"It is quite a tale... Well... here we are." They arrived at the farm and Tobias helped Elijah get off the horse. "I'll unsaddle t' horse. You go ahead. It's through that door." He gestured. "Me sister is there."

It was warm inside, with a coalfire burning fiercely. Alice was asleep, lying on the sofa, close to the fire. Anne was asleep on an improvised bed on the floor, also close to the heat of the fire. Both girls wore dresses that weren't their own, their own clothes hanging to dry from wires suspended just below the ceiling. Both of them were covered with heavy quilts.

A dark-haired woman came out of the kitchen. She was somewhat younger than her brother and had a round face with dimples in her cheeks. She put her finger to her lips. "Good to see you, constable." She spoke softly. "I'm Bess. I'm afraid the girls have a bit of sleep to catch up on, after such a terrible night. Would you like some tea?"

Elijah thanked Tobias and went to the house. He stared at the girls seeing them sleeping. When he met Bess he nodded and whispered, "I'm Elijah Crane. Thank you so much for helping them. You saved their lives..." He accepted some tea and sat in a chair to wait for them  to wake up.

"It's me brother that did." Bess said. "I barely believed him when he told me what happened. The moors can be a cruel place in winter, and these girls have been very lucky it wasn't snowin' and that the youngest un' managed to somehow find me brother's farm."

Tobias entered. "Bess... I'll be out in t' stable. Let me know if ye need owt." And he disappeared again. Anne stirred when the man accidentally closed the door too loudly. She opened her eyes and sat up quickly when she saw Elijah. She opened her mouth, closed it again, and looked at him miserably.
Bess got up. "I'll... give you some privacy," and she left for the kitchen.

"You helped as well.." He told Bess quietly. When Tobias came and went, he winced as the door broke the quiet.

He looked at Anne with a small frown when she woke. After giving Bess a soft thank you, he waited for her to leave before speaking.

"Anne.. what did you think you were doing? Ben is in town and probably on his way, he knows about Alice's condition. Everyone has been worried sick. And you both almost died." He put a hand to his head at this stress. "We were so worried about you both. I'm sure Alice had a hand in this but please.. I need you to explain it. Why?"

Anne looked at him, pale and trembling. Her hand instinctively went to her sister, and she placed it on her shoulder. "I- I'm sorry, Elijah..." she said weakly. "We didn't mean to upset ye, or frighten ye... But we were afraid..."

Elijah looked at her sadly. "What were you afraid of? I never would have let anything happen to you. Even with Ben. This seemed so much safer?" He shook his head. "We were so worried you'd been kidnapped or killed trying to hide. I never thought you'd just try to run from town with no place in mind to go."

"I didn't mean to leave town, Elijah." Anne said quietly. "I was tryin' to talk Alice into gettin' off the train, but then it left. But then when we were in Goathland... I couldn't just go home and leave her, could I? I am sorry. I truly am. But we felt we had no choice. We were going to go to Middlesbrough. We thought we could find a stable to sneak into for the night. But we were surprised by t' fog..."
Alice stirred and opened her eyes. She clasped Anne's hand when she saw Elijah, and sat up.

Elijah listened but sighed. Before he could respond Alice woke. He looked at her and luckily the joy at her being alright overcame the disappointment. "Morning, Alice. Glad to see you and the baby are doing alright. Now, I want you both to explain how you planned to live in Middlesbrough without money? Knowing anyone to give you a shelter or work? You were in so much danger, and I don't mean just last night. I hope that was clear and you've learned that lesson. I wish you Wards would stop thinking running away would magically fix things..."

Both of the girls looked down quietly. They still held hands as if it was the last thing they had to rely on.
"We were gonna try and find work in a factory." Alice barely more than whispered. "Forgive me, Elijah. I know I shouldn't have dragged Anne into this..."
"It wasn't her fault!" Anne quickly came to her sister's defense. "She told me to go home a million times, but I wouldn't!"

Elijah rose his hand to calm Anne. "I believe it, and I'm glad you did. Alice would have died if not for you
 But that doesn't stop the fact this was dangerous and you both couldn't think we'd just let it go. We were all so worried. A baby was not something that make you in danger to risk this... "

He sighed looking to Alice. "Ben seems like he mostly just wants you to marry the father. I have no idea who it is and neither does he. I am hoping you did like this boy and it wasn't something .." His voice died down. He couldn't imagine she'd be silence if it was forced  nor could he imagine she do it for money either but clearly they hid a lot from him and he was feeling more and more that he didn't know them as well as he thought.

He leaned forward in his chair and folded his arms over his legs. "I don't want you feeling forced into marriage if you don't like this fellow. But I do think you need some sort of story for how it happened, since I don't want you having a hard time in town over a reputation." He rubbed his face  "I mean unless we try some other options, but that is more a discussion with your father and after you've had a lot of time to think about it." He was sure it would be easy enough to have her stay in a convent or some nice family with a story about being widowed or such until the baby was born. This was all dependent on what she wanted of course.

"Please, just come home. Both of you?"