Holly’s kind heart ached for her. Her mother had always been the centre of her world and she hated to see her distressed.

‘We could leave,’ she said calmly and Emma’s eyes stretched wide.

‘And where would we go?’

‘We could find a little house somewhere and I could get a job. That way we would be independent.’

Emma sighed. ‘That all sounds very well but I can’t just up and leave my father alone.’

‘Why not? He has Cook and Ivy to take care of him, he’d be perfectly all right,’ Holly pointed out. ‘To be honest, I’ve always had the feeling that he only had us here on sufferance anyway.’

Emma’s head wagged from side to side. ‘It isn’t as simple as that. I … I can’t just go.’

‘Then I warn you, if he persists in this stupid idea of marrying me off, I shall.’ Holly stood up and quietly left the room leaving her mother to her thoughts, and as she made her way back upstairs she wondered again what hold her grandfather had over her mother.

‘So I take it it didn’t go too well then?’ Ivy asked a short time later when she carried a coal bucket to Holly’s room to make the fire up.

‘No, it certainly did not!’ Holly tossed the embroidery she had been trying to concentrate on onto the chair at the side of the bed. ‘Did you see how old he was? Well, old to me anyway! He was nice enough, admittedly, but there are things I want to do before I settle down with anyone, let alone someone my grandfather has chosen for me.’

Ivy nodded understandingly as she raked out the fire and threw some more lumps of coal on, then sitting back on her heels she said, ‘I can’t say as I blame you. I don’t want to get married either. I don’t want to end up like me mam, God bless her, havin’ one baby after another and gettin’ old before me time. Half the time she can’t even feed ’em cos most of me dad’s wages goes over the bar of the Rose an’ Crown. But what will you do if the master insists on it?’

‘I shall leave,’ Holly informed her quietly. ‘I’m quite old enough to make my way in the world and I have a little nest egg that my grandmother left me to tide me over till I find a job.’

‘But what would you do? You ain’t trained to be anythin’ and I can hardly see you as a maid,’ Ivy pointed out.

Holly shrugged to hide her fears. ‘I haven’t really given it a lot of thought yet but there must be something I could do. I wish my mother would come with me if it does come to that, but she’s already told me that she won’t.’

‘Well, try not to worry too much just yet. The master might change his mind.’ After poking the fire to get it blazing, Ivy stood up and ran her hands down the old hessian apron she wore for her dirty jobs. ‘I’d best get on but I’ll see you later.’