‘Yes, it was,’ Amber said shortly.
‘Ooh, fancy you knowin’ him.’ Isla sighed. ‘He’s ever so handsome, ain’t he?’
‘I can’t say as I’ve noticed.’ Amber was in a thoroughly bad mood now and sensing that she was upset the other two girls exchanged a puzzled glance and got on with what they were doing. Barnaby Greenwood was not mentioned again until they all sat on the harbour wall to eat their lunch.
‘So how come you know the gaffer, then?’ Isla asked curiously and Amber sighed.
‘I used to work for him and his wife in their house. I was the laundry maid.’
‘So what made you leave there to do a job like this?’ Isla asked persistently.
Thankfully Amber was saved from having to answer when she spotted yet another person she knew trotting along with a large wicker basket on her arm, and dropping her bread and cheese she picked her way through the crowd of girls.
‘Nancy?.?.?. over here!’
Nancy had been heading for the market place, no doubt with a list of things Mrs Boswell needed, but when she heard her name called, she stopped and turned, her face breaking into a wide grin when she spotted Amber.
‘Amber.’ Dropping her basket, she gave her friend a hug then wrinkling her nose she quickly stepped away from her. ‘Phew, you don’t half pong!’ She grinned. Then becoming serious again she drew Amber towards an alley where they couldn’t be overheard and whispered, ‘Is it all over then? You had the baby, I mean?’
Amber nodded as she wrapped her arms about her waist to try and get warm. ‘Yes, a couple of weeks ago. It’s all taken care of now.’
‘You poor cow!’ Nancy said sympathetically. ‘But don’t worry, your secret is safe wi’ me. As far as anyone back at the house knows, you’ve been off lookin’ after your sick uncle. But why ain’t you come back to the house an’ your job?’
‘If I never see that man again it will be too soon for me,’ Amber ground out bitterly. ‘An’ if I came back I’d have to see him every day.’
‘But I doubt he’d be daft enough to try an’ set hands on you again,’ Nancy pointed out sensibly. Then leaning closer she confided, ‘Between you an’ me I don’t reckon he’ll have time to. The missus is comin’ back from her parents’ cottage in Scarborough tomorrer. She nearly died givin’ birth, apparently, an’ the master’s come back to organise a nanny for her for when she gets home.’
‘Oh, she’s had the baby then?’ Amber’s voice was flat as she thought of her own baby.
‘Ner, not one baby, two! A boy an’ a girl by all accounts.’
The colour, or what there was of it, drained from Amber’s face as she leant heavily against the wall. ‘Twins!’
Nancy nodded. ‘Aye, a boy an’ a girl, an’ it sounds like one o’ them ain’t very well, though I don’t know which one. The missus is so poorly they’ve had to arrange a doctor to travel back in the coach with her.’
‘Well at least the master got his son in the end.’ Amber couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice and Nancy gave her a sympathetic smile as she bent to retrieve her basket.
‘Right, I’d best be off else Mrs Boswell will be on me tail like a blood’ound,’ she said. ‘But do consider comin’ back,please. It ain’t the same at Greenacres wi’out you. I’ve missed you somethin’ rotten!’
‘I’ve missed you too and I’ll think about it,’ Amber said, although she had no intention of doing any such thing. She watched Nancy walk away before turning about and going back to work.
‘The skipper reckons we’ve only got another two or three days work left ’ere,’ Bridget informed her that evening as she flipped the last of the iridescent herrings she was gipping into a barrel and began to cover it with coarse salt. ‘Have yer given any more thought to movin’ on wi’ us, lassie?’
‘I appreciate the offer but I think I’m going to try my hand at something else now,’ Amber told her apologetically. ‘I’m really grateful that you let me work with you but I doubt I shall ever get as fast as you and Isla.’
Soon after she set off for home and as she turned into Church Street she saw Bertie Preston swaggering towards her in his Sunday best.
‘Phew, lass.’ He made a big show of pressing his nostrils together. ‘Yer reek to high ’eaven.’
‘It’s because I’ve been working hard. You should try it sometime,’ she responded sarcastically.
‘I don’t ’ave to kill meself to earn a bob or two,’ he said smugly. ‘I live off me wits an’ like I said, if yer’d let me put a ring on yer finger, you’d never want fer owt.’
Amber sighed and moved on. She was just too tired to even try and make conversation with him and just wanted to get into the warm.
When she entered the cottage, she was grateful to see the tin bath full of steaming water in front of the fire.
Her mother smiled at her. ‘I thought I’d get it ready for you afore the men come in,’ she told her kindly. ‘Come on, lass, strip off now an’ while you’re havin’ a soak, I’ll bring you a nice hot cup o’ tea. How does that sound, eh?’
