Douglas had gotten up the next morning feeling much better.  After some sleep, some food, and then some more sleep he was feeling much more like himself.  That discussion with Tristan had also given him a new kind of hope inside.  Being lonely had been all he had expected in his future.  Now, perhaps, he was not cursed to live his life alone.

He got dressed in one of his walking suits, with a proper vest and tie.  He had eaten a solid breakfast, thanks to the cook, and thanks to Mr. Roberts he now had the directions for where the young maid and her family lived.  He was not looking forward to this at all.  However, it was necessary, or so he felt so anyway.  It was about after noon, and he figured it was past most eating lunchtime.  So, he would not be interrupting them eating, or so he hoped.

He had been all around the area over the last several months, as he painted and drew, so he was not a stranger in the area.  He had made some friends there with various families as well.  Thus he had seen the need for Tristan's professional assistance with several of the families.  This however was not a family that he had gotten to know nor meet other than Anne.

He greeted several people that he had known along the way but did not stop to visit this time, as he had to do this errand first.  He paused near the house and took a deep breath.  Then with a firm step, he went to the door and knocked.

Fishing was done for that day. After delivering their catch to the containers of the middle men waiting in the upper harbour, Ben and Will had docked the coble and returned for a quick lunch. Anne had already picked up the lines when they had entered the harbour, and would make a start with cleaning and baiting them with the bait she had gathered and skaned (removing the soft part from the shells) that morning. So now after lunch, he and Will sat in out the yard, baiting and coiling the lines, while Anne was inside, cleaning and washing dishes before she would come and help them.

They weren't the only fishing family working outside that afternoon. Whenever the weather permitted it, the fishing families of the Cragg liked to work outside. Skaning and baiting was a great opportunity to catch up on gossip, laugh, sing songs, or do other things that made the tough, wet and cold life of a fisherman or fishlass a little more bearable. But the more important reason to work outside was the fresher air and the muckiness of the work. The little tenements were damp enough as they were, though most fishwives and daughters took pride in keeping them as clean as they could. The last thing anyone wanted was to bring the buckets with bait, water and seaweed, the discarded, smelly old bait, and the wet lines inside.

Some of the fisherfolk looked up at the well dressed gentleman who entered their yard. Ben too watched the man with increasing surprise as he made his way up the steps to their door and knocked. Ben did not have good experiences with wealthy people coming to his home. What did this fellow want? "Can I help ye, ser?" he called out. Other fisherfolk had already stopped their chatter and now all eyes were on Douglas.

Douglas nodded.  "I am looking for Miss Ward, Sir.  I am told this is where to find her, is that correct?"  He asked with a direct look at the man as he turned to respond to the man.

Ben's eyes narrowed on the man. "That would be me daughter. What do ye want of 'er?"

No work was done in the yard anymore.

Anne heard the knock and pulled her hands out of the warm water. Who could that be, knocking on their door while father was outside? She dried her hands and made her way to the door, but stopped dead in her tracks when she heard a deep voice with a distinctly Scottish accent. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. That had to be one of the servants who had come to tell her she was fired.

Father had questioned her endlessly last night, but Anne had sworn nothing had happened. Now they had come to speak with her father, just when he had forgiven her this morning. Anne wanted to open the door to somehow stop the truth from coming out, but she didn't know how she could do that, and so she stood paralyzed instead and listened.

"Mr. Ward, I am Douglas Gordon.  Yur daughter works for me as a maid twice a week."  He left off the Earl part, not ashamed of his title, but it didn't seem to matter right then. 

When he had come to Whitby no one knew who he was other than he was an artist.  The people that he had met in this area still just thought of him as Mr. Gordon that Scottish artist man that stops by to ask permission to draw them, and sometimes helps them with this or that chore when an extra hand was obviously needed.

So, here he just got to be a normal man.  He liked how it felt then, but right now he wasn't even thinking of art.  He was thinking of Anne and how she was. 

"There was an incident yesterday and I wanted to check on 'er as she had a fright."  He had thought about how to explain it.  He could talk about the illness, but even he wasn't sure how to explain that.  The drinking had made the episode worse, and the opium had tossed it over the cliff into the sinks of hell.

"Is she at 'ome?"

Ben did not like that at all. Anne had assured him that nothing had happened, and he hated to think that even now, she still told lies.

"Aye..." he said. He put the lines down, told his son to stay there. He made his way up the steps, and said: "Ye may go in." The fact that the man had spoken of an 'incident' in front of the rest of the yard was bad enough. He didn't need them to hear whatever the incident was. They'd handle this inside.

Anne felt her stomach drop, and she sat back down sideways in a chair when the Earl mentioned an 'incident'. She clung to the back of the chair. She knew she ought to rise when the Earl entered, but she knew she wouldn't be able to.

Douglas nodded and opened the door to go inside.  There he paused to let his eyes adjust to the change in lighting and saw Anne there sitting.  He nodded to her as he moved on inside the house to allow Mr. Ward to come in behind him without there being crowding. 

" 'ello lass.  I was worriet aboot yu.  I figured I should come in tae visit yu in person, as it was me that gave yu a fright.  'ow are yu?"  He asked his voice politely and with concern in his tone and expression.

Anne looked up at him frightened. How could she look at him when she had seen... She wanted to say something but her mouth was dry and her heart was pounding so that she feared it would fly out of her mouth if she'd open it. She nodded.