Verity quite agreed with her although she didn’t voice her opinion. She and Emma were close and she could only imagine the state that poor woman must be in.

‘Then come through to the drawing room and I’ll get Lily to make you a nice hot cup of cocoa. You look like you need it,’ she said kindly. So after removing her coat and bonnet, Holly meekly followed. There could be no going back now. Tomorrow would be the start of her new life.

Chapter Three

Once Holly was seated at the fireside and Lily had brought them a tray of hot cocoa, Reverend Lockett tactfully retired to bed to give the women a chance to talk and after Verity sent Lily off to light the fire in the spare room, she was able to give Holly her full attention.

‘Perhaps if you went home and tried to reason with your grandfather he might change his mind?’ she suggested gently but Holly shook her head.

‘It wouldn’t be any use,’ she answered dully.

Verity peered at her over the rim of her cup and sighed. ‘And who suggested that Ivy might come with you? Was it your mother?’

‘No, it was Ivy herself actually. I think she’ll be glad of a chance to get away from here. Her father turns up on the doorstep regularly to take most of her wages off her. I don’t think the poor girl even knew what it was like to have regular meals and a clean bed to sleep in until she came to work for my grandfather. From what she’s told me neither her mother nor her father ever showed her an ounce of love or kindness while she lived at home so I doubt she’ll miss them, although I know she worries about her brothers and sisters, poor little things.’

‘Hmm, I can understand that but are you quite sure that Ivy is the right one to come with you? What I mean is … I would have felt easier if it was someone who could look after you. I’m afraid that Ivy might prove to be a burden and you may well end up looking after her.’

Holly shrugged. The emotions of the night were catching up with her and suddenly she was weary. ‘Actually, Ivy is tougher than she looks. She’s had to be to survive,’ she explained. ‘And I’ve never been away from home before without either my mother or grandfather, so at least I’ll have someone I know with me.’

‘There is that,’ Verity admitted, although she still felt very uneasy about the whole thing. Holly had led a very sheltered life in many ways and as Verity knew from the various poor people of the parish that she visited, it could be a very hard world beyond your own four walls.

Eventually, when she was convinced that nothing she could say would make the girl change her mind about leaving, she showed Holly to her room, and once left to her thoughts Holly miserably got into bed and lay staring at the dancing shadows the flickering flames in the grate were creating on the ceiling. She was exhausted and yet sleep eluded her as she thought about the enormous step she was about to take and reflected on what she had learned that day. She had once had a sister, albeit briefly. The thought almost broke her heart as she thought how wonderful it would have been had Laura lived. And then she wondered what her mother was doing and the tears came again. They had never been apart before and she was missing her already. And on top of that, she worried about how her mother would manage without her. Their bond was strong and they had always supported each other, but now her mother would be on her own and at the mercy of her grandfather, who could be harsh when he was angry.