He chuckled again as he looked at her flushed face. ‘Then it’s high time yer did start thinkin’ about it,’ he said. ‘You could do a lot worse than me. I’d be good to yer an’ make sure as yer never wanted fer owt, so give it some thought, eh?’

Before she could answer he turned abruptly and went out the way he had come, leaving Amber and her mother to stare at each other in amazement.

‘As if I’d ever be interested in the likes of Bertie Preston,’ Amber snorted and was shocked when her mother lowered her eyes.

‘I dare say you could do worse,’ she muttered. ‘An’ considerin’ what’s happened . . .’

‘Considerin’ what’s happened you think I should be grateful to accept anyone as will have me, is that it?’ Amber’s eyes were blazing with anger and hurt.

‘I didn’t say that!’ Alice said loudly.

‘No, you didn’t, but it’s what you meant.’ Springing out of the chair Amber climbed the stairs to her little room in the attic and after throwing herself on the mattress she sobbed.

*

When her mother came downstairs the next morning, she was shocked to see Amber already up and dressed in her oldest clothes with a warm shawl crossed over her chest and tied at the back. She had scraped her hair into a ponytail in the nape of her neck and tied it with string and she was wrapping her hands in strips of sacking.

‘What are you doin’?’

Amber looked up. ‘I’m gettin’ ready to go to work,’ she informed her mother coolly. ‘I noticed that the Scottish herring girls are still here in the harbour an’ they’re always glad of any help as the ships come in.’

Every year, from July to the end of September, when the herrings shoaled along the shoreline, the Scottish herring girls – or the gippers, as they were known – arrived in force to gut and pack them. While they waited for the fishing boats to come in, they were a regular sight about the town as they strolled out with the young men, much to the disgust of the local girls.

‘Do you realise how hard that work is?’ Alice asked, appalled. ‘You’re only days after giving birth and you should still be in bed by rights not goin’ to work.’

Amber did know how hard the herring girls worked. They were out there in all weathers for poor pay, but she stuck her chin in the air as she finished binding her hands.

‘I’m young an’ strong,’ she said calmly. ‘An’ any sort o’ work I have to do to keep meself is better than havin’ to marry a bloke I don’t love.’ And with that she turned and left as Alice bit down worriedly on her lip.