“Why not sit in a room tha’ has for sitting?” she demanded once or twice but to no avail. No one wanted to be at the front of the little house, where they could see the freshly dug grave steadily disappearing below the latest fall of snow.

“Do you plan to return to Top Withens today, Liston?” Anne asked the young man, who was especially quiet, standing in the corner looking rather lost and out of place.

“Aye, I suppose I do, Miss Anne,” he said, though there was no pleasure in his voice at the thought.

“What will happen? Will your papa be very angry?” Anne asked him.

Liston shrugged. “I’d say so, more’n likely,” he said. “No matter, as I must go back—my horses and my sheep will need feeding, and my pa don’t pay much mind to the dogs except to take a stick to ’em. . . . I expect he’s drunk himself to sleep. With a bit of luck, I won’t have to face him today.”

“I shall come with you,” Branwell offered. “We may face your father together.”

“I cannot ask that of you,” Liston said. “If Pa is sensible to the world, he will be a vile man that no one decent should have to encounter.”

“Which is why Branwell is the perfect companion,” Emily said, grinning at her brother, who smiled wryly in return.

“Or we could all come with you,” Anne offered. “Perhaps your father would be more temperate in the presence of ladies.”

“I am certain that would not be the case,” Liston said ruefully. “I do remember a time when I was a little lad and my ma was alive when Pa was gentle and kind as could be, to her above all. I think sometimes her death robbed him of his heart, and he buried it alongside her. I am afraid you would be offended if you were to see or hear him this day, Miss Anne.”

Anne thought of the medallion that she had placed in the tea caddy in the dining room, without mentioning it to her sisters, for fear it would unsettle them. She had thought of dropping it into the open grave, but it seemed to her, perhaps foolishly, that the child had rejected the object. And now she was utterly uncertain what to do with it. Perhaps she could return it to Top Withens and never think of it again?

For she would like very much never to think of it again.

“I do believe Anne is right,” Emily said. “Though the snow is yet falling, we should return to Top Withens Hall alongside Liston. It will serve a double purpose: to buffer Liston against his father’s fury and to act as a distraction while the other matters are discreetly looked into.”