‘Oh, yes, ma’am. I helped bring our lot up, me brothers and sisters, I mean, ’cause I’m the eldest, and then when I was twelve the vicar’s wife had twins and as I’d just left school they set me on, helping her like. She was weakly, poor Mrs Kirby, after the birth an’ that, and she’d no sooner got round when six months later she was expecting again, and this one – Miss Grace – well, she cried night an’ day, ma’am. Me brother, Joe, was the same when he was born so I gave Miss Grace the same as I’d given him, a pap bottle with me mam’s beef broth in it but well watered down. Mrs Kirby’s milk wasn’t enough, see.’

Arabella would have a fit if she heard that. Rose was feeling weary that morning; she hadn’t heard from Alexander in two weeks, but as she listened to the girl chatter – because Jinny was barely more than a girl – she felt less tired. ‘And why are you leaving the vicar’s employ?’

‘They’re moving, ma’am, down South.’

‘I see.’

‘They said I could go with them, ma’am, but I don’t want to be so far away from me mam an’ da, not with the war and everything.’

‘I can quite understand that. Where do your parents live?’

‘Not far from here, ma’am, in Leadgate. Me da’s the blacksmith.’

‘And you say you’ve had experience with twins before at the vicarage?’ Rose touched her stomach. ‘They tell me I am expecting two, although at times it feels like three or four in there.’

Jinny grinned. She was relaxing a little now. The grandeur of the house and grounds had taken her aback at first. She had nearly turned on her heel at the gates, convinced she didn’t have a chance of securing a position here, but Mrs Bembridge was lovely. She had heard that the son of the family had married an ordinary working-class lass and properly set the cat among the pigeons, but to her mind there was nothing ordinary about Mrs Bembridge. ‘When are the babies due, ma’am, if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘In just under a month. The middle of November.’

‘Well, ma’am, me mam always says that the last weeks are the most trying and she’s only ever had one at a time. She swears by a dose of peppermint cordial at night to help with the heartburn and such. I don’t know if the doctor has recommended anything like that, ma’am?’