“Oh, no!” She was shocked that he would suggest it. “I want to see Rob’s master and his home, and where he will work. Mr. Tudeley will pay over the money. I have to sign Rob’s indentures. They will accept a woman’s signature. I have a good name in Chichester.”

He tried to be calm. “Yes, indeed. Then I will come to Chichester and meet you there.”

She nodded without speaking, and opened the garden gate for him to leave. He was astounded by her calmness.

“Alinor, we must be together, we must be lovers again. I will make you my wife. I will give you my name—my real name. You will become accustomed! I love you, I want you. More than anything in the world. You are all that I have left! I have lost everything else. You are all that is left for me.”

She nodded, saying nothing.

He thought her unnaturally serene while he was sweating with a mixture of anger and frustrated desire. “Where shall we meet?”

“The Market Cross?” she asked. “Before noon?”

“I’ll be there. Nobody knows of this, do they?” He jabbed towards her belly with his hand. “You’ve not told anyone?”

She lied to him, for the first time, before she had even thought of it. “Nobody,” she said.

“Then it will be all right,” he tried to reassure her, though it was he who looked panicked. She was as cool as the sickle moon.

“It will be all right,” she agreed through pale lips, and she closed the gate on him and turned back to the frozen garden. As he walked away he heard her speak softly to her hens, in the same gentle tones as she had used to soothe him.

Alys wanted to walk to Chichester with her mother and Rob, see Rob’s new employer, collect some more wool for spinning, and perhaps even buy a ribbon to trim her wedding dress.

“It’s only the Monday market,” Alinor said discouragingly. “The ribbon stall is far better on Saturday. And the wool merchant is bringing wool and leaving it here, when he comes next week.”

Alys made a face. “Anyway, I suppose I should go to work at the mill,” she said.

“You should,” Alinor agreed.

“I’d almost rather work the ferry than spend the day with Mrs. Miller.”

“You could ask your uncle Ned to take his turn in the dairy?”

Unwillingly, Alys laughed.

“Ah, she’s not so bad,” Alinor told her daughter. “And it’s baking day today. The other women will be there for the firing of the oven and you can bake us a loaf.”

Alys wrapped a shawl around her shoulders and tightened her apron at her broad waist. “I’ll go to Stoney Farm when I’ve finished work. I’ll have my dinner there, and walk back here later,” she said.

“Yes, yes,” Alinor said absently. She went to the foot of the stairs and called Rob and heard his answering shout.