"Well, 'e's workin' now..." Rose evaded the question. She did not want to elaborate on what she had just said. If she did, she was sure she'd cry anyway.

She walked perhaps some ten meters away from the market, but then changed her mind. What if someone saw them go into the cottage together? She had not thought about the fact that he was a man and she a woman, a married woman at that. Elijah was like a brother to her. It felt completely natural to invite him over. But if somebody else saw, it could lead to gossip. As if she wasn't miserable enough. And God forbid Andrew would think something of it.

Yet Rose was desperate to talk and doing so in a public place bore the risk of an even greater tongue-stirring gossip: Plain old Rose from the Cragg who had been so lucky to marry that baker, Willaby, had been seen crying. The whole Cragg would want to know what was going on.

The cottage it was...