‘Hm, but it won’t be home for long though, will it, if what your mam told my mam this morning is right. Off to pastures new in Scarborough to live wi’ your uncle, ain’t she? An’ then what will you do? I don’t suppose you’ll be able to afford to keep the cottage on.’

‘That’s none of your business,’ Amber retaliated as colour rose in her cheeks.

He shrugged nonchalantly as he examined his fingernails. ‘You’re quite right.’ He grinned spitefully. ‘But it’s funny, ain’t it? The rapid recovery your uncle has made, I mean? Makes me wonder why you were really hidin’ away in Scarborough all those months.’

Amber’s stomach did a somersault. What was he hinting at? Could it be that he’d found out about the baby she’d been carrying? Dread coursed through her. If he had, just one word from him and it would be all over the town in no time and her reputation would be gone for ever. Even so, her gaze remained steady as she pulled the cart past him avoiding his eyes.

‘It’s funny an’ all that your uncle is gettin’ wed to his housekeeper.’ His voice followed her along the street. ‘I wonder why you had to go an’ look after him if they were so close? I’d say there were somethin’ fishy goin’ on here.’

Amber hurried on, ignoring him, but a bad feeling had started in the pit of her stomach and when she finally turned into Argument’s Yard, she breathed a sigh of relief, before glancing over her shoulder to make sure that Bertie wasn’t following her. When she saw old Ned hovering in the shadows, despite the fact that every penny counted, she fished in her pocket and handed him a coin. Touching the old woolly hat that covered his wispy grey hair, he limped on his way. Most of the people in the town helped him when they could and Amber and her family were no exception, poor old thing.

She hoisted the first full bag of laundry into the cottage kitchen and her mother instantly began to sort the washing into piles, ready to put into the copper in the corner, which was already bubbling away. Amber’s breath caught in her throat when she saw her fish out some soiled baby clothes. Without thinking she snatched them from Alice’s arms and held one of the tiny nightgowns to her nose and sniffed it. Seeing the look of pain on her daughter’s face Alice quickly took it off her and handed her some soiled bedding and without a word Amber submerged the sheets into the boiling water, blinking back the tears that had come to her eyes.