Having listened to her aunt’s detailed account of everything that had happened in the village since her previous visit Daisy managed to get away at last, and she set off to check on Lemuel Fox. Not that she liked the man, but his daughters were loyal to him and Daisy felt sorry for Mary, who had suffered first at the hands of the squire, and then years of bullying from the man who was supposed to love and care for her. But first, and even more importantly, Daisy went to the carpenter’s workshop, which was a lean-to attached to his cottage. The sound of sawing and hammering led her straight to his door and the smell of sawdust and wood chips filled the air. The door was open and Fred Shipway was finishing off a pine coffin.

He looked up. ‘You’re that Marshall girl from London, ain’t you?’

‘Yes, Mr Shipway.’

‘Thought so.’ He nodded and went back to sanding off the rough edges. ‘Can’t take too much time over this one,’ he added. ‘Got several more to make.’

‘Has the cholera taken many?’ Daisy asked anxiously.

He grinned. ‘Good for business, you might say – if the families was able to pay the going rate. As it is I’m barely making anything on each one.’

Daisy did not know how to respond to this. Making a profit from the misery of others seemed wrong, but the carpenter had to live and feed his family, and if she remembered rightly his son Danny was one of Jack’s young friends.

‘Yes, it’s a very difficult time for everyone,’ she said tactfully.

He gave her a calculating look. ‘Have you come here to watch me work?’

‘No. I’m sorry, I should have said at the outset, but I can see that you’re very busy.’

‘If it ain’t a coffin you’re after, then what is it?’

‘I was wondering if you could help a lady who was crippled by an accident earlier this year.’

‘What was you thinking of, miss? I don’t make Bath chairs.’

‘The lady has had part of her right leg amputated, Mr Shipway. I was wondering if you could fashion a peg leg, which would enable her to become more mobile?’

Fred straightened up, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. ‘Well now, I’ve been asked to make some strange objects, but never a peg leg.’

‘Is it possible?’

‘I suppose so, but I’d have to see the lady first and take a look at her injured limb.’

‘Mrs Begg is staying at Creek Hall for the time being. Maybe you could visit her when you have a moment.’

A suspicious frown deepened the furrows on his brow. ‘It ain’t a charity case, is it?’

Daisy opened her reticule and took out the pouch that Mrs Carrington had thrown at her. She had earmarked the money for the sole purpose of helping Hilda and her children, and she took out a half-crown. ‘This is a deposit, Mr Shipway.’