“Yes,” Alinor said, smiling brightly. “And this is my girl, Alys.”

“Grown like a weed,” he said. “I remember you when you were a little tot. Would you like a lift?”

“Come up and sit on the bench beside me,” his wife said to Alinor. “Alys can go in the back on the fleeces if she doesn’t object.”

“Thank you,” Alinor said gratefully, as the goodwife leaned down and offered a hand to help Alinor up to the driver’s bench and Alys put one foot on the hub band, the other on the spokes, and clambered up.

“Are you selling some of your oils?” the woman asked, looking at Alinor’s basket.

“Yes,” Alinor said. “And buying some lace for Mrs. Miller, if there’s anything good to be had.”

“Terrible dear,” the farmer’s wife said. “I wonder she doesn’t make her own.”

Alinor, knowing that anything she said would be repeated, smiled and made no comment.

“But I suppose they’re doing so well, she can afford to buy,” the woman said.

“I don’t know,” Alinor said levelly.

“Oh, weren’t you there at harvest home? Didn’t we all see the best wheat harvest they’ve ever had? And don’t they sell half of it for profit and send it out of the county? And her yaddering away all dinnertime with Master Walter’s tutor from Cambridge, as if she were as good as him? As if she would have anything to say to him that he would want to hear!”

Alinor blandly smiled again.

“Still, she’ll make no ground there. I hear he’s going back to Cambridge when Master Walter goes. Taking the young lord back there, to teach him all about law or whatever it is that they do.”

“I don’t know,” Alinor repeated.

“Such a handsome man!”

“I didn’t really see,” Alinor said, thinking that the thudding of her heart was so loud in her own ears that it must be audible to the woman sitting beside her.

“You must have done! He went right up to you after dinner. We were all wondering what he had to say to you.”

“He was telling me about Rob. My boy is taking lessons with Master Walter. He is his server.”

“Did you hope that they would send Rob as a companion to Cambridge?” the woman speculated. “Was that why you walked away from him at the dinner without a curtsey? Did you ask for Rob to go, and did the tutor refuse you?”

“No, no,” Alinor said. “Nothing like that! I was unwell. I was so afraid of being sick before the company. I had to get myself home. I begged his pardon and dashed for home.”

“She doesn’t cure her hams properly, for all she’s so proud of them,” the goodwife said. “I felt queasy myself.”

“What brings you on this road, Mrs. Reekie?” the farmer interrupted his wife. “Will you be wanting a lift back this way after the market?”

“No, we’ll take the usual road home,” Alinor replied. “We’re only out of our way because we were visiting.”