“When?” she demanded.

“When it’s over,” he said, his face bright. “When the king has begged pardon of the people of England.”

Alinor and Ned parted at the Market Cross in the center of Chichester where the stone cross marked the roads that ran north and south, east and west. Ned was going to walk north to London, confident that someone would offer him a lift on the way, the wagons rolling easily on the frozen roads.

“There’ll be many old soldiers going to London for news,” he said confidently. “Many of us have waited for this for years.”

“But you’ll come back when it’s all over?” Alinor asked, putting her hand on his sleeve. “You won’t enlist again? Not even if the Irish rise against us, or the Scots invade again? You won’t go with Cromwell’s army?”

“That’s finished,” he said certainly. “There’ll be no more wars, there’ll be no more uprisings. The king will have to swear on his life to live in peace, and all the poor men who marched on one side or the other will be able to go home, and the brave women who kept the houses against their enemies will be able to live in peace at last.”

“I ask you, because I have troubles that I haven’t told you,” Alinor said choosing her words with care. “I’m going to need you at home, Brother. I’m going to need your help.”

At once, he was alert. “Has Zachary come back? Have you heard from him?”

“No, God be praised, no,” she said quickly. “But I have to get Alys married and Rob into his work and I have a difficulty, a difficulty of my own. I’ll need your help.”

He put his broad rough hand over hers. “Alys is earning her dowry even now,” he reassured her. “No need to fear for her. And Rob has his place promised to him and the Peacheys are paying his entrance fee. I’ll come back, but you’ve nothing to fear. Are you ill? Is that it?”

She made herself smile at him. “I’ll tell you when you come back,” she said. “It’ll keep.”

Only his excitement would have made him overlook her pallor. “You’d better stay at Ferry-house while Alys is keeping the ferry.”

“Yes, we will.”

“Look after the dog. He’s getting old now. He feels the cold.”

“I’ll let him sleep by the fire.”

“And when I come home, you can stay on. There’s no point going back to your cottage alone when Alys is wed and Rob away. We’ll tell everyone that Zachary is never coming home, and you can keep house for me. You can come back to your old home.”

Like a vision, Alinor imagined her childhood home as her own home once again, and the man she loved riding down the road to the ferry, just as he had done before. She thought that he would see her, standing at the garden gate of the ferry-house, with the deep water before her, and know that she was a free woman, waiting for him. She thought that when he crossed on the ferry and took her hands she would tell him that she was carrying his child.