Her eyes flickered and he knew then for sure that he was on the right track. Ten damn years give a few months he’d been trying to find her and what had he discovered? By all accounts she was engaged to some top-drawer major or other who’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. When he’d made his usual enquiries a few weeks back in a pub at Shotley Bridge it had been more out of habit than with any hope of tracing her. He had told himself that this summer would be the last of attempting to hunt her down. He’d told himself this before for the last two or three years but this time he had meant it. Since walking out on Maria he’d regretted it more than once, especially in the winters when work was harder to come by and the nights could freeze your innards. He’d been sitting pretty there, and he could have had an easy life, but for the thorn in his flesh that was Rose. But Maria was gone, she’d topped herself like she’d threatened she would if he ever left her, and when her brothers-in-law had come after him, he’d left one crippled and the other threatening he’d get even with him if it was the last thing he ever did. Aye, Chester-le-Street wasn’t an option. There were other towns and other Marias, however, and it made sense to get himself settled before he was too much older. But then an ancient little man had sidled up to him. He’d used to be a carrier and he’d taken a lass to Consett once, and she sounded like the girl he was looking for. A beauty she’d been and with a bairn an’ all like he said. The old man’s hand had been tapping his empty beer glass as he’d spoken and Nathaniel had taken the hint and refilled it. He refilled it several more times over the next couple of hours and got the old man’s life history in the process. It seemed his wife had died and he’d come to Shotley Bridge from Consett to live with his daughter, but after rambling on for a while he came back again to the lass he’d given a lift to.

‘Got herself set up in a nice little bakery by all accounts, the last I heard, but then with her looks you’d expect something of the kind, wouldn’t you.’

‘The kind?’ Nathaniel’s stomach muscles had tightened.

‘You know what I mean, lad. It caused a bit of a hoo-ha, of course.’

‘You’re saying someone, a man, got the bakery?’