Mr Lister, always so pleasant to me, calls me to the study one day and I quickly fill with fear that it has all been an act and now he will tell me to leave because he has realised what we get up to. I attend on him and he greets me with a smile. He tells me he has heard that there is a new orphanage to be built and takes my hand. He tells me I am a kind, sweet soul; however, the report of the orphanage clearly states thanks for a bequest from Miss Walker of Crow Nest in the newspaper. He pulls out the page, lets me read it and then casts it on the fire so that Anne will not see it. When she notices the page is missing later, he tells her an extravagant tale of a wasp in the room and him squashing it with the paper before disposing of the dirtied pages. It is too cold now for wasps, but Anne is barely listening as something else has caught her eye. He winks at me.

Her aunt and Marian, it transpires later, both read it too and so we are all in on it except Anne. I am delighted to be included and this small, inconsequential conspiracy makes me feel more accepted than any previous occurrence. We now have a secret, the four of us against Anne. I quite like it. Though incomparable to the secret of Anne and I, of course.

I wonder often if they know? If they would not care, or if they would cast us out if they discovered it? Luckily, we still have the Moss House to retreat to and it is in there, rather than in our rooms, that I feel most unbridled and free.

Miss Lister

If she agreed with everything I say, then she would become a bore. We read in the newspaper of improvements to working conditions and increasing the minimum age of children to work in the mills. Ann seems to want to rescue the lot of them. I know she gave handsomely to a new orphanage but I do not tell her that I know. My family think that they protect her from my scorn, but let them have their small allegiance to her; it does them all good. I would not have said anything anyway. They believe me to be far more of a tyrant than I am, and I must keep up the impression of it, so I do not say a word. I’m glad the Lister money does not come from industry, the toil of others. My conscience is clearer than Ann’s, so let her contribute what she must to ease her guilt.

We trip to York more regularly now, sometimes with Marian in tow as well, and she joins me in visiting friends there, including the Bests and the Norcliffes. They seem to like her, and she grows ever more in confidence.