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Frank gave a short laugh. “You would not get further than five miles before he dragged you back again.”

“Yet you cared for Maggie,” she persisted. “Why is it so different with you?”

“Benedict would not come after you if you had done what Maggie did, I assure you.”

Lizzie felt the sting of his words and almost argued back that Benedict would come for her whatever she had done. Then she considered his words and found them strangely inconsistent. “Everything I have heard about Maggie said she was hard working and downtrodden. What is it you imagine she has done which is so unforgiveable?”

Frank had stiffened at her words. “Who’s been talking to you about my Maggie?” he demanded hotly, before coloring and looking away. “Nay, that’s not right,” he muttered. “For she’s not mine. Not anymore.” When he looked at her again, his expression was shuttered and closed. “She cheated on me with another man and then ran off with him, that’s what. I may not have been the perfect husband, but few men would tolerate such a betrayal, including Ben. Such a thing cuts deep with a man.”

She could not say why, but something did not ring altogether true to Lizzie. She might have had a narrow upbringing, but there was plenty of gossip and speculation among her aunt’s acquaintance and the flock of St. Joseph’s. Such was the nature of gossip, that if Maggie had played her husband false and run off with another man, it seemed to Lizzie that Niamh or Connie, both forthright women, would have said as much to her. Instead, they had merely talked of Maggie being worn out and lacking the gumption to stand up to her husband’s family. These facts were not half as juicy a tidbit to impart as infidelity.

Of course, she reflected, it might just be that neither woman knew the full truth of the matter. She did not really know enough to comment, and so Lizzie lapsed again into silence and drew up her hood when it started to drizzle with rain. With some wriggling, she managed to free up enough of her cloak to wrap it around Sebastian’s shoulders and envelope him beneath the voluminous black cloak with her.

Once again, she remembered that she had not yet returned the garment to Ma Toomes and suffered a pang of remorse. She really must speak to the old woman presently, however disagreeable the task may be. Sebastian suffered her close embrace, and after a while, she began to feel grateful for the warmth of his body seeping into hers beneath the cold April sky. The only moment of alarm the journey gave her was when a cart passed carrying several sheep. Sebastian trembled with excitement and seemed to gird himself up to spring from his seat after them.

“No, Sebastian!” Lizzie told him and seized him even tighter. As soon as the cart was out of sight, he subsided against her once more, yawning ostentatiously as though such a thought had never occurred to him. “I’m not fooled,” she told him darkly. “I know you considered abandoning your post, you wicked creature.”

Frank gave a chuckle, his former mood seemingly passed. “You let him alone,” he said comfortably. “We can none of us go against our natures, more’s the pity.”

Lizzie was not so sure about that. Was not every Christian tenet to revolt against the base nature of man, with its impulses toward greed, revenge, and selfishness? She brooded on this a moment before Sebastian rested his head against her shoulder. Reaching up, Lizzie stroked his muzzle to show all was forgiven.

They reached Putney Heath before nightfall, and once they had found a spot Frank approved of, he sprang down and shared some words with the wagon behind them containing Daphne and Ma Toomes. Though she could hear Ma’s cracked voice upraised with indignation, Lizzie could not make out the words and did not trouble herself overmuch. She felt tired and wanted to stretch her limbs but could not do so until Frank unhitched the wagon. To her surprise, on his return, he leapt back up into the driving seat and set Florence in motion once again.

“Are we not stopping here?”

He cast her an apologetic look. “Ben was quite specific. Your pitch is to be separate from ours.”

Enlightenment dawned. “Oh,” she said. No doubt that was what the old woman was being so scathing about. “I hope Ma did not give you too much grief,” she said shrewdly. “No doubt she thinks I believe myself too good to set up camp next to her.”

Frank flushed and she knew she had hit the mark. “Don’t worry,” he replied awkwardly. “I told her it was Ben’s instruction, not yours. She wouldn’t dream of trying to bend his ear like she does mine.”

It was not long before he had tethered Florence and stabilized their wagon in a spot about a five minute walk from the Toomes. As Lizzie checked on any items that might have been dislodged inside, Frank grabbed the water pails and went off in search of water for her. There was not much to set to rights for their possessions were so meager that most had fitted inside the two trunks that were fixed to the floor.

As Sebastian sniffed all around their new spot, Lizzie scoured about for branches for the fire and had made quite a pile by the time Frank had returned carrying the water. He soon had the fire lit and the water on to heat.

“What will you do for supper?” Frank asked. “I could fetch you some of our stew.”

Lizzie paused in the act of throwing the last of her twigs into the flames. “Oh no, thank you,” she said hastily thinking of Daphne’s likely reaction to her partaking of their food after snubbing their company. “There’s half a loaf inside I can toast with some butter and jam.”

“Well, so long as you’re sure.” He hesitated a moment. “It doesn’t seem right leaving you alone like this.”

“I have Sebastian,” she said as the large dog ambled over at the suggestion of his name. “Where will you sleep tonight? Have you made arrangements?” She thought he would find it a tight squeeze in with two women.

“I have, don’t worry about me. Tony Farini said I could bunk in with him.”

“The Farini Family Acrobats?” Lizzie said, remembering their tent from Greenwich.

“That’s right.”

“Well, thank you for all your help today, Frank,” she said, and after a moment, offered him her hand.

Frank took it with a rueful smile and shook it. “I’m sorry if I came across a bit brusque,” he started as Lizzie simultaneously came out with,

“I’m sorry if I said anything I ought not.”

They both laughed.

“No, of course not,” he said.