Pearl loved her new family so very much that sometimes she had to pinch herself in order to figure out if she was dreaming or if she was in reality. She slipped into the back door of the house after a quiet meeting with Doctor Witaker who said that she was carrying a baby for certain. It was with a mixture of nervousness and excitement that she moved to put the kettle on right away.

The house was quiet for the moment, she wondered if Ma was off to market since it seemed about the time that things would happen, and the day. She moved about the kitchen comfortably. She wanted to tell ma the secret before Joe but Joe deserved to know first... There was so much to think about!

A few things were procured from the stash of food she finally wittled down so spoilage wouldn't be an issue... after all, her little house had been stocked with a full pantry and larder. She still had to go back and get her last few things but her father had moved a woman in there and told her to work around her and don't say a word. Fine by her... But she would take those items and start slicing into the soft bread she had made that morning.

She smeared marmalade all over one piece of bread and started to hum softly, only interrupted by licking off the blob that hit the back of her hand since nobody was there to see her indulge in such an activity. She felt the little one flutter in that slight way that new little bean tickled. She set the knife down and gave a soft laugh and said to the unborn wee one, "I hope that I can do better for you than my father did..." And then emotion washed over her, so she worked on assembling a rather odd concoction of a sandwich... orange marmalade, butter, onion, and pickled carrot.

Lottie came in the front door having helped an older neighbour with her shopping and her own, a task that was easier with two people. As she helped, comments were made about the new lady seen entering number 44, John's new girl? Oh Joe. Where did he find her?

Lottie was still stuck on this thought when she came into the kitchen/front room. Pearl was there, which was good - what was she making? A not entirely pleasant sandwich of which the principle ingredient was the colour orange!

"Lordy girl, what on earth ye makin'? Smells terrible!"

"It's delicious, ma," she quipped as she closed her sandwich, then she dusted the crumbs away with the cloth, so tidy as to be considered OCD quite frankly, and cleaning up her mess before starting on the next task. She grabbed another cup for Lottie without bothering to ask, knowing the woman well enough to know that she hardly turned tea down.

The started to steam merrily and simmer so she pulled it off to pour it into the prepared pot to steep. She took a healthy bite of her sandwich and hummed happily, forgetting about manners as she seemed famished.

Lottie had plenty of time to catch sight of the ingredients before they got put away. In fact, Pearl actually dropped a piece of onion on the floor. When she bent to retrieve and bin it, the buttons of her blouse in the back but the vicinity where her chest was... Well... About two or three audibly plunked as they popped.

The button was hardly a rouge steam rivet in its lethality - she knew of such things from Bill and the railway - but Pearl's instantaneous fatness could mean but only thing for a girl normally so rail thin.

"My Gawd, Pearl! Are ye...? Ye look..." Lottie's voice trailed off.

Joe, yer an idiot! She thought silently.

She blinked at the sudden plink and stood up straight, glancing over to Lottie, and then it took a moment to register what was being asked. Lottie was a lot faster to observe than Bill, that was for certain. Her face went red and she looked down at her sandwich, "Joe doesn't know yet," said Pearl quietly, then she sighed and put the sandwich down.

"He has been so busy working that I haven't even had a chance." And then she put her hand over the place where her babe moved like mad. "And why must it be called morning sickness if it happens all day long?" She grimaced and then started to eat the monstrosity that smelled so funky. It tasted delicious to her and her face was red at the same time.

As much as Lottie wished her family could be calm and stable for just a few days between crisis', ludicrous times called for Lottie measures. The older woman nodded voraciously.

"Right then, none of that.. I birthed five of them, I was so ill with Charlie, I might as well have been seasick. Yer body'll find a rhythm."

She sighed and finished off the sandwich, so she slapped some marmelade onto some bread by itself, and another, and set it aside before putting everything away. She reached to grab another cup for some tea she had already made. She set her plate down and poured a cupful for Lottie before tucking into her extended snack. "I did at least sell all of my gowns and anything I could grab from my house before my father gave it so someone else... I still have to get the rest of my belongings, I am sure I can sell the last of my trinkets off so this isn't a blow to what money we do have. I think there might be enough of my own that we can get a small cottage, yes?" She was actually looking at a stack of neatly written papers, some regarding the sum of money sitting in the bank thanks to that solicitor, Mark, that she had yet to even consider, and then at least a few hundred pounds. She was pointing at the number that was hers for certain and ignoring the top number." She signed and looked to her then, "I'd hate to let myself touch this here for it to just be taken back." She squared her shoulders.

She hadn't told Lottie or Bill yet, but now that she had some time alone, hopefully before someone came home to interrupt, she sighed and then let the truth out, "I don't know if I want this... A woman came to town and just offered me money, insisted I take it, but I don't even know her. It would be a good opportunity to work but something about all of this doesn't sit well with me. I feel as if it's something beyond my ken. I put the money into the bank and left it there. It happened not weeks ago. It's... a lot of money for no reason... there has to be a reason."

In light of the new truth that the Blacke family was to once again expand, Lottie smiled wryly as Pearl cleaned up. In her own case, she'd eaten a trawler's tonnage in sardines before John had come oozing and shrieking into the world.

"Ooh a cottage'd be nice.. out Saltwick way perhaps?" She offered.

Gratefully accepting the offered tea, and listened with intent to the topic of money. It might be in poor taste, a topic seldom discussed, but taste or no, a wife had to manage the money. Husbands just drank it away otherwise. A strange lady offering money was washtub news for certain.

"How much money, dear. If you don't mind me askin'?"

"It's a rather large sum..." (I think it was 500 quid but it could have been 5000, I forgot.) She pulled the paper out and showed Lottie the number. "It just doesn't seem real to be given such a sum... I feel I should return it. I haven't had a chance to even think about it until now." She sighed, and then she said, "I don't care about riches... if I did, I'd have stayed where I was and let myself be a bad choice maker for the sake of money... She offered both Joe and I a place in her house as well as the rest of the family. But why?" She just felt so very uneasy.

Lottie's eyes went wide at the note and she hurriedly swallowed her tea.

"500 or 5000?! The offer of a house? That's mad! Who is she?"