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walking in future. I give you good day, ma’am.” Touching his hat brim as the merest afterthought he marched away towards the rear of the church and vanished round its corner.
    Once he was out of sight Martha realised with a start that she’d been standing staring after him like a bumpkin at a fair. But then she’d never seen anyone quite like him! Although well dressed, he didn’t seem to be a gentleman and his voice had a certain northern tone to it, a slowness of enunciation and a way of rolling the vowels, as if every letter of each word must be given its full value.
    And what was she doing standing here thinking about a complete stranger?
    She went briskly on her way but on getting back to the inn she stopped, unwilling to return to Edward and the overheated stuffiness of the parlour. Perhaps she would just take a quick turn to the other end of the square.
    There she discovered a linen draper’s shop displaying an excellent range of goods. Beside it was a grocery store, the many panes of its big bow windows twinkling in the light of the setting sun and its shelves also well-stocked. The shoemaker’s shop nearby displayed an elegant lady’s and a sturdy gentleman’s shoe in the window, so clearly catered for citizens of the better sort, and the apothecary’s had a row of matching storage jars of various sizes each set in the centre of one of the many panes of glass in the window. The sign said Chemist and Druggist which meant, she hoped, that the owner compounded his own medicines and remedies, something which was always more convenient.
    It would be pleasant to live in a larger community, she realised, not only for the convenience of having shops like these within easy walking distance but also because she and Penelope might make a few new acquaintances.
    If Mr and Mrs Wright and this Mr Seaton approved of them. If they succeeded in their little enterprise. So many uncertainties!
    There were two streets leading off the far side of the square, each lined with comfortable dwellings set in small gardens, the sort of places usually referred to as villas. She ventured a little way along the first one, but found that it narrowed after about fifty yards and from then on was lined with much smaller terraced dwellings without gardens.
    Turning round, she began to make her way back to the inn, but for some reason she couldn’t get the face of the man she’d bumped into out of her mind. He wasn’t handsome, exactly—or was he? No, it was the aura of strength and energy that emanated from him and the light of intelligence in his eyes that made him attractive, or would have done had he controlled his anger.
    Of course such a person wasn’t suitable for her sister, and he might well be married, but surely there must be some eligible gentlemen in a town this size? She did hope so. She really wanted Penelope to find someone again, a kind man but with more money than John Medson, who had only been a curate with a small stipend to live on and no immediate prospects of advancement. Penelope had always insisted that she didn’t care about money but it was much better to be comfortable .
    And if Martha could run a school in the same town, why, they would both be happy, because they would see one another quite often. She pushed aside the thought of marriage and a family of her own but couldn’t hold back a sigh. She had never attracted the attentions of any eligible gentleman and doubted that this would have changed.
    Still, all in all, Tapton seemed very promising.
    * * * *
    Ben Seaton walked on, conscious that he had taken out his worries on the stranger, regretting his display of bad temper. Who was she? He had never seen her before and knew all the ladies in the town, by sight at least. Suddenly it occurred to him that she might be one of the new governesses and he muttered, “Oh, hell!”
    But he soon forgot her because there was definitely trouble brewing in Tapton and he wouldn’t know until the following day whether