‘So you’re leaving me without a nurse?’

‘I didn’t say that. It’s just that if I did decide to settle here in Little Creek I could be of more use if I was fully qualified.’

He shrugged and turned away. ‘It’s up to you entirely, Daisy. If you feel you need to return to London it’s entirely your decision. You must do what you think is best.’

Chapter Twenty-Two

It had not been an easy decision, and if Nick had asked her to stay Daisy knew she would not have left the place she had come to love. But he had been adamant that she must make up her own mind, and he had been cool towards her, which made her feel guilty and angry at the same time. After all they had gone through together during the outbreak of cholera, she would have expected him to show some regret that she had chosen to return to her studies. He had not even been at the station to see her off, and it was Aunt Eleanora who had cried and kissed her goodbye, while Uncle Sidney had made sympathetic noises, patted her on the back and wished her well. Despite her disability, Hilda and the younger children had walked all the way from Creek Hall together with Dove and Linnet, but there was no sign of Nick and that made Daisy angry. There might once have been a hint of a romance between them, but their relationship during the cholera outbreak had been purely professional, and he had no right to make her feel guilty for wanting to continue with her studies. Jay would have wished her well, had he been there to wave her off. Jay would have understood.

It was late afternoon when Daisy arrived at the lodging house in Fieldgate Street and she received such a warm welcome from Minnie that it made up a little for Nick’s apparent indifference and ingratitude. Minnie was openly overjoyed to have her roommate returned to her, and even Flora Mackenzie had shown a degree of pleasure when Daisy walked into the parlour. But Rex was his usual grumpy self and he leaped at her with claws outstretched and fangs bared when she climbed the stairs to her old room. Minnie joined her and they sat on their beds while Daisy related the horrors of the cholera outbreak, ending with the squire’s dramatic change of heart on his deathbed.

Minnie’s hand flew to cover her mouth. ‘Oh, my! Who would have thought it? But Mary won in the end – how marvellous.’

‘It would be if only Jay would come home. He isn’t aware of what’s happened, and I don’t know how to set about finding him. The Lazy Jane could be anywhere by now, and he swore never to return to Creek Manor.’

‘But it’s different now,’ Minnie insisted. ‘Jay is the lord of the manor. It really is like something from a novel by Mrs Gaskell.’

‘But the happy ending is yet to be written,’ Daisy said drily. ‘His mother needs him.’