"Bram, stop foolin' about and come help with the lines." Ben reprimanded and the boys sat down to work. He turned to Anthony. "These are me sons, Will and Bram." Bram didn't look up. "Mr. Rowe is a friend of Elijah's." Ben told the boys.

"Pleased to meet you," Will said politely, and he elbowed his younger brother, who looked up sheepishly with a quiet 'hello'.

Anthony was still somewhat anxious and aloof, even as the athmosphere and this situation in general returned to what it was before. He glanced towards Ben as the man introduced the boys to him. "Right." Anthony looked back at the boys for a moment, then away from them, and then did a double-take as he realized that one of the boys looked kinda familiar. ..He didn't think too much about it.

"Yeah. Nice to meet you too," he said, before turning away from the boys again.

"In the summer, they're always lookin' for farm hands." Ben remembered. "And if ye come early, sometimes they can use extra hands on the docks."

Anthony looked around the room, very unsubtly just trying to avoid Ben and everyone's gazes. "Oh. Cool," he responded in a quite lackluster way, but he was genuinely listening and making a note to remember that. "I'll keep that in mind, then."

Ben nodded. Anne looked up, opened her mouth a little, but then closed it and looked down again. She looked up once more, from her father, to Anthony. "Mr. Meijer is lookin' for another servant," she finally said in a small voice, blushing. "Rose said he's put an ad in the Gazette," she explained, turning to her father, and then back to Anthony: "If ye're interested in domestic service, ser."

Anthony looked at Anne as the latter began to speak again.  "Oh. Well. I'll look into that, then," he said, trying to make a mental note to himself to keep that promise. Of course, he was absolutely uninterested in domestic service or doing any kind of work whatsoever, but money's money. He'll just have to learn to deal with it.. "thank you."

Anne gave him a small smile and then finished peeling the potatoes and began to cook. Awkward silence again.

"Would you like some more tea?" Ben asked, clearly searching for something to say - something that wouldn't lead to shocking responses again.

Anthony returned the smile, not wanting to be seen as awkward or unfriendly or anything. "No, thanks," he replied to Ben. He was actually beginning to kinda enjoy the awkward silences at this point. It was better than an awkward conversation, at least.

There was indeed some welcome silence for a while, with the only noise coming from the kitchen range as potatoes and fish were cooked. But then Bram found his courage: "You could become a teacher. Ours doesn't really know what he's doing..."

"Bram!" Ben scolded. "Don't talk like that!"

Anthony laughed at the boy's comment, and was about to respond to it just as Ben scolded him for saying that. "Come on, let the kid talk. 's not like the teacher or anyone's here anyways." Maybe he was just being way too sensitive and reading way too much into this but Ben saying that made him feel kind of...iffy.