Mr Lieberman, an old-world sort of gentleman, stood with his hands clasped together at his waist and gave a little bow.

‘Thanking you, Mr Watts. I do think they look rather fine.’

‘We’ll have to get Caleb in to see them,’ Uncle Eb said.

‘His dies were the making of it,’ Sam Lieberman said humbly. Too humbly, Margaret thought, gazing at the colours he had created, each picture a tiny alleluia of beauty.

‘Right – well, we can get cracking,’ Uncle Eb said. ‘We’ve got the frames all set already – we’ll get them fixed in today and we’ll have them sent off to that German feller in good time for Christmas.’ He reached out a hand and the two men shook on it. ‘Marvellous job you’ve done there, Sam – thank you.’

‘Is Den coming?’ Daisy asked in her commanding way when she arrived after school that afternoon. She walked into number twenty-six and the office with all the confidence of a child who has grown up in the business.

‘Hello, Daisy,’ Aunt Hatt said. ‘Are you teaching Den now as well?’

‘I’m trying to,’ Daisy said, rolling her eyes.

They all laughed.

‘Don’t forget, you’ve been doing these things all your life,’ Margaret admonished her gently. ‘Smithing may be like breathing to you but that’s not how it is for the rest of us!’

It was nearly a fortnight since Wilfred Poole’s funeral and things were not going any better for the family. Mary Poole had caught a chill in the cemetery and been brought low with it. Lizzie was also full of cold, but struggling on as usual. To add to the misery, the weather had grown very cold. Annie spent as much time helping as she could and Aunt Hatt sent her with contributions of food without fail, every day. They had managed to persuade Mary Poole that Den and Ivy must be at school, but that after school, Den could come over to Chain Street and learn some things from the Tallises. Uncle Eb said he might be able to think of taking the lad on in time, but at present he was just too young.

‘If that young bossy-boots Daisy teaches him a thing or two, it’ll keep him off the streets, any road,’ Uncle Eb said.

And Daisy loved teaching people. Den had started to arrive in the afternoons, lured as much by the tea and cake and attention he was given in the Tallis household as for any educational reasons.

‘I’ll go to school if I can come ’ere after,’ he’d said, in his gruff way. ‘I’ll wag it, else. There’s no point in all that flother and them teachers bossing us.’