Hands held loosely behind him, Malachi caught up to walk at Nettie’s side, though his head did turn to glance back briefly.

Had he just heard- no, no. He faced forward again, focusing his eyes on the path ahead. He was not about to eavesdrop on whatever conversation that was.

(If he had been alone, though, nothing could have stopped him. Couldn’t they talk a little louder? Yell out their thoughts across the garden?)

“Hm?” Malachi looked to his niece, confused by the question. “Of course.”

No. Everything was decidedly not alright, but he didn’t suppose talking about it would make it any better.

Lowering his voice, he said, “to tell you the truth, I had an… incident, with some of the locals recently. It all ended up alright, but I’ve been a little under the weather since.”