As she busily swept and mopped, she constantly kept going to the loft hatch to check on Charlotte, who was grizzling again now. She felt torn in two. Half of her wanted to get downstairs to her baby but the other half knew that the loft had to be cleaned to make it anywhere near habitable.

‘I shall need some clean straw for the mattress,’ she informed Mrs Barstow when she came down to fill the bucket with clean water for the third time. By then she was filthy, her hair was full of dust and cobwebs and her hands, which were unused to manual work now, were red and sore.

‘So fetch some from the barn,’ Mrs Barstow said unhelpfully. ‘I ain’t took you on to work fer you!’

After three trips to the barn, Amber had managed to restuff the mattress with clean straw, although she had a horrible feeling it wasn’t going to be any too comfortable to sleep on. Still, she consoled herself, at least it was clean. Every time she appeared, Charlotte cried harder to be picked up and it was breaking Amber’s heart but there was nothing she could do about it.

By mid-morning she had made the loft as clean as she could and after carrying the cleaning things back down the stairs she told her new mistress, ‘I need to give Charlotte some pobs now. Could you tell me where to find the bread and milk?’

The old woman was still sitting in the same place and she waved an arm towards a bucket on the draining board. ‘You’ll find fresh milk in there. The old man brings us a fresh bucketful in every mornin’. Bread’s in the pantry but you’ll need to bake a fresh batch this afternoon. It’s time yer were thinkin’ o’ gettin’ the dinner on an’ all. There’s a shin o’ beef and plenty o’ fresh vegetables so yer can make a stew. I take it yer can cook?’

‘I can as long as yer don’t expect anythin’ fancy,’ Amber retorted as she heated up some milk in a pan on the range cooker. That too needed a good scrub and the wooden draining board next to the deep stone sink was piled high with dirty pots and pans. Once she’d made the baby’s meal, she tried to feed her, but Charlotte slapped the food away every time she offered her a spoonful. Her little eyes were red from crying and Amber felt like crying too as she thought of the cosy nursery back at Greenacres. But it was too late for regrets now. She was just going to have to make the best of things and hope that Charlotte got used to her new way of life.