Rose hadn’t left the confines of the house and its grounds at all since the day she and Betsy had arrived, nor did she have any wish to do so. Although she told herself there was no chance of Nathaniel finding them, the fear of it always hovered in the back of her mind. It was for this reason she had been careful how much she’d said to Mrs Harper on the day she’d left the guest house. With Arthur waiting outside in the horse and cart she’d admitted she was going to be a housekeeper for the miller, but had intimated he had elderly parents living with him at the mill. It sounded more respectable than admitting she was keeping house for a single gentleman. Not that the miller was a gentleman in any sense of the word; in fact, she’d soon realized he was a brutish, uncouth individual. She’d been vague about the location of the mill when Mrs Harper had asked, merely saying it was in the country. The less the landlady knew, the better.

She had been there for ten weeks before Arthur had made advances to her one fine April morning. She’d been hanging the washing on the line in the yard, and he’d come up behind her and grabbed her bottom with his big meaty hands. Rose had screamed, at the same time whirling round and slapping him across the face with enough force to cause him to take a step backwards. ‘Don’t touch me.’ Her voice had been a low hiss but he couldn’t doubt she meant every word. ‘If you do anything like that again, I’m leaving.’

‘Oh aye?’ He’d stared at her, his hand to his cheek. ‘An’ where would you go, m’lady, with the little’un? You’ve got a good going-on here an’ don’t you forget it.’

‘And don’t you forget that you’ve got an even better going-on since I came here. The place was a pigsty – animals wouldn’t have lived the way you were.’

His lip had curled. ‘Don’t come the high an’ mighty with me, not you. You think I believe that cock an’ bull story about your husband dying in an accident? Some bloke left you with a bellyful, that’s the truth of it. I wasn’t born yesterday.’

‘If you think that why did you offer me the job?’ Even as she said the words it dawned on her exactly what Arthur Vickers had been expecting, even before he confirmed it.

‘I need someone to clean an’ cook an’ I was tired of having to go into town to get my other needs met. I expected you to be more obliging, the position you’re in.’ His tongue had slid over his thick lips. ‘Look, I’ll give you extra for it, all right? Can’t say fairer than that.’