‘Annie?’ She laughed, feeling more at ease now they could talk the way they used to. There was a pleasure in simply talking to someone who knew her and her family well. ‘You know how headstrong she is. During the first week she went off and got herself a job at one of the pen factories. I mean, they make pen nibs – thousands and thousands every week. There are a great many factories making them in the district – some of them very famous, like Gillott’s. You must have heard of them? Between them they provide the means for people to write, all over the world! You’ve no idea how complicated it is making a pen nib. Or at least –’ she corrected herself – ‘I had no idea before I came here. Anyway, Annie – in the interest of the Lord’s mission in our great cities, you know what she’s like – wanted to see how it is to work in a factory. To see what people’s lives are like. And she’s been there ever since.’

‘I imagine it must be gruelling,’ Charles said.

‘Oh, it is. I should never have survived it. They’re there from morning ’til night on those presses, banging out bits of metal at an astonishing rate. Annie says there are some ladies there over seventy years of age, still working. They’re very tough – but then so, it seems, is Annie. And she has involved herself with helping various people . . .’

‘Well, I’m glad to hear that Annie, at least, is so devoted to God’s work,’ he replied. Margaret was taken aback, thinking she heard a barb of sarcasm in his voice, but he was still smiling and she was left confused. Darkness invaded her mood for a moment and she pulled herself up short. The Charles who had attacked her, who had tried to . . . do those unspeakable things to her. Where was he? Was there to be an apology? But she could see that here, in this quiet crush of people, there would be no opportunity.

They were leaving Birmingham, green fields all around. She sat back and took a breath.

‘How long does it take to reach Banbury?’ she asked.

‘An hour or so, I believe,’ he said.

‘I’m looking forward to seeing it.’ As she spoke she wondered why she felt the need to appease him, as if she, somehow, had long ago slipped into the wrong and been the cause of all their troubles. ‘Your new church. Will you be the sole incumbent?’

‘No.’ He looked down, unable to hide the bitterness in his voice, and his face pulled into an angry frown. ‘They have not seen fit to do me that honour. In fact, I am to work with two others.’ He gave a stiff smile. ‘We all have to serve our apprenticeship, even those of us not working in the more material trades. Mine, it seems, is to be prolonged.’