‘Those gems are too big to be real. They must be paste,’ declared Joan, after eyeing the ring like a hawk, her face green with envy. ‘The whores that hang around the Mussel Inn wear big sparkly glass gems like that. Spencer has probably bought it off one of the whores, and no doubt fugged her too.’

Da clipped her for that, quick as a flash, and I was glad. She sat at the table with a red cheek, tears spilling from her eyes, her jaw set in a firm line.

But it was me that Da was really furious with. I was not daft enough to tell them about our London plans, for they would have asked too many questions about Spencer’s trade and I was sworn to secrecy. But I told them we were to be married.

‘And I shall be Spencer’s wife, not a fishwife,’ I said nervously. ‘For he wants me to keep house for him.’

‘Patrick Spencer is a blaggard and this is just a dalliance,’ Da replied. ‘I’ve a mind to clip you too. You come from a long line of fisher folk and you are to marry a local boy, not shame us by marrying some Englishman who will drag you away from your calling and forbid you from doing the work you were raised to do.’

Fishing was not my calling, but I said nothing.

‘And as for you, Joan Dickson, if I hear you use words like whore and fugged again, I shall whip your arse good and proper.’

I gathered myself, feeling brave, now that I had a ring on my finger.

‘If you hit me, I shall tell Spencer,’ I warned my da. I said nothing in Joan’s defence and she glowered.

‘Are you with child?’ Da asked. ‘I take it the two of you have been at the capers? Is that what all this is about?’

I reddened and shook my head, mortified at the way the conversation had turned.

‘He’s a sort,’ continued Da. ‘No one knows who Spencer is. The tea men don’t trust him. He seems to have appeared one day with mystery packages and all sorts of claims about making a fortune.’

‘I know everything I need to know,’ I replied. And who were the tea men to say who should be trusted and who should not be trusted?

‘We should calm down and have a pot of tea,’ said Ma, standing up. She knew how I felt. She knew this was my chance. She knew how to handle Da. ‘And I take it Spencer is planning on sticking around for a while this time?’ she asked gently.

He was planning on sticking around for a while. He was not going to attempt to travel again until after the worst of the winter weather was over. That meant there was time for a wedding and to find us somewhere to live.