“I’ll bring some curd cheese,” Alys promised. “Jane Miller and I are making it, this afternoon. Mrs. Miller will give me a slice.”

“Is she here?” Alinor asked.

“In the kitchen, sour as crab apples,” Alys said under her breath.

“Is her back paining her?”

“Her bottom,” Alys said vulgarly, and Alinor gave her a little cuff around her cap.

“You’d better talk like a goodwife if you want me to go and see Richard Stoney’s parents.”

At once the girl’s face lit up. “Will you go to see them?”

“If he’s promised you, and you wish it, I’d better talk to his parents.”

“Oh, Ma!” The girl plunged into her mother’s embrace. “But why now? Why d’you think we can ask them? Did his lordship give you a great fee for nursing?”

“Yes, he did, a fortune. And something even better than a fee. He said that he will apprentice Rob to an apothecary at Chichester. It’s as good as giving me ten pounds. Now I know Rob is provided for, I can put all my savings into your dowry.”

Alys did not think for a moment that this would leave her mother without anything against accident. She thought only that she could be married to the young man that she loved.

“How much’ve you got?” she demanded.

“One pound and fifteen shillings,” Alinor said proudly. “Farmer Johnson paid me well for the birth of his son, and the boat only cost us three shillings. A whole pound and fifteen shillings altogether. Sir William gave me a pound for nursing the tutor. That’s more than I’ve ever had in my life.”

“How ever have you saved it all?”

“Rob’s wages.” Alinor was silent about the pay for leading James to the Priory at midsummer. “And Farmer Johnson, nursing Mr. Summer just now, and the herbs and fishing, especially the lobsters.”

“But it still won’t be nearly enough.”

“Thirty-five shillings down, and more to come?” Alinor demanded. “They’ll be surprised we have so much. We can tell them that Rob is going for an apothecary. He’ll earn well in the future. He’ll promise some of his wages.”

“It won’t be enough. They thought they’d get a girl who would inherit land. They want some neighbor’s girl whose father owns the fields nearby. Richard has sworn he won’t have her. He’s told them he wants to marry me. We’ve just got to force them to agree.”

“We’ll do the best we can,” Alinor said quietly. “Tell Richard we’ll call on them on the way to market tomorrow.”

“Ma!” Alys gasped, her face alight, and she turned and bounded across the yard to the mill while Alinor tapped on the kitchen door and let herself in.

Mrs. Miller was leaning on the kitchen table, rolling and turning pastry, battering it with an icy roller. Alinor thought that the pastry would be as hard as the woman’s heart.

“Goodwife Reekie,” she said grudgingly as Alinor entered. “Alys told me you were nursing at the Priory.”