‘From the master,’ Nancy told her. ‘I were just takin’ the bottles up to the nursery when he stopped me in the hall to ask if I’d come an’ ask if you’d go to see him at the house at ten o’clock tomorrow mornin’.’

‘What would he want to see me for?’ Amber snapped suspiciously. Just the mention of that loathsome man could put her hackles up.

Nancy shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me, lass. I’m only the monkey not the organ grinder!’

‘Sorry, Nance.’ Amber looked repentant. ‘I didn’t mean to snap at you.’

‘S’all right,’ Nancy answered as her mother placed a mug of stewed tea in her cold hands.

Amber’s first instinct was to ask Nancy to tell him to go to hell, but then she bit her tongue. What if he needed to speak to her about her daughter? Could it be that something bad had happened to her? Was she ill?

‘So what’ll I tell him then?’

Amber took a deep breath. ‘Tell him I’ll think about it,’ she said eventually.

‘An’ how are you copin’ lookin’ after them two babies?’ Mrs Grimshaw asked.

‘I’m copin’ fine,’ she told her, looking sad. ‘Though I’ll be glad when Mr Greenacre employs a new nanny. I’d sooner do me proper job. Charlotte is a little beauty, good as the day is long, but little David . . . well, he’s a different kettle o’ fish altogether. He ain’t thrivin’ at all an’ the doctor is really worried about him. In fact, things ain’t good up at the house at all at the minute what wi’ the mistress bein’ so poorly an’ all. Mrs Ruffin looks shattered but she insists on carin’ for the mistress herself an’ won’t hear o’ the master bringin’ a nurse in. Poor sod, from what I’ve heard whispered she ain’t long fer this world.’

‘That’s awful.’ Mrs Grimshaw shook her head, setting her double chin wobbling. ‘An’ her were such a bonny young woman an’ all.’

Amber told Nancy about the letter she’d received from her mother then and they chatted for another few minutes before Nancy set off back to Greenacres leaving Amber to suffer another evening of noise and mayhem at her mother’s.

As the children snored around her that night, Amber lay awake into the early hours of the morning trying to decide what she should do, but when she eventually fell into an exhausted sleep she was no nearer to reaching a decision. The next morning, she was up with the lark and after helping Mrs Grimshaw to feed and dress all the children she set off again in her quest for a job, although she was fast losing heart now.