‘Louisa, please! I’m trying to apologise. I know I’m at fault, that if it wasn’t for me… I don’t know what to say. Can I sit?’

Louisa’s face softened. ‘Well, all right. Yes, of course, sit down.’

‘Have you seen Silas?’

‘A few times, aye, since the flogging.’

Harriet winced.

‘He’s doing all right, considering.’ Louisa’s voice hardened again. ‘Don’t know how he’ll get over it, meself. A whipping for all to see at the Saturday market. Folk were laughing, tha knows what these spectacles get like.’

‘I’ve never…’

‘No, course you won’t ever have seen one, will you? Soft life for some, int’ it?’

Harriet put her hand to her mouth and dropped into a chair. ‘I went to the King’s Arms…’

‘So tha knows he’s moved out of there, at least.’

‘Won’t you tell me where he is, Louisa?’

‘I don’t want him gettin’ in trouble again. Nor should you. I’ve told him, no goin’ near her place. That bloke wants thee dead, I said. That bloke tha says tha goin’ to be wed to.’

Harriet bowed her head, crushed by the harshness in Louisa’s voice. ‘I wish I could see him just once, to apologise. I did what I could for him.’

‘Aye, that’s summat, at least.’

‘He must hate me.’

‘I don’t know about that. I’ve told ’im he shun’t be dwellin’ on it. Look, it’s no use cryin’, love. I’ll put the kettle on.’

‘Where is he, Louisa? Has he gone from the town?’

‘Who’d blame him if he did go? Way he’s been treated.’

‘The judge was sympathetic. He said he’d help…’

‘Aye, an’ he did. Pair of you kept him away from the rope. How did you persuade him?’

‘He saw that what I was saying was the truth of the matter!’ Harriet sighed. ‘I also told him that Mr Boothby’s insistence on the worst punishment was to do with me, and that we were to be married and I would never contact Silas again.’

‘An’ yet here you are.’ Louisa’s mouth twisted into a bitter smile. ‘I’d leave it at that, love.’

‘Maybe we could meet here, Louisa, like we used to.’

She flinched away from Louisa’s candid look. ‘Go back to the way it were? No, Harriet. He’s got good people lookin’ after him now. Leave it, like I say. I saw what they did to him, tha didn’t. Go back to your comfortable life an’ forget about Silas.’

Harriet laughed bitterly. ‘Silas is free now. I’m the one in jail.’

‘Harriet.’ Louisa handed her a mug of tea. ‘Don’t be so bleedin’ dramatic.’

They smiled at each other and Harriet swallowed a sob of relief.

‘Can I come to see you again?’

‘Aye. Let the dust settle for a bit first, eh?’

When Louisa waved her off from the doorstep, Shandy at her side, Harriet’s vision blurred with tears. She might salvage Louisa’s friendship but her friend’s refusal to give her Silas’s whereabouts stung. She blinked her tears away, staring into the distance at the tall brick chimneys propping up the sky over Atlas steelworks. The familiar columns were already losing their substance, no more than faint smudges on the darkening horizon. The cold air stung her nose.