Rose nodded. She nibbled the meat and looked at Benny. He was really quite different from what she had originally thought he had been like. - Well... maybe she shouldn't have hit him.

But he was still mysterious to her. A young man who lived at sea, with no family, and a dark past, and apparently not a care in the world. He seemed so different from anyone she knew.

Benny was watching the waves and people with a grin as he ate. He then felt her eyes on him and looked over. "What? Do I have something on my face?" He rubbed his face with his sleeve quickly.

Rose laughed. "No.... I was just thinkin' you're so different from anyone I know in this town."

Benny smiled and shrugged. "I am glad to be different. It's a small but cozy town, not like many places I've been to before. I guess the free life on the sea has helped me be different. I have little to hold me down."

Rose looked out over the sea. "It must be nice to be that free and see new places all the time. I really missed Whitby when I was in York and I thought I would die for t' homesickness." She frowned. "But when I came back at last... I felt trapped. Like it's too familiar. And I wanted to go away again."

Benny looked at her. "Then why don't you? I mean. Your family will always need you until they are adults and married. You'll probably be pushed aside though they still love you. So why don't you do things for yourself? Just alittle bit?"

Rose shook her head. "I'm a fishing girl... And a maid, now. But that's as far as I'll get in life. Unless I marry up the social ladder. But how likely is that?" Likely, she had once thought, in a buried past when she had been a naive child.

Benny looked surprised. "I didn't know when a girl got to a certain age she was unable to learn anything. Wow.. that is so sad. I guess that's why we don't have female doctors and scientists. " It was a joke, but he wanted her to see how silly it sounded.

Rose chuckled. "I couldn't be a doctor."

Benny shrugged. "You could be something else? Maybe an explorer. Or hunting exotic animals or treasure hunting. Those don't even need an education, just a desire for adventure."