everybody needs bread.’

‘Oh, Ellen!’ Anna said. ‘That is such a wonderful idea, and I would have done this also with you. But,’ she glanced at Filip, ‘now I can’t.’

‘I realize that; it’s totally impractical.’ Ellen shook her head. ‘It’s too far to walk with ’children and one of us would always have to stay with them.’

Anna clasped her hands together. ‘No!’ Then she reached out to grasp Filip’s extended hand and held it. ‘No, that is not reason. Reason is that Filip and I make baby. An English baby!’ she whispered, and tears glistened on her cheeks. ‘Born in freedom.’

On the way home, with Filip driving and Harry beside him, Lizzie, with Mary on her knee while Ellen held Thomas and Sarah was squashed in between, turned to Ellen and said, ‘I think you’ve had a brilliant idea, Ellen, and you should ask Filip to look at Mr Foster’s cooking range.’

‘I don’t see how I can manage it,’ Ellen objected. ‘I can’t take ’bairns with me. Can you imagine letting Thomas run amok whilst I’m baking in hot ovens! And,’ she went on, half laughing, half miserable to her core, ‘he’d be poking his fingers in ’dough!’

‘You’re a scamp, aren’t you, Thomas?’ Lizzie tickled her nephew’s round belly as he curled up on his mother’s knee. ‘But it’s going to be at least six months before the new mill is built so Harry can look after them when you’re not there. He won’t have to go in every day to ’other company that Roland mentioned, just mebbe for a few hours a couple of days each week, and you could get a young girl to mind them whilst he’s out.’