‘No luck at all, I’m afraid. But never fear, it’s early days,’ he told her with far more optimism than he was feeling. It had been hard to accept that he was no longer the owner of Greenacres and the shipyard and when he thought of how tirelessly he had worked to build the business up he felt angry and heartbroken, but there was nothing he could do about it and so he was just going to have to get on with things. ‘Did you give some thought to what I said?’ he asked and Amber nodded without hesitation.

‘Yes an’ the answer is still the same. Me name is mud down in the town so we may as well give ’em somethin’ else to talk about. I don’t much care what they say so long as I can be with Charlotte.’

With a brisk nod, he left the room. Amber knew she was doing the right thing, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous about living in a small house with a man she didn’t like. Still, if she wanted to be with her daughter, what other choice did she have? She’d tried supporting her on her own and it had been a disaster, so she would just have to make the best of it. And if she was completely honest with herself, the fact that Barnaby hadn’t blamed her, nor tried to call the police on her when she’d taken Charlotte, showed that perhaps he really was sorry for the way he had treated her. And if that was the case, she supposed she should try to put her resentment aside and at least be friendly towards him – for Charlotte’s sake. But then she shook her head. No. No doubt he’d had his own selfish reasons for not reporting her, so even though she couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for him after everything that had happened, she still didn’t trust him. And she wasn’t sure if she ever would.

*

The atmosphere was grim over the following week as some of the staff began to drift away. The cook was the first to go when she left to live with her daughter in Goathland, a pretty village out on the moors.

‘I were thinkin’ o’ retirin’ soon anyway,’ she told the master, which eased his conscience a little as far as she was concerned, at least. Next, Nancy informed Amber that she’d been taken on as a barmaid at an inn in the town.

‘It’ll be totally different to what I’ve been doin’ ’ere,’ she told Amber sadly. ‘But at least I’ll be bringin’ a bit o’ money in an’ I can live back at ’ome wi’ me mam again. But what are you goin’ to do?’