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on Sunday.’
    Robert nodded as he moved to the door, ‘I expect so,’ he answered grudgingly. He hoped she wasn’t going to be pestering him all the time. Then he admitted to himself that she wasn’t bad-looking – not bad-looking at all. It would have been all right staying to watch the bull with her.
    ‘If yer come back tomorrer I’ll make yer feet better with spirits and some candle wax,’ Dot’s voice rang out as they closed the gate.
    ‘Looks like yer’ve got yourself an admirer, Robert.’
    Robert blushed even redder as they descended the hill into Millington.
    ‘Will you stop fussing, Louisa? You’re like a moth round a candle flame.’ Reverend Goodman admonished his wife good-naturedly as she moved the cruet yet again and shifted the sugar basin a little to the left. ‘They won’t be bothered about the state of the table; it’ll be what you serve that counts. Besides, they might not arrive until tomorrow.’
    ‘Oh Herbert, they must come today. They’ll surely not survive another night in the open. We really should have sent them money for the train.’
    ‘I know that and I certainly would have if I’d known Mark was sending them off on foot. What in God’s name was he thinking of?’ He cringed at his blaspheming, and him a man of the cloth, but he was so shocked that his friend hadn’t been charitable enough to buy train tickets for the homeless boys.
    ‘Anything could have happened to them. Still, I always did think he had a mean streak about him,’ Louisa admitted.
    ‘Well, he never used to be mean. Perhaps it’s that wife of his.’
    ‘I wish they weren’t coming at all.’ At fourteen years of age, daughter Prudence was dreading the presence of three young men in the house.
    ‘We must show a little kindness to those worse off than ourselves, Prudence, so please try and make them welcome.’ Louisa wondered from where their daughter had inherited her miserable disposition. She hoped she wasn’t going to sulk in their presence, or worse still suffer one of her tantrums.
    ‘They could have changed their minds and decided not to come.’ Prudence sounded hopeful, but then the door knocker made them all start and her father hurried to let in the weary travellers.

Chapter Four
    NELLIE GABBITAS SIGHED with satisfaction as the empty plates and tureens were brought back to the kitchen.
    ‘We shan’t be getting any leftovers tonight Nellie; they’ve only gone and eaten the lot.’ Lily the kitchen maid dropped the crockery in the scalding water.
    ‘Don’t worry, I’ve kept plenty back for us.’ Nellie smiled to herself. One of the conditions she had insisted on when she accepted the job had been that she and the rest of the staff be allowed three good meals a day. ‘After all,’ she had pointed out, ‘I need my helpers to be healthy in order to put in a decent day’s work.’
    ‘Of course you must do as you think fit,’ Nellie had been told. The only condition in return being that no food must be taken off the premises. So that had put paid to sneaking out a ham shank for their Mary or a fruit cake for her brothers and sisters. Nellie would keep her side of the bargain; she would never do anything to risk losing her job. Cooking was much more satisfying than making beds and emptying chamber pots. Besides she was safe in the kitchen; in the bedrooms she had often had to escape the advances of randy young men and dirty old ones. Now she was safe during the day and had her own key to her room, just like the housekeeper.
    ‘Right then, Lily, if you’ve finished those dishes we’ll mucky some more.’ Nellie opened the door of the great oven and took out a dish of steak and kidney sizzling away in thick brown onion gravy. The aroma of roast potatoes and vegetables filled the room.
    ‘Run and fetch young Larry.’ Larry was the odd-job boy, who amongst other things looked after the stables and the occasional motor car. Lily didn’t have far to look for the lad. Since Nellie