“Nonsense!” Emily cried. “Charlotte, you behave as if we were camped in the Arctic, not our little English village. The snow is deep, indeed, but we can follow the shepherds’ paths up to Top Withens with no fear of getting lost. Tabby, we shall speak to Mr. Bradshaw and bring him around to the correct way of thinking before you are abed.”

“Will you really, my child?” Tabby said with such relief that Charlotte could see there was no point in trying to argue her case, or point out that it would be a fine Christmas gift for Papa if his three daughters were lost to snow, as many others had been before them. Still, Tabby was Tabby, as precious and dear to them as a mother, and none of them could bear to see her so troubled.

“We shall do more than that,” Anne said with surprising enthusiasm at the prospect of losing a toe or two to frost. “We shall take those bones and carry them away with us. I will bring such wrath down upon those in residence at Top Withens that they will wish the house had crumbled over their heads.”

“I’m not entirely sure that is the best way to approach the Bradshaws,” Branwell said, as he entered the room. “Forgive me—I stood a moment in the hallway, listening to your talk, while deciding if it was your usual feminine prattle or something worth engaging in. I believe it is the latter.”

Despite his smile their brother looked exhausted; his face had a bluish pallor, made all the more stark by the supernatural flame of his hair. “They talk of nothing else but the bones in the Bull, and indeed it is a distressing situation. To think of a child, abandoned like that . . . lost forever . . .” Branwell trailed off for a moment as he slumped into a chair at the table. “As strong and as able as you are, sister, Clifton Bradshaw is not a man who will easily bend to the will of a woman, or even three of them. His son, Liston Bradshaw, however, is a friend of mine and a fine fellow. I shall accompany you to Top Withens for Tabby’s sake.”

“You hardly made the trip to that chair, Branwell,” Charlotte said. “Are you sure that you are up to an expedition?”

“Quite sure. Besides, Top Withens Hall is a house of men, and it takes a man to know how to talk to them, and, though you may call yourselves by the names of men, that doesn’t give you men’s strength and courage.”

“There’s something else you should know before you go up there,” Tabby said very gravely. “For I cannot send my angels and Branwell into the lion’s den without arming you against what may lie in wait for you.”

“Am I not an angel?” asked Branwell, mildly affronted.

“A fallen one, perhaps.” Emily smiled at Anne.