The two girls shook their heads and he proceeded to stride from room to room. ‘I think it would be wise if we had one of the men stay here each night until we move in, just in case whoever did this decides to come back,’ he said. ‘And I’m so sorry for all the extra work it has caused you both.’

‘’T’ain’t your fault,’ Nancy answered matter-of-factly. ‘But I’d love to get me ’ands on the lousy bastards!’

Amber as yet hadn’t even acknowledged his presence but he came over to her and gently took a framed map from her hands.

‘Luckily the map and the frame aren’t damaged,’ he said quietly as he studied it. ‘I’ll get a new piece of glass cut for it.’

‘An’ what about all the lovely china?’ Nancy motioned towards the broken crockery she had swept into a pile.

‘Just take some more from the house,’ he instructed, his mouth set in a grim line. ‘There’s so much there no one will even notice it’s gone.’

He stared at Amber for a moment but when she still didn’t even look at him, he left.

Nancy watched him jump into his saddle and said sadly, ‘I can’t ’elp but feel a bit sorry for ’im! I mean, he’s ’ad a lot o’ trouble lately, ain’t he?’

‘I dare say he has, but he’s still a lot better off than most people in the town,’ Amber said bitterly. ‘He’s still got this house, two ships an’ a warehouse.’

‘That’s true,’ Nancy admitted. ‘But it ain’t a fraction o’ what he ’ad, is it? I ’eard ’em say down in the kitchen last night that ’e’s goin’ to use one o’ the ships for transportin’ goods abroad an’ the other for fishin’. That’s what him an’ Jimmy are gettin’ the warehouse ready for.’

Amber shrugged. ‘I dare say he’ll make a go of it,’ she said ruthlessly. ‘After all, he didn’t have much when he met the mistress, by all accounts, but he worked to build the shipyard up thinkin’ it was his!’

‘Well, I reckon it were a dirty trick of ’is father-in-law’s,’ Nancy responded. ‘All them years the master worked on what were never goin’ to be ’is business if the mistress passed afore ’im an’ he never even knew it.’

Amber shrugged again as she looked around to see what needed doing next. She still found it very difficult to muster up any sympathy for Barnaby. ‘What’s done is done an’ now we’ve all just got to try an’ make the best of it,’ she said stoically and side by side they carried on working.

*

The following morning, just as they were about to set off to the house, a letter arrived at Greenacres from her mother, so Amber pushed it into her pocket to read on the way.