“Winter’s always hard on the mire,” Rob answered. “And Alys had to work on the ferry every day, even on the coldest days, and my mother was afraid every moment that she was out on the rife. When I went over to take a turn it was even worse for her. She’s terrified of deep water. But she’s well enough. It’s more comfortable living in the ferry-house, than in the old cottage.”

“They’re in the ferry-house? Why did they move from the cottage?”

Rob looked away from his tutor, ashamed of his father’s desertion. “We’re going to tell everyone that we think my father is dead,” he said. “After Alys’s wedding. But for my mother to keep her work and her good name, she can’t be seen as a woman living alone.” He stumbled and stopped and turned to his tutor. “It’s better for her to be thought of as a widow, under the protection of her brother, especially when Alys and I leave home. I am sorry to lie, sir. But we really have to.”

James dropped his hand on Rob’s hunched shoulder. “You’re doing the right thing,” he said. “It’s no shame to you, nor to her, that your father chose not to come home. It’s no lie to say that you don’t expect him. And I’ll tell no one that I saw him in Newport. He’s dead to me, too.”

Rob visibly brightened. “It’s such a little island. She can’t live here without a good name.”

“And Alys is to be married?” James turned the conversation from the boy’s discomfort, as they started to walk again.

“Next Sunday. She’s had to save every penny for her dowry.”

“Your mother must be happy for her.”

“It’s taken all of her savings.”

James thought he was a fool not to have sent money. But how would she have explained it? And he would have been stealing money that had been given for his work for the king. He had no money of his own. How could he have robbed the cause he was sworn to, for the woman that he was forbidden to love? But the thought of Alinor in hardship made him flush with shame.

“Your uncle Ned should never have left her for so long,” he said irritably.

“It was Alys that did the ferry. Ma wouldn’t touch it. D’you really believe that my father isn’t coming home, sir?”

James was glad to climb the bank that led towards the rife and see the looming darkness of Ferry-house. “It’s what he said. And better for your mother if he does not, don’t you think?”

“Better for Alys too. The Stoneys would never have her if my da was still here.”

“And better for you?”

Rob flushed. “The apothecary wouldn’t have me as an apprentice if he met my da.”

“Your mother will be a free woman in six years,” James said.

“That’s such a long time,” Rob said, as a young man will say, and James—a young man only twenty-two years old himself—could not disagree.