‘I know you’re busy but I have a big favour to ask of you. The Scotia always dance at the Cottage Homes annual garden party and I want some of the younger girls to put on a wee bit display themselves for our patrons. They need costumes, something simple that our older girls can run up, but as usual it’s all last-minute. Could you help them sort something out – a straight up and down shift with a bit of decoration? I know it’s a cheek, I was hoping to see you earlier. Have you been ill? We’ve missed you.’

‘I’ve been very tied up, back home to Scotland, just family stuff,’ Netta fudged.

‘Nothing serious, I hope?’ asked Jean, with her nursing voice and warm eyes. Netta smiled and shook her head.

‘Can you come next week to meet my girls? A nice bunch, eager but a bit hamfisted at times.’

‘Of course, I’ll do my best.’ Netta wondered what she was letting herself in for. The Oldroyds’ Home was only a name on a collecting box to her so Netta needed instructions on how to find the orphanage. The dancing troupe always performed at the open day. Netta imagined that it was one of those gala occasions when the tartans swirled before the great and the good of the district on an expanse of green lawn, lit by the summer sun glinting through broad-leafed trees.

The house itself was half-hidden up a country lane leading high on to the moor: a gracious Victorian millowner’s mansion bequeathed to the town for the benefit of homeless orphans. There were bay windows like turrets at each corner of the main house and two blackened brick extensions to the building that made it look like a private boarding school. In the grounds were staff cottages and the stables were converted into a nursery for the infants.

Netta prepared a simple pattern for a short shift dress, like a ballet dancer’s rehearsal tunic with slits to either side. She found some end-of-roll bridesmaid taffeta in four shades to donate for the costumes. The girls would have to make a simple side dart and sew up the side seams of each outfit then they could decorate them how they pleased. A wreath of crepe paper flowers for a headdress would finish the costume off perfectly. True to her word, she walked through the country lanes to make her first visit to Matron Jean.