‘Only for a minute,’ he said, ‘while we clear the station. I’m sayin’ me farewells to the town. Whoa, girl!’

Shandy had leapt for the open space and would have been through the window if he hadn’t grabbed her around the hips. Her upper body was hanging out as the train began to move and she was barking furiously.

‘That dog’ll lose her head shortly,’ said the man sitting opposite Silas.

‘Aye, I know that. Come ’ere, yer mad animal!’ Silas yanked her back inside.

‘P’raps you’ll shut that window now,’ said one of the other passengers.

Silas wedged Shandy between his legs. He’d heard of this mania known to seize hold of certain people once they were put in the confined space of a train carriage, a wild hysteria that had them kicking and screaming. He’d had no idea dogs could be infected by it. Shandy was whining now, a high keening sound that he didn’t think he’d ever heard her make before.

‘Quiet, girl!’

He kept her trapped as he stood to close the window. They were nearing the end of the platform now and he could see on the edge of it the figure of a woman. She was wreathed in steam. The smoke cleared for an instant.

It was Harriet.

She gasped, disbelieving. There was Silas, framed in the open carriage window, and now Shandy jumped up and Silas locked his arm about the dog’s neck to prevent her leaping from the train, while his other hand waved frantically. The unbridled joy on his face found its answer in hers, and Harriet burst out laughing. He was almost level with her now, and she could see curious faces behind him. She didn’t care. She was filled with a reckless elation. She knew they understood each other perfectly. They always had.

‘I’m not getting married!’ She was shouting wildly, surprising herself. ‘I’m not!’

Now they were level and already he was moving away. He slammed his hand repeatedly on the outside of the door as the engine tugged the carriages away, gathering speed, leaving Harriet behind.

‘Thou art!’ He shouted back at the top of his lungs. ‘Tha marryin’ me!’

Chapter 48

Silas Hinchcliffe reached the top of the rise that would show him the view down the valley. Here, he paused.

Across the bare fields, patches of melting snow were dissolving in the cold drizzle that Harriet would say was the barely-there rain that soaked you through. A curtain of heavier rain moved in the far distance, obscuring the view towards the Pennine hills. Silas wiped his face and glanced down at Shandy, who had planted herself by his side. ‘Good girl,’ he said absently. He was thinking.

The thrilling jolt that ran through his body when he saw Harriet at the station had set his heart hammering and he could barely contain himself during the tearing, rattling journey to the next station a couple of miles away. Shandy had caught his mood, jumping from one side of the carriage to the other as they raced through a tunnel, and only settling when he dropped the window as they emerged into open countryside and allowed her to raise her nose to catch the various scents rushing by. It was all he could do not to open the carriage door and throw himself out.