His wife visibly shuddered at the thought. ‘They’re such smelly, dirty creatures,’ she said, giving Sunday another thing to worry about.

‘Oh, what a shame you feel that way,’ Sunday said sweetly as she strained the tea into the cups. She had brought out her favourite tea-set, which had been a wedding present from Mrs Spooner, the dear soul she had gone to work for when she eventually left the workhouse. It was made of very fine bone china with delicate blue forget-me-nots hand-painted all over it. ‘Maggie is very fond of animals,’ she ended with emphasis.

Mrs Dawes had the grace to blush as Sunday turned her attention to Maggie, saying, ‘Why don’t you go back to play now, pet? I think I saw Ben looking for you.’

At the mention of Ben, Maggie was off like a shot. Once they were alone again Sunday asked the couple, ‘So, what did you think of her?’

Mr Dawes glanced at his wife before saying cautiously, ‘I thought she was a delightful child. What did you think, dear?’

‘I think she would be very happy with us,’ she answered, then addressing Sunday and Tom: ‘Would you consider letting us take her? I can assure you she would want for nothing.’

Sunday still had a bad feeling about this – some gut instinct that warned her things were not quite as they should be … and yet outwardly she had no reason to deny them.

‘If you are quite sure? You must appreciate this is a very serious decision. It would do Maggie irreparable harm if you were to take her then change your mind.’

‘That won’t happen, I assure you. If she comes to us she will have a home for life,’ Mrs Dawes promised. ‘Now what do we do next?’

‘I think perhaps we should talk to Maggie again first and see how she feels about it. However, I suppose there’s no time like the present if you’ve really made up your mind. Are you sure you wouldn’t like a little more time to think about it?’

The couple both shook their heads. They appeared to be of one mind. Sunday nodded at Tom, asking, ‘Would you mind asking Maggie to step inside again, love?’

‘Of course not.’ Tom disappeared to return minutes later with Maggie, who was wondering what was going on by now. Why did Sunday and Tom keep wanting her to spend time with their visitors? They hadn’t asked any of the other children to meet them.

‘Ah, here you are again, pet.’ Sunday forced a note of joviality into her voice as she patted the seat at the side of her. ‘I have something to tell you. Come and sit here by me.’

Maggie obediently did as she was told as Sunday cleared her throat and began, ‘The thing is, Mr and Mrs Dawes here are looking for a little girl to go and live with them, and as it happens they’ve taken a great shine to you.’