‘That’s how it starts with the toffs an’ the likes of us, lass, but they’ve got one thing on their mind and one only and it’s not tarts. Well, it is in a way’ – Cissy dug Rose in the ribs with a broad grin – ‘not that you’re a tart, far from it, but they look on all our sort as easy pickings.’

‘Cissy, he was here for a minute or two, no more, and he was the perfect gentleman.’

‘Like I said, that’s how it starts with them and then afore you know it your knickers are off and your belly’s full.’

‘Cissy.’ Rose was shocked and it showed.

‘Aw, lass, you’ve bin married an’ you’ve got a bairn, you know what it’s all about.’

Unbidden, Nathaniel’s face popped into her mind and now Rose nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I know what it’s about.’

‘You’re a bonny lass an’ you cause a stir wherever you go but that has its own price,’ said Cissy with the wisdom of her kind. ‘If you’d bin born into wealth and riches it’d be different, you’d be protected then, but as it is you have to see their sort for what they are. The workhouses are full of young lassies who listened to a silver tongue and thought they were going to be whisked out of the mire and into a life of ease, and I dare say a lot of the young bloods haven’t given a thought to their bairns born on the wrong side of the blanket. It’s a man’s world, lass, and even more a rich man’s world.’

Rose’s gaze had wandered as Cissy had been talking and she saw that Alexander Bembridge had stopped to talk to the market overseer some distance away. They appeared deep in conversation, and as she stared, Alexander suddenly raised his head and looked straight at her. Startled, she dropped her eyes, but was left with the impression that they had been talking about her, or was she just being paranoid after what Cissy had said? Whatever, it had unnerved her.

‘Believe me, Cissy,’ she said firmly, ‘I’m not interested in Alexander Bembridge or anyone else. Silver tongues are like water off a duck’s back to me.’

‘Don’t be too sure.’ Cissy hitched up her ample breasts with her forearms as she spoke. A big buxom woman with a tribe of youngsters who some reported were not all her long-suffering husband’s, she was known for liking a bit of slap and tickle with some of the other male vendors. ‘Everyone likes a bit of flattery, lass, and to know that they’re special. And that’s what his type make you feel, special.’