‘He thinks it feels very small fer the stage Louisa’s at and it isn’t as active as he’d have liked it to be,’ she told him soberly. ‘Added to that he said the heartbeat sounds thready.’ Seeing the concern pucker his brow, she rushed on, ‘Of course it could be that everything will be fine, but I just thought . . .’ When her voice trailed off, he mopped his brow with his handkerchief and plopped heavily onto his leather desk chair with a sigh.

‘I think what you’re trying to tell me is that you fear this child could be born dead like the last two?’

She chewed on her lip before slowly nodding. ‘I reckon there’s a good chance of it, sir. This is exactly what happened with the last two little mites that were born sleeping. But there, I’m no doctor, so let’s just pray that I’m wrong. All we can do is prepare for the worst and hope fer the best, isn’t it?’

She slowly turned and made her way out of the room leaving him to sit there staring miserably from the window, feeling as if his heart were breaking. Could this be his punishment for treating Amber as he had? he wondered.

*

At that moment down in Whitby, Alice Ainsley was just settling herself at the table with a pot of tea and a letter from Amber to enjoy. As yet she hadn’t managed to visit her daughter at her brother’s house so she looked forward to the letters that Amber wrote on a regular basis. The door into the yard was propped wide open to let the breeze in, and with a sigh of contentment she started to read.

Dear Mam,

Well, so much has happened since I last wrote to yer that I barely know where to start. Do yer remember I told yer about Archie, the young chap that worked for Uncle Jeremiah in the shop? Well, I had a bad feeling that he were looking on me as wife material so I directed him towards a young maid that comes into the shop regular. She lives just up the road an’ she’s a lovely girl. Anyway, the long an’ the short of it is they are now walkin’ out together an’ I couldn’t be more pleased for them. They really do make a lovely couple.