She bought a three-quarter-size bed for her bedroom and a single one for Betsy’s, along with a wardrobe and chest of drawers for each and thick rugs to cover a little of the bare floorboards. The bedding she decided to buy new from a shop some doors away, topping the sheets and blankets with a pale blue eiderdown and matching curtains for her room, and the same for Betsy but in pink. She also got curtains for the downstairs rooms from this shop, but the two armchairs, small coffee table and large rug for the front room she bought again from Mr Hartley, along with a kitchen table and two long plank seats, a thick clippy mat, a dresser, numerous pots and pans and baking tins and other utensils and crockery.

She was horrified how much everything came to but needs must, she told herself, and she wanted to create a comfortable and snug home for Betsy.

There was one item in Jimmy Crawford’s shop that was pure extravagance but she couldn’t resist it – a wooden Noah’s Ark for Betsy complete with chunky hand-made animals and little figures of Noah and his family. It would be a new home present, she told herself, and Betsy had never really had toys before apart from her beloved rag doll and teddy bear.

Jimmy Crawford and his son delivered everything the following day, positioning the furniture where Rose wanted it and carrying the beds and wardrobes and chest of drawers upstairs for her. The Noah’s Ark Rose put on the coffee table in the front room, imagining Betsy’s face when she saw it and the hours of enjoyment the little girl would have. They could sit in here together on winter evenings, she thought, herself perhaps reading and Betsy playing, just the two of them. And that was the way she wanted it for the future too; the mere thought of a man being around made her shudder. She’d started her monthly some days before so the weight of that worry was gone but if she thought about the rape and what had happened to the miller it made her flesh crawl. She had to make a success of her cooking, she had to – it meant everything, because it would give her autonomy.

Amy had offered to have Betsy for the whole day while Rose supervised the deliveries and got things straight, so on the way back to the inn that evening Rose bought two huge bunches of flowers and two enormous boxes of chocolates, to thank Amy for caring for Betsy, and also Tessa for sparing her daughter these last days without complaining.