He looked from Harriet to Polly and back. Harriet smiled at him and touched his arm. ‘I shall see you tomorrow, Albert, and every day after that.’

He nodded stiffly. ‘Good day to you both.’

Polly held Harriet’s gaze as they listened to his footsteps recede and the front door open and slam. Harriet waited, wondering what was to come. A log snapped like a gunshot in the grate.

‘Dear Alice,’ said Polly. ‘You were a good mother to her.’

Tears welled up in Harriet’s eyes.

‘I’d longed for a girl after three boys, but I could not find any love in my heart for her. I had just lost my sister, your dear mother. I am not making excuses, only trying to explain. Walter brought you and your brother here, and I was overwhelmed. I was afraid for Alice, for you and James, for the boys. There was danger everywhere. Then Walter told me that the danger came from me. I was the cause of my fears and would be their effect. He told me I was unstable and brought the doctor who gave me pills. I took to bed.’

Harriet followed Polly’s gaze to the window. A blur of fat white snowflakes blew against the pane, swirling and softening onto the posts of the gate at the end of the garden path. The boys were running up and down the path and Sadie watched them, stamping her feet and rubbing her hands together.

‘I wanted to keep my family safe,’ said Polly. ‘But look at us, Harriet. We are so reduced.’

Harriet wiped her eyes with the handkerchief Polly handed her. Her aunt’s eyes were dry and full of pain.

‘I gave you too heavy a burden to carry alone and I am sorry for it. Now,’ she tapped the table with one finger, ‘tell me about your wedding preparations.’

‘The wedding?’

‘Yes, the wedding. You have heard of it?’

Harriet laughed, relieved to hear humour in her aunt’s voice. She blew her nose.

‘You will be getting nervous, I imagine. The anticipation of it all. I remember my wedding day.’

‘Do you?’

‘Well, yes, Harriet. It was my wedding day. What of your dress?’

‘Albert’s sister has shown me the dress she was married in, an ivory silk. I think something like that would do. Albert likes it.’

‘You don’t seem enthusiastic. Harriet, I hope you understand that you are permitted to have second thoughts.’

‘I’m content to take Albert’s advice on it.’

‘I’m not talking about the dress, child. You think to continue to see this boy, don’t you? I may have been in bed for six years, but I see the light in your face when you’ve been to visit Louisa. Sadie is a gossip and sharper than you give her credit for.’

‘Aunt!’ Harriet laughed, but she was rattled. Polly was bringing out of the shadows things she did not want to think too closely about, and emotions she had thought she’d been successfully holding in check.