Bill dropping the letter like hot coals, caused Lottie to snatch it up. She sped through the letter, enough to get the point of it.

"The bloody young fool! The bloody, stupid, reckless fool! I'll shove me pin so far up his backside, he'll be rollin' puddin' fer a year!" Yes. Joseph Blacke was in trouble.

Bill put his hand over his hung over face and squeezed his brow. This was too much. Could he not have a break? He had half a mind to take himself back to the pub, hung over and all. "Ye won't need to if I get to him first," said Bill in a slow, tired voice. "Now we're all in for some trouble. And that lad's ruined both their lives. I'll kill him."

Lottie tried to pour the tea, but her hand was so unsteady that she merely got tea everywhere but in the cups.

Bill looked up, watched, and finally got up and gently took the teapot out of Lottie's hand. "I know..." he said.

Lottie wrung her hands together and shoved them into her lap in frustration.

"E's put a rod across our backs, across his own, and this poor girl's! We'll be the laughing stock of Whitby. Oh God, Ben Bloody Ward'll come over 'ere like a cat with the prize pilchard. Speakin' o pilchards.. our boy Joe. I'd expect this from John, but I thought our Joe was better."

John would get the lass pregnant, not marry her, Bill thought to himself. But he chose not to share that thought with his already upset wife. "It's not that self-righteous old fool I'm worried about. It's the Carringtons..." as he sat back down, placing the teapot on the table. "If that young Carrington lad got Joe fired over talking to his sister... imagine what they are capable of doing when they find out 'e's married 'er."

"Bill, where did we go wrong?" Lottie asked

Bill shook his head (and then realised it hurt). He suspected that it had gone wrong with him. Wasn't he the one who had brought bad blood in? But he didn't want to reflect on or discuss it.

He picked up the letter and read it, slowly, for he was a poor reader.

He sighed. "At least the lass had the decency to inform us... after the facts. That's more than we can say for Joe. Curse that selfish fool."

"Bill!" Lottie exclaimed at her husband's blasphemous words. She was not the most pious woman, but even she knew that only the Lord God Almighty could curse someone. Ironic considering, she had just wanted to beat her son. She still might actually do it.

"Well what else can I say!? He's ruining more than one life." He picked up the teapot and filled up their cups. "Joe is but a wee lad in love for the first time, not a man ready to look after a wife. And such a wife too." He sat back down and sighed heavily.