Had he just swooned? She moved to her feet as soon as she could, but there was nothing much that she could do. "Is he alright?" she asked, surprise in her dark gaze. Helping the maid would have been nice, she supposed, but her belly got in the way of that. "Perhaps a cold compress?"

"Naw, he's just been awake for more hours than any person should be and he's underfed. Skin and bones, we have to fight to get him to eat anything. Master Blackwood is looking to hire a chef just for him." Edward is snoring softly clearly dead asleep at this point. He looked terrible up close, his skin had an unhealthy parlour and he was gaunt, clearly not eating enough.

"He looks ill," she said with her eyes worried regardless of whether he was alright or not. She bit her lip before spending the next several moments trying to sit back down. Well, she thought, this was awkward.

"Aye, he is. Weren't you listening? I just said he doesn't eat nor sleep." The woman chuckles lightly at Ruth as she lads her back to her chair and settles her down. "Horrible what he's doing to his body but it is hard to blame him. I heard the story from the head maid, he had a wife and unborn child, they died in a fire that he started by accident." She explains furth as she returns to her sewing.

"Aye, I heard," she said softly. She shook her head briefly. Then the woman was explaining the situation. Then the words registered about the child and her hands instinctively touched the taut roundness of her belly. She closed her eyes against tears for a man she didn't even know. How horrible that was. Her own problems seemed less significant than his.

She sighed a shuddering sigh and couldn't help but bleat out an uninvited sob, placing a hand over her mouth in chagrin, for she easily cried these days.

The head maid returned after about an hour bringing with her a bowl of broth which she offers to Ruth. "Here, keep your strength up for the babe." Her gaze drifting over to the comatose Edward. "At least he finally fell asleep, nearly forty-eight hours this time. I think at any rate." The man wasn't watched at every hour but he was checked regularly, still there were times late at night where he might have managed to lay on the floor for a few hours before waking of his own accord.

She sat dozing after lamenting inwardly for a time. The young woman awoke to broth, took it gratefully. "Thank ye," she said drowsily. She ate the soup, though it was hard to enjoy it while listening to the snores of the sleeping man. She was hungry, however, so the food was welcome, nevertheless.

When she was through, she sighed. "Thank ye for letting me come in from the rain. I just arrived home to Whitby... I... me husband..." she didn't want to say it... "He left me. I've come home and I must go to me family. Me da won't be happy ta see me."

"He left you while you were in this state?"

The head maid sounds scandalized by this revelation.

"You poor thing, I'd spit on that man if I ever met him in the street make no mistake. Leaving his wife when she is pregnant with his child that is unconscionable."

"Aye, he said me belly was blockin' his view and that I waddle too much like a duck... Then he left me fer someone thinner and prettier than me accordin' to him." She sniffed. "As if marriage weren't enough fer him. It ain't fair what he did to me, that's for sure and certain."

"Well, hopefully, the next poor girl he sinks his claws into figures out he isn't worth it."

The woman says with a huff.

"The storm doesn't seem to be relenting so why don't we get you to a guest room my dear? You can spend the night and leave in the morning, hopefully after the storm breaks."