The floorboards creaked upstairs at first, but soon house was quiet, apart from Nat's sniffling. At some point a baby cried, but that stopped after half a minute. The house was quiet again for some time. Perhaps half an hour. Perhaps an hour. And then a door opened upstairs, very carefully and quietly.

Light streamed down into the room from upstairs. And then there were quiet bare feet on the stairs, and the light moved down in the shape of a candle. It was carried by Mrs. Appleton, who was wearing a white sleeping gown and a checked woolen shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She stopped on the lowest step and looked at Nat, frowning, while the light from the candle flickered on her pale face. Then she stepped down the last step, and walked over. She stopped in the middle of the room. "Why are you sleepin' 'ere?" she whispered.