By the time the girls stopped to eat lunch, Amber felt ready to drop but she was determined to carry on and sat quietly nibbling the hunk of bread and cheese she had hastily wrapped before leaving home. The trouble was, even that stank of raw fish now and after a while she laid it aside as her stomach revolted.

Things got worse in the afternoon when the wind picked up and it started to rain, and soon she was drenched to the skin, cold and shivering. And yet the Scottish girls continued to laugh and joke as they worked on and Amber could only admire them. They certainly were a hardy lot. By four o’clock in the afternoon the brightness had gone from the day but still they worked on, determined to finish their task. At last, all the fish were gutted and packed and the girls began to disperse to their lodgings to prepare for the next day.

‘Be here fer seven in the mornin’,’ Bridget told her with a cheery smile.

Too tired to even reply, Amber nodded and turned towards home, so weary she could barely put one foot in front of the other.

‘Good heavens above, look at the state o’ you, lass,’ Alice cried when Amber stumbled through the doorway. Her two older brothers and her father were still at sea and expected home the next day and the younger two were away working on the railways now, so once again it would be just her and her mother that evening. Amber had been pleased when her mother had written to her a couple of months before to tell her that Will and Ted were leaving the shipyard. At least that was two of her family who would no longer be reliant on Barnaby Greenwood for an income!

Amber collapsed into the chair at the side of the fire and as her clothes began to steam, the rank smell of fish became overpowering.

‘Phew, you’d best get out into the yard an’ take them off,’ her mother ordered, wrinkling her nose. ‘Then we’ll get you into somethin’ dry afore you catch your death o’ cold.’

Amber did as she was told and after washing in a bucket of warm water her mother had ready for her, she sat at the side of the fire wrapped in a blanket, shivering as she started to peel the rags from her hands. A lot of skin came off with them and her mother was horrified as she stared at the raw, bleeding flesh.

‘Aw, me poor lass.’ She shook her head as she bustled away to fetch more warm water to bathe them.