The minutes ticked by, each one feeling like an hour, and all was silent save for the clock on the mantelpiece and the sound of Socks softly snoring in his basket. As dawn broke, Amber filled the tin bath with hot water from the copper and washed herself from head to toe before washing her hair. She then sat wrapped in a towel by the fire and brushed her hair until it gleamed. She was painfully aware that this might be the very last time she would see Barnaby if the magistrates chose to send him to be tried and she was determined to look as nice as she could for him.

By the time Mrs Jennings arrived, Amber had fed and changed Charlotte, released the chickens from their coops and was dressed in her Sunday best blouse and skirt.

‘You look bonny, lass,’ the kindly woman told her. ‘All that’s missin’ is a smile.’

‘I’m so afraid of what might happen to him, Mrs Jennings,’ Amber confided in a shaky voice as she put her best bonnet on and a warm shawl about her shoulders.

‘I’m sure you are.’ Mrs Jennings put her arm about her and gave her a gentle squeeze. ‘But worryin’ yourself into the grave ain’t goin’ to change nothin’ so go an’ smile an’ be brave for ’im! I’ve no doubt he’s just as scared as you are.’

*

The visiting magistrates always heard the cases in a room above the inn in the market square and although it was early, Amber was shocked to see a crowd already forming outside when she arrived. She expected to be met with the usual hostility so she was surprised when the crowd parted to allow her to be first in the queue.

‘Come on, lass,’ one of the women encouraged. ‘It’s your husband up afore the magistrates so it’s only right you should get the best seat. Good luck – ’e’s a good man is Mr Greenwood.’

‘Th-thank you.’ Amber stumbled past her and soon the door opened and the crowd climbed the stairs to the room where the magistrates were seated in a row behind a table. In their black clothes they reminded Amber of a row of crows.

The only other case to be heard that day was a man who was up for being drunk and disorderly, so it had been decided that, as his case was not so serious, he would go first. After a short hearing, the drunk was given a fine and told that if he reoffended, he would be sent to court, and he went off with a spring in his step.

By then, though, Amber was so wound up that she barely heard a word the stern-faced magistrates said and her eyes stayed fixed on the door for a sign of her husband, oblivious of the crowd chattering around her.