“If Jack is spying on me, then I have dragged Yorkshire and all its miseries right to my own doorstep, haven’t I? Tell him to leave me alone, Pamela, or he could ruin everything I’ve worked years to build.”

A bank auditor with criminal connections would not be a bank auditor for long. The Wentworth and Penrose owners would give Ellie generous severance, and they’d regret cutting her loose, but they would think first, last, and always of their bank’s reputation.

“You want the grandparents to move down to London, but you want Jack to pretend he’s a stranger. Fine way to treat a man you were once engaged to.”

Not this. Not now, when the baby was sighing so sweetly near Ellie’s ear. “He left me for one of his schemes, Pamela. You know that. Left me without a word in parting, and came jaunting back three months later with no explanation and little apology.”

A bullet dodged, though Ellie would never say that to Jack. She kept her peace on the matter not to spare Jack the guilt and shame of having abandoned her, but because it flattered him to think she’d pined for him.

“Men do what they must,” Pamela said, buttoning and tucking in her bodice. “How are matters at the bank?”

“The same. Wentworth and Penrose thrives, and I pride myself on contributing to its good standing. One word from Jack, and I have no livelihood and no reputation.”

The baby gave a tiny burp, then a sigh.

“They are always so good for you,” Pamela said. “The babies, that is. Jack simply looks after you for old times’ sake.”

No, he did not. Ellie wasn’t sure what exactly Jack was about. She refused to have anything to do with his schemes, and he refused disappear from her life. He was like a half-tame dog. She worried when he dropped out of sight for too long, but she wasn’t comfortable when he was underfoot either.

“Our family was respectable once, Pammie. We can be respectable again, but not if Jack and his cohorts keep running their rigs.”

Pamela stared at the door. “The little heathens have gone upstairs to bother Mrs. Hilton. Where that woman gets her patience, I do not know. I think I might be expecting again. Mrs. H says I have the look.”

“Mrs. H is on the nest,” Ellie said. “She sees babies everywhere. For your sake, I hope you haven’t conceived again so soon.”

Pamela tied her bodice ribbon in a bow. “Clyde can be persuasive.”

But could he provide adequately for the fruits of his persuasion? “Take this,” Ellie said, passing over a gold sovereign. “For the children.”

The coin disappeared into one of Pamela’s pockets. “You needn’t, you know. Mick left us a bit of a windfall before he went traveling. We’ll be in clover through the New Year.”