Tobias looked at the girl and immediately wondered whether the two were real siblings, or half ones, or perhaps merely raised in the same home. They didn't look alike. As with Edmund, it was hard to estimate how old the girl was. She was small, and Tobias wondered whether she was past school age at all - though given that the boy had confessed to being illiterate, he doubted that concept meant anything to the children at all.

Nervous to see him off? If anyone seemed nervous it was Edmund. His sister seemed bolder. "The priest at St. Hilda's told me," he answered Mable's question. "And ye won't need to see him off just yet. As I've explained to your brother, the work is seasonal only, and only later this month." Had he not been clear? Or had the boy been so nervous he hadn't properly registered it?

Tobias gestured in the direction of the inn and then began to move slowly in that direction, so the children would follow.