After the chocolates had been stashed away, Rosie continued. ‘The doctors at the Lancaster hospital did some tests, more on the baby than on me – like I’ve said all along, it’s a weak little thing,’ she said sadly. ‘No wonder, it’s never really had a chance. I fell pregnant during Mick’s leave when we had hardly any food in the house, then I came up here with barely the energy to even walk, then mi kids were taken away. The shock of that all but killed me – what kind of effect must it have had on a poor little baby? Still, I suppose life goes on.’

Gripped with acute guilt, words simply failed Sybil, but Rosie, after requesting another chocolate, to ‘cheer her up’, surprised Sybil by remembering their last conversation, about Monty, and picking up almost exactly where she had left off.

‘So I never did finish telling you about my little friend, Daisy the kitchen maid, the one who got engaged to the Stowupland chauffeur,’ Rosie said, pulling herself up in bed.

Sybil nodded; how could she ever have forgotten?

‘You certainly left me on a cliff-hanger.’

Settling back on the pillows again, Rosie continued her story. ‘She was a sweet little kid, only eighteen years old, then out of nowhere the poor kid got consumption. It was terrible to see her go down so quickly, coughing up blood, short of breath, thin as a rake. Course she had to leave her post right away for fear of spreading the disease.’

Sybil’s shoulders sagged in disappointment. ‘Please don’t let the little maid’s departure be the end of the story,’ she prayed.

Looking pensive as she recalled the incident, Rosie added, ‘But something really strange happened just before Daisy left …’

Sybil’s green eyes brightened. ‘Thank God, there’s more to the story.’

‘She called me out into the kitchen garden, where she handed over all the precious photo albums she had put together while she was working for her ladyship,’ Rosie gulped, as she tried to control her emotions. ‘Then, though the poor soul could barely catch her breath, she told me a secret that her fiancé had passed on to her.’

Trying to fit the pieces together, Sybil asked, ‘The Stowupland chauffeur?’

Rosie gave a quick nod. ‘Her young man told Daisy about a love affair Lady Veronica had before her marriage, with the game-keeper’s son. It was all supposed to be hush hush, but them below stairs knew that they were walking out together, and that it was a relationship Lord Stow would strongly disapprove of – apparently his lordship always had high ambitions for his precious only child. Anyway, Daisy told me the poor young man died in a shooting accident on the estate, died never even knowing that he had left his girl in the family way.’

‘That’s tragic,’ Sybil murmured.