‘Oh, please don’t let them hurt me, missus! Please!’

She clung to the newcomer as her saviour. She looked kind, with those big brown eyes in a white face. Please God, Briony prayed, let her help me.

Isabel wrapped the child in gentle arms. Looking first at her husband, then at the two women and the obviously drunk man standing at the top of the stairs, she said, ‘What on earth’s going on here?’

Henry’s shoulders slumped and Briony heard a terrible groan come from him. It was as if he had been punched in the stomach with an iron fist. ,

Briony was sitting on the nice lady’s lap being petted, her mother and Mrs Horlock telling her everything she wanted to know. Henry was sitting by the window on a straight-backed chair, biting his knuckles.

Isabel listened to the two women with growing amazement, every so often looking down at the fiery head laid against her breast. She knew this child should repel her, but all she felt was motherly concern. That the girl had been coerced into her situation, she had no doubt. This beautiful child with the porcelain white skin and the glass green eyes should be outside in the air playing games, not sitting in this overstuffed morning room waiting to find out if she was going to be allowed to give birth to a child she should not be carrying in the first place. Isabel looked at her husband and felt an urge to rise from her seat and fell him to the floor with one heavy blow.

What he had done here was disgusting and cruel. And all the more so because this child had been handed to him on a plate by a father who needed to feed the rest of his family. Henry played on people’s poverty, the big Bible-thumping bully!

‘What do you want, my dear?’ She looked down at Briony’s face, her voice gentle.

‘I want to have the little baby, missus. I don’t want that doctor near me.’

Isabel nodded. ‘But who will look after the baby when it arrives?’

Briony sat up straight on her lap and grinned. ‘Well, I suppose I will. I know a lot about babies, don’t I, Mum?’

Molly nodded, defeated by all that had happened.

‘That’s settled then.’ Isabel’s voice was brisk. ‘She’ll stay here, of course, until the baby comes, and then we’ll sort something out. Henry will pay the bills, don’t worry about that. I’ll see to it personally.’ Her voice was getting stronger. ‘I shall undertake to oversee everything myself. Mr Dumas will not be visiting here any more, so any belongings of his should be packed and ready for him to take with him as he leaves.’