Will grinned. ‘I could have wished to have taken you on a happier jaunt, lass, but I’m glad you went. For George’s sake and, if it comes to that, for your own. Though you might not think it now, I reckon in years to come, you’ll be glad you went.’

‘Aye well, mebbe . . . I – I must get on, Will.’ With that she hurried upstairs to change into her working clothes.

Opening the door and stepping into her bedroom, Esther stopped, her hand still on the latch, her mouth wide in a shocked gasp, but eyes staring in disbelief. Then a sudden spurt of intense anger flooded through her.

On the patchwork counterpane of the double bed lay the wooden box – Sam’s wooden box – which held the money she had found after his death. His hoard of savings which had then become hers and to which she had added, coin by coin, by scrimping and saving over the years through her own hard work. All the money she had in the world had been in that box.

Now the box lay open on the bed – empty.

She leant forward and grasped the box, flinging it to one side, then she dropped to her knees and scrabbled under the bed.

The money was gone.

‘Will,’ she screeched, ‘WILL!’

She stood up again just staring down at the empty box lying open on the bed.

She heard Will come to the bottom of the stairs. ‘Esther lass, what is it? What’s the matter?’

‘Here, Will, come up here!’

‘Aw, lass, it’s not Matthew, is it?’ she heard him say, as he pulled himself up the narrow, steep stairs. As he came through the doorway of the bedroom, she glanced up at him to see his face lined with worry and anxiety at what he was to find.

‘My money, Will, all my money’s gone. Stolen!’ She made a futile gesture towards the box. ‘It was in that box – the one Sam left under the bed. Someone’s been here and – and found it.’

‘Good Lord!’ Will muttered.

‘Who’d so such a thing, Will? Who round here would—?’ Her eyes widened as she whispered, ‘I bet it’s Martha Willoughby and that sister of hers. They’re the only ones who—’

‘Now steady on, lass, steady on. You can’t go accusing people like that. You’ll get ya’sen into trouble. They’d not steal, Esther lass, not them. I know they ain’t no time for you, but nay, they wouldn’t do that.’

She bit back the retort, ‘Aye but they tried to drown me once,’ for Will knew nothing of that.

The fight went out of her and she sank down on the bed. ‘Then who . . . ?’

Will shuffled his feet awkwardly and murmured, ‘Esther, lass, where’s Matthew?’

Slowly, Esther lifted her eyes to meet Will’s unhappy gaze.