‘Then you should price your work right. Hard case or not, you’ll get no more money from me. I’m paying you more than enough as it is. So, go on. What exactly did you find out?’

‘She and the boy were set up for the night. They talked about coming back. The woman seemed sad, I thought, as if she was missing someone.’

‘Did she now?’

‘They seemed well enough, content in a way, but eager to be making tracks back home, that’s how it came across to me.’

‘Were they alone?’

‘Well, yes, I think so.’

‘So you didn’t see anybody else then, a man maybe?’

‘There was no man there, not as far as I could see. Mind you, I don’t know who might have been inside the wagon. It was dark. I only caught sight of these two in the light from the camp fire.’

‘Pity.’ That would have been a pleasant turn-up for the book. If some other man had come along and taken charge of that witch and her bastard, her own husband might not be so restless. When she’d heard that Fanny Higgins had taken herself and her boy off and out of Blackburn, she’d been delighted. But ever since he’d found out, Bill had been withdrawn and moody. She felt her power over him slipping away, and it frightened her. All she could do now was keep one step ahead of her rival by having her watched.

‘What would you like me to do now?’

‘Get on her tail. I want to know her every move. I want to know where she is at every turn, and who she’s with, especially if you catch sight of a man friend.’

Long after he was gone, she paced the floor, then some half hour later she made her way back to the vegetable stall. Bill had been waiting to leave. ‘Took you long enough to get here, didn’t it?’ he grumbled. ‘You know I’ve work to do back at the farm. The cartwheel still needs mending, and there’s all manner of odd jobs going untended.’

She looked at him, wondering not for the first time what Fanny Higgins ever saw in him; come to that, what did she ever see in him? But this man was hers, and they had a business to run. Neither of them could run it without the other. The fact was, they needed each other.

‘We’ve been all right, you and me, haven’t we, Bill?’

He looked away.

‘I’m talking to you! I said, we’ve been all right, haven’t we, considering everything.’

‘If you say so,’ he grunted, and swiftly left the stall.

‘We’ll see Fanny and Billy on my birthday, won’t we, Mam?’

‘I should hope so,’ said Bridget, ‘or I’ll want to know the reason why.’ She turned to serve a customer. As soon as she had finished, Ruthie resumed her questions.

‘Why has she never sent word, Mam? She promised.’

‘Who knows.’

‘Do you know why?’

‘I might do.’ Stooping low, Bridget murmured, ‘I think it’s because she can’t write an’ doesn’t like folks to know that.’