That question alarmed him more than it should have. The horses seemed to sense the tension in his grip on the reigns for they slowed down for a moment and one tried to step aside. "Hey now..." Tobias said and he brought them back under control.

Once they continued at a steady pace, Tobias glanced at his sister and let out an awkward chuckle, before turning his eyes back on the road. "Are ye surprised then? I've always loved 'er." It was true, too. Sally was kind and gentle, without being cowardly - far from it. For all the elegancy and beauty and fine manners she had gained while growing from a scruffy farm girl that wandered the moors with him to a fine young lady who turned heads in the village, she had never lost the sense of adventure and the frankness that he had admired from childhood. And she liked him, and understood him, and he understood her, and all those things were rare, he felt. He had never fitted in, but with Sally, he didn't feel like a stranger. So aye, he loved her.

He glanced at his sister again. "You do like 'er, don't ye?"