Tobias did not appreciate the cheek at all - a whole lot of cheek from a boy who had just tried to pickpocket him. "Who's lookin' after ye?" he clarified in an irritated voice.

"I take care of myself."  She then added with a tone of failure, "It's been hard to find enough jobs last few days."

That caused a deepening of his frown. "Well, then ye should be in t' workhouse, not out on t' streets stealin'," he grunted. Though thinking of it, this boy looked old enough to be sent out to employment. "Why aren't ye there?"

She shrugged.  "I get odd jobs cleaning flats for the landlords, clean the chimneys, sell newspapers, this and that. There are usually some kinds of jobs, and the factory doesn't suit me."  She knew not everyone worked at the workhouse, and she had her own reasons.

Tobias felt more and more uneasy with this ragamuffin, no longer because the boy had tried to pickpocket him, but because a boy this young shouldn't be looking after himself, especially not when in odd jobs. The fact that Tobias himself had gotten mugged in town and the reports on crime he regularly read in the Whitby gazette were enough to convince him that such a boy could go down a very dangerous path indeed.

His grip on the boy's wrist loosened a little, so as not to hurt him, though he was ready to tighten it should the kid try to run.

"That won't do. Who is your legal guardian? You ought to have one, even if it's the poor law guardians... Where do you stay, if not in t' workhouse?"

He looked up, his eyes scanning the harbour as if he expected a guardian to magically appear and claim the child.

Nat was about to think the guy was an odd duck as long as he was holding her on and not calling the police.  That would call for a different kind of action, there were some that kidnapped kids and she did not leave London to end up in that situation.  Though about then the man loosened up on her wrist and the words made her think he might be letting her go soon, so she waited and listened for her option to get away.

"They wanted to put me in an orphanage, and I heard about those and so I hid.  Now, I travel.  When a place get lean on jobs.  Well, got bored with them and wanted to see other places like in the books in the shops."  She liked reading books.  She stole a few to read, and in that house where she spent the winter there had been a library. "I find empty places and make a nice place to stay."  She didn't go specific as she didn't want him to know where she would be.

Tobias' brow furrowed as he eyed the child, trying to decide his next course of action. Knowing that the kid had tried to pickpocket him because he had no other source of income, Tobias was even less inclined to hand him over to the police to be birched or imprisoned. On principle, he still believed that if the kid could not find work, he should have gone to the workhouse rather than steal. Yet a more compassionate side of him suspected that neither police nor workhouse would do child any good, as the former would merely teach him brutality, of which the boy had probably seen more than enough in his short, unhappy life, and he'd clearly run away from the latter.

Compassion trumped principle, and Tobias' mind was made up.

"So if you were in a job, you wouldn't steal?" he asked, as he reached his free hand into the travel bag that lay on the wagon and pulled out a bread roll he had bought for the journey back. "Are you hungry, then?" He let go of the kid's wrist, but made sure not to do so before the food was in full view.

Nat gave a nod.  "I work hard when there is something that I like.  I don't like being crowded or handled."  She admitted rubbing her wrist when he let her go.  "And bad air.  With carrying coal or cleaning the chimnies at least I can get out in the air and change the work up."  She stated.  "I only steal when I didn't make enough to eat or get something I need.  Well, and a book from time to time."  She added to be honest.  She did like to read.

Glancing at the roll, she gave him a doubtful look, not sure where he was going with this.  She hesitantly took the roll and took a bite.  She was hungry.  "Yes.  Haven't had anything today."  She responded chewing the bite.  She knew better than to talk while chewing but she was hungry.  After swallowing, she did give a "thank you, mister."

"You're welcome," Tobias replied, a little surprised to find a street urchin with manners. Or well, some manners - he could excuse a child for talking with a full mouth when it hadn't eaten all day.

"Well, there's more where that came from. I have a farm up near Castleton and I could use an extra boy. It's hard work, but there's plenty of food and the air's cleaner than ye'll find it in this town, and yer free to roam the moors when yer not needed." He knew from experience that the wild heights surrounding the farm offered plenty of adventure for a young lad.

Nat gave the man a suspicious look.  What was this guy's game?  She had not found many people just willing to give jobs and food without something in the catch.  She found most of her little jobs by looking and finding people that were doing jobs that looked needing more help or someone that didn't seem to like what he was doing and might be willing to pay for someone else to do it.

"What the catch?"  She asked.  "How far away from here?"  She asked taking another bite of the roll.  "I won't be a slave to no one."  She added firmly giving him a look.  "I heard about people adopting kids that were too old to be cute and using them down to nothingness." 

She had heard that when she had snuck down in the corner of some stairs in the house of the family that had been taking care of her right after her parents were killed.  They had been friends of her family but had four kids of their own and another on the way.  Nat had heard the couple arguing about sending Nat to the orphanage.  The mother had wanted to adopt her, but the father didn't see how they could.   She had heard other stories later from some of the ladies working the street that they had started at an orphanage then were adopted by their pimp, another reason she decided not to go to the orphanage.  She had been too old for anyone to really want to adopt her as a real daughter.