It was pitch-dark outside when Jay arrived promptly at six o’clock. She could not tell if he was alone or whether he had brought a small army of men to intimidate her family further, but she refused to answer his urgent demands to open the door. The kitchen door was barricaded and they had closed the wooden shutters on the downstairs windows, but Jay continued to hammer on the door and shout all manner of threats, which Judy chose to ignore.

After half an hour of constant harassment, Jay acknowledged temporary defeat.

‘You win for now, Judy Begg. But we’ll be back tomorrow. Enjoy your last night on my premises, because tomorrow you’ll be thrown out.’

Judy leaned against the door, waiting for another round of abuse, but there was none.

‘Has he really gone?’ Hilda asked faintly. ‘I thought he might break the door down.’

‘He stopped at that, thank goodness.’ Judy sank down on the settle by the door, her knees having turned to jelly. ‘He’ll be back, that’s for certain.’

‘Maybe we should have done what he said.’ Hilda went to sit by the fire, wrapping her arms around her body. ‘I’m sure Daisy would have taken us in, even if we had to sleep in the stables.’

Judy managed to rise to her feet and she made her way to the bar. Jack had been the last person to drink brandy, but now she poured measures for herself and her mother. Nate was nowhere to be seen. She took a glass to her mother and pressed it into her hand.

‘Sip this, Ma. If you’d like Nate to take you to Colneyhurst Hall you have only to say so. I don’t think Jay will bother us again tonight, but I’m sure he’ll be back tomorrow.’

Hilda clutched the glass in her hand. ‘I’ll only go if you’ll come, too. Don’t be stubborn, Judy. You know he’ll get his way in the end.’

‘I don’t know that at all, Ma. I refuse to be driven out of my home by someone who is wealthy enough to have property anywhere he chooses. Jay is doing this out of spite, for what reason I don’t know.’

‘Jack wants you to go with him.’

‘You were listening?’

‘It was impossible not to hear what was going on. You two were shouting at each other for ages. You were always together when you were younger. I really thought you would make a match of it.’

Judy took a mouthful of brandy and swallowed it. She closed her eyes as the spirit hit her empty stomach like a cannonball. ‘I don’t know how I feel now, but I don’t trust him. That’s the worst of it, Ma. He can’t just turn up and expect things to be as they were in the past. He’s fallen under Jay’s influence, and we all know how Jay treats the people who love him. He married two women without bothering to divorce his first wife, and that sums him up nicely. He takes what he wants, no matter what it does to others.’