‘It’s a natural thing, childbirth, not an illness.’ Esther could almost hear her aunt’s clipped tones.

‘Aye, she’s bad – real bad,’ Will was saying now.

‘And – Uncle George?’

‘He had the ’flu a while back. He’s fine again and looking after yar aunt. The girls help, of course. The eldest two are away in service now, but Rachael’s taken charge.’

‘Rachael! But she’s only a child, she . . .’

Will was shaking his head. ‘She’s seventeen, lass. You forget,’ he added as Esther gasped in surprise, ‘you’ve been gone nearly nine years.’

Esther nodded slowly. ‘So I have, Will, so I have, you’re right, I had forgotten just how long it’s been. I’ve been picturing them to be just the same as when I left.

‘Well, you’ve changed, so – why shouldn’t they?’

‘Yes – of course.’

It was difficult for Esther to imagine how things must be now. How the children she had known were grown up and working and – most difficult of all – that her aunt was now laid low by illness.

‘But,’ she asked at last, ‘they’re – managing all right?’

‘Aye.’ Will was silent for a moment. Then he put his head on one side and said quietly, ‘But if you were thinking of paying them a visit, I reckon they’d be pleased.’

Esther shook her head vehemently. ‘No, no, Will, I can’t. I can’t ever go back.’

‘Surely you don’t still bear a grudge against Hannah?’

Esther turned away and did not answer him.

The following week the news Will brought was even worse. ‘She’s over the ’flu itself, Esther, but it’s brought on some sort of seizure. She just sits in a chair now, lolling to one side. She dun’t speak or do anything now.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘She’s a pitiful sight . . .’

He glanced towards Matthew sitting by the range, his hands shaking, his head nodding continuously. Will looked away, but Esther could read his thoughts. The condition of her aunt was much the same as Matthew’s, though brought about by a different cause.

‘I feel very guilty, Esther,’ Will was saying. ‘She caught that ’flu coming to help me and the missus. If she hadn’t . . .’

‘Now, Will, don’t be foolish,’ Esther told him briskly. ‘She’d have caught it some time if not from you.’

‘But she nursed George through it and a couple of her own young ’uns. I don’t understand it.’

‘There’s no telling with illness, you know that.’

Will’s face was still distressed. ‘I’ve brought trouble on them two sisters an’ no mistake,’ he murmured.

‘What did you say, Will?’ Esther prompted, but Will shook himself and said, ‘Nothing, lass, nothing at all.’

She took his arm. ‘Sit down and ’ave yar dinner, Will.’