‘Now then, do take a seat and tell me why you want to take the boy away from us. You must realise that he’s better off here than climbing chimneys for a sadistic master sweep.’

‘I daren’t tell you anything, ma’am. Trimble will kill me for sure.’

‘I won’t let that happen.’

Emmie snorted with hollow laughter. ‘You wouldn’t be able to stop him. I got two kids of me own, and I don’t want to risk them being sold to the highest bidder.’

‘Are you telling me that Tommy isn’t your child?’

Emmie bit her lip. ‘I shouldn’t have said nothing.’

‘You can trust me, Emmie. I won’t say anything to your husband.’

Emmie hesitated before answering. ‘I had a younger sister. She was in service at Greystone Park.’

‘Really? I know the family well. I might have seen your sister there.’

‘I doubt if you’d have noticed her, ma’am. No one above stairs looks a servant in the face. Sally was the prettiest of us sisters, and lively, too. She could make anyone smile with her winning ways.’

There was a pause as Molly entered and set a tea tray on the table near Rosalind’s chair.

‘Thank you, Molly,’ Rosalind said, smiling. ‘That will be all for now.’

Molly bobbed a curtsey and left the room, but she hesitated, glancing over her shoulder as she closed the door.

‘Don’t worry about her,’ Rosalind said hastily. ‘Molly won’t say anything.’ She poured tea into two cups and handed one to Emmie. ‘Do help yourself to biscuits.’

‘Ta.’ Emmie crammed a piece of shortbread into her mouth.

‘You were telling me about your sister.’

Emmie swallowed a mouthful and washed it down with a gulp of tea. ‘She met a young man who wasn’t from our class, if you know what I mean. They fell in love and the usual happened.’

‘She had a child?’

‘She was only sixteen.’

‘Did the young man stand by her?’

‘He was away at boarding school most of the time. He weren’t much older than Sal.’

‘But she told him about Tommy?’

Emmie shook her head. ‘She said it would get him into trouble with his family. I think she really loved Bertie.’

Rosalind leaned forward, knocking her cup over and spilling her tea on the carpet. ‘What did you say his name was?’

‘Let me mop up the tea, ma’am. It will ruin the carpet.’

‘Not until you tell me everything. Never mind the carpet. What was the father’s name?’