When Harry returned from seeing the grocer he had a big grin on his face. ‘Incredible,’ he said. ‘It’s an ancient cooker but an extremely well made piece of ironwork. Bill Foster’s really keen on seeing it working again. Sweep’s coming early tomorrow morning, and what’s more – did he show you ’coal shed, Ellen?’

She was reeling, not only from Harry’s response but from the fact that the grocer had set her proposal in motion by arranging the sweep so swiftly. Perhaps in case she changed her mind? She shook her head in answer to Harry’s question; she hadn’t been out at the back of the shop.

‘Well, there’s this massive brick-built coal shed in ’back yard next to ’privy,’ he said, ‘and there’s a couple of tons of coal in there; apparently they’d just had a delivery when his wife became ill and he’s hardly used any since as he doesn’t make a fire in his rooms until late afternoon. So he said ’coal might as well be used and as soon as ’sweep’s been he’ll make a small fire under ’ovens to test them out!’

Ellen’s mouth dropped open. ‘But nothing’s been settled, not ’price he’s going to charge for renting ’range or how much bread he’ll sell for us, or anything.’

‘Mebbe you’ll both need a couple of weeks to work out a plan, Ellen,’ Lizzie suggested. ‘He’ll have some thoughts about it from when his wife was alive: how much demand there was and how fast you can turn the bread out. You could do a trial run.’

Ellen thought of how flustered Mrs Brownlee had been the first time she went into her bakery shop, but she was baking and selling single-handed until Anna stepped in to help her. I’ll only be baking, she thought, and I’ll do the bulk of it early; I won’t have to sell it over the counter. Mr Foster will do that.

Harry slipped his arms round her. He seemed quite animated. ‘You’re so clever to come up with the idea. I admit I was uneasy about it to begin with and I thought it would be too difficult to organize, but now – well, it’s just tremendous, Ellen, and I’ll be able to help with ’children until I’m back at work full time.’

Over his shoulder Ellen saw Lizzie raise her eyebrows, and the expression on her face shouted What did I say?

‘And did Bill Foster tell you about ’reason he came to this area from Australia,’ Harry asked.

‘Erm, yes.’ Ellen’s mind was in a whirl as she mentally began to plan the project. ‘His forebears came from somewhere round here,’ she said vaguely. ‘Somewhere in Hull, he said.’