‘Aye, that’ll mean a lot to Miss Harriet. Especially since the two twins died. It broke her heart and she’s never been the same since, despite going on to have more family. You never get over the loss of a child. My old lass and me have lost two – one at birth and one who was just not born right. They were always sickly, but we still remember them.’ Bert looked across at young Jane and smiled. ‘Is Mr Fox at Leeds today with Madge Burton? They were saying upstairs that she’s quite a good seamstress.’

‘Yes, James has a full day of bookings, and Madge is meeting the manager at the shop in Queens Arcade. I thought it was time she made herself known to him. They went on the seven o’clock train together this morning.’ Isabelle twiddled with the string that sat on the packing bench and thought about James and his visit to Leeds with Madge. He hadn’t wanted to go with her, and had made such a fuss when he left her that morning.

‘She’s a bonny woman, is Madge; she could do with finding herself a good single man.’ Bert’s face clouded over.

‘You don’t always have to be dependent on a man,’ young Jane spouted up. ‘Women should be independent. I don’t think I will ever marry.’

Both looked across at the young lass with a mind of her own.

‘Jane, will you stop reading the rubbish that the stupid women of the Women’s Social and Political Union keep feeding you? Of course you will marry; it is what is expected of you, when the right man comes along.’ Isabelle sighed.

‘The times are changing, Mistress Isabelle, even I know that. Better to be single than unhappily married.’ Bert looked at his mistress, who was oblivious to all the gossip within the store, which he had tried to ignore.

‘Well, I never thought I’d hear that, Bert Bannister: you telling me, at your age, to move with the times. It must be working with our Jane; you must have heard too many of her radical ideas.’ Isabelle stood back and looked at the pair who were trying to tell her the way of the world.

‘Aye, well, sometimes we can’t see what’s going on under our own noses, and I’m as guilty as the next man of that.’ Bert walked over to the consignment of goods that had just arrived and thought better of saying anything about his concerns. After all, it was only idle gossip that he’d heard and there was always plenty of that in Atkinson’s department store.

10

10

James Fox sat across from the new love in his life and did not feel one bit guilty for his thoughts about the sweet-faced young woman who had captured his heart.