‘Oh, Emma gal, I do wish you would let the past go!’ Nelly’s brown eyes were beseeching, and Emma’s heart was warmed by the sincere and loving soul that now implored her, ‘Let it go, darling… before it becomes a blight on the happiness you’ve found with Marlow and the little lad.’ Nelly blinked her eyes in the warm April sunshine as she prayed that, this time, Emma might be persuaded to leave her uncle, Caleb Crowther, to his own devices, and in time no doubt his wickedness would catch him up and be the end of him. To see the gentle Emma so bent on revenge was a terrible thing.

‘It isn’t so easy, Nelly,’ murmured Emma. ‘Oh, in time I might be able to forget… and perhaps even forgive all the things I’ve mentioned. But how can I forgive him for the worst thing of all?’ Her voice fell to a whisper and the grey eyes softened with the threat of tears as she gazed longingly on the face of her beloved friend; a friend made in the fearful prison cell to which Caleb Crowther had committed Emma all those years before; a good and loyal friend who had helped her through her long, traumatic exile in Australia; a dear and cherished friend who, Emma hoped, would always be close by. In fact, Nelly was like the sister Emma had always longed for.

‘Aw, Emma.’ Nelly’s gaze bathed Emma’s troubled face. ‘You’re still brooding on that newborn girl-child, ain’t you, eh?’

‘I can’t help it, Nelly. I try so hard to put it out of my mind, but it won’t leave me. Not the sight and feel of that tiny, dark-haired bundle in my arms… nor the awful pain in my heart when the child was wrenched away and left in the gutter.’ Emma’s grey eyes shone like hardened steel and her voice stiffened with anger. ‘He did that, Nelly!… I begged him for help, but he left me in prison to rot. He could have arranged for me to at least have my baby in a safer place, where she might have had a chance to survive. Oh, Nelly, Nelly, how can I ever forgive him?’ Now she could not hold back the tears that trickled down her face.

‘All right, Emma, darling.’ It hurt Nelly to see Emma’s tears. ‘Do what you must… but don’t do anything you might live to regret, eh?’

Emma gave a small laugh as she wiped away the tears. ‘Bless you, Nelly,’ she said, ‘you sound just like Marlow. He thinks I’m only punishing myself by pursuing this business with Caleb Crowther.’

‘Well! There you are then. And there ain’t two people who love you more in all the world than me and your fella.’ She shook her head and the wispy brown hair fluttered about her face. ‘’Tain’t no good trying to reason with you though, is it… you’re just as stubborn as you’ve allus been!’ She chortled softly and the curve of her features was lost in a multitude of fine wrinkles. Nelly was not yet in her fortieth year, but the ravages of a hard life and earlier years of terrible neglect had written the passage of time cruelly on her. Even though she was considered shapeless and her face was more plain than pretty, there was something warm and delightful about her, a particular essence that endeared her to everyone she met. There was a world of joy and love in her merry brown eyes, and a childlike wisdom.