Betsy had satisfied her curiosity and was now beginning to wriggle and whimper. Rose hitched the baby up in her arms a little. She knew what the reaction would be if she said her husband’s best friend had made unwelcome advances to her. They would think she had encouraged him in some way – it was always the same in things of that nature. It was never the man’s fault. Just last year in the shop at the end of their street the wife of the proprietor had caught him on top of the eighteen-year-old assistant in the storeroom at the back of the premises, and despite the girl saying he had attacked her and him having scratches on his face, everyone had decided the girl was a bad lot.

Keeping her voice level now, Rose said, ‘It was my decision and I’ll have to live with it, for right or wrong. As I said, I could expect no help from my husband’s family and there was nothing to keep me in Sunderland.’

‘I see.’ Beattie felt there was more to this than met the eye. She looked at her brother, a long look which said only too clearly she was far from pleased with him. That was the thing with men, she thought waspily. A pretty face and a fine ankle and they were putty in a certain type of woman’s hand. Not, to be fair, that she thought the girl in front of her was a hussy, but there was something she wasn’t saying nonetheless.

‘Your brother said you might have a room to rent short term, but of course if that is not the case I perfectly understand.’ Rose had seen the look and thought she knew exactly what the woman was thinking.

‘Did he say I always take payment in advance?’

‘Yes, he did.’ Rose looked straight at the landlady and her voice was crisp when she said, ‘I can assure you that I have not left Sunderland owing rent or having any other debts, and I can pay you whatever you ask right now.’

Behind her Hubert shuffled his feet; he was more than a little embarrassed. ‘Of course you can, lass. No one is suggesting anything different.’

His sister sent him another look that would have felled a lesser man, but behind her stiff facade she was thinking quickly. She was satisfied in herself that the woman in front of her was respectable enough, even though she hadn’t got to the bottom of things, and she rarely had a guest during the winter months so a little extra money for a week or two wouldn’t come amiss. Added to which, she could hardly send her out into the cold and with the weather worsening with a small baby to take care of.