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was like an ominous thundercloud. ‘And?’
    Now she was floundering. ‘Well – we just talked.’
    ‘Ted saw you with him,’ Jimmy said, and as he turned and began to move away, he threw the words back over his shoulder. ‘Coming out of the Horse and Jockey in High
Street.’
    ‘He – what?’ The scandalized expression on her mother’s face would have reduced Eveleen to helpless laughter had she not realized that now she was in deep trouble.
    ‘Do you mean to tell me, miss, that you actually went into a public house?’
    Eveleen nodded. Mary moved towards her menacingly. ‘Do you know,’ she said with dreadful emphasis on every word, ‘what sort of women go into those places?’
    ‘But I was with Stephen. I thought—’
    Without warning, Mary Hardcastle’s hand met her daughter’s cheek with a resounding slap that echoed around the yard. ‘You little trollop! Have you remembered nothing I’ve
taught you, girl? Haven’t I always told you to remember your place? What will people think of you if they saw you with him and in a public house too?’
    The memory of the stranger’s laughter and his suggestive nudge made Eveleen wince. Now she realized what he, and probably all the other men there too, had been thinking about her.
    Mary lunged at Eveleen as if to strike her again, but Walter caught hold of his wife. ‘Now, now, there’s no need for that. Let’s talk about this.’
    Mary struggled against her husband’s grip. ‘You keep out of this, Walter. This has nothing to do with you. You wouldn’t understand.’ Her words were scathing as she added,
‘Being a man.’
    Calmly, Walter said, ‘Of course I understand and it has everything to do with me. She’s my daughter too and don’t you think a father understands better than anyone what young
men are like?’ Even in the midst of the quarrel, he smiled a little as he added, ‘I was young once, you know.’
    The fight seemed to drain out of Mary and she sagged against him. ‘Oh, Walter, you were always good and kind and considerate. You would never have taken advantage of any girl.’
    Walter allowed himself a grimace. ‘Now you’re making me sound very dull, Mary.’
    ‘No, no,’ she insisted at once, twisting round in his arms to face him and reaching up to touch his face in a tender gesture. ‘You know I didn’t mean that.’
    ‘No, no, of course you didn’t.’ Above Mary’s head, he glanced at Eveleen. ‘But have you thought, Mary love, that it’s perhaps my fault if Eveleen is so
trusting of all young men?’
    ‘Of course it isn’t your fault,’ Mary snapped, her anger rising once more. ‘Haven’t I dinned it into her until I’m dizzy that she should look to her own kind
for a husband, not be setting her cap at the gentry? Someone like Stephen Dunsmore is only amusing himself with the likes of her. Taking her into a pub with no thought for her reputation. That
tells you a lot, doesn’t it?’
    Doubt and anxiety crossed Walter’s face, but then he said, ‘He’s only young too, Mary. Mebbe he just didn’t think.’
    ‘Didn’t think about her , you mean. She’s just a plaything to him. Nothing more. He’ll likely seduce her and bring shame on this family and care not a jot when he
does it.’ Without allowing Walter time to protest any further, Mary turned back to Eveleen. ‘You’re not to meet him again. I forbid it. And if I catch you with him, I’ll
– I’ll send you away. Yes, yes, that’s what I’ll do, I’ll send you away from here. Now get to your bed. No supper for you. If you’ve been drinking with the
gentry you’ve no need of my supper.’
    Eveleen glanced at her father, seeking his support, but for once Walter avoided meeting her gaze. Tears smarted behind her eyes and she bit down hard on her lower lip to stop it trembling. Then
she turned and fled into the house and up the stairs to her room. Tearing the offending bonnet from her head she sat down before the mirror and in the