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thaw out while she did so.
    How long
she sat there for she couldn’t tell. There was no clock within the
room, just plenty of people. She knew better than to take the coins
she had left out of her pocket so that she could count them, so
tried to remember how much money the bar keeper had shoved at her
while she weight up her options.
    There
was enough to pay for a room overnight, but it would take a large
chunk of the money. She could just about afford a meal, and would
have some money left over, but had no idea if she would have enough
to purchase a ticket on the next post chaise out of town like Mr
Tingay had suggested.
    “ You alright, dearie?” an old woman asked as she took a seat
beside her.
    Tilly
looked at the old woman. “I am fine, thank you,” she replied
woodenly.
    “ Not from around ‘ere are you?” the old woman tittered. “Take
a word, dearie,” the woman added conspiratorially as she tapped
Tilly’s forearm.
    Tilly
nodded warily as she studied the woman. It was difficult to
decipher her age; she could be anything between one hundred, and
two hundred years old. Her teeth had clearly long since rotted to
blackened stubs, and her hair had not seen a pair of sheers for
many a good year. But it was the weariness in her eyes that warned
Tilly that the old woman had seen the worst side of life
imaginable. Tilly couldn’t help but wonder if she was seeing a
window through to her future, and suddenly started to feel terribly
afraid.
    “ Keep an eye on the barkeep,” the old woman warned. “I
wouldn’t trust that one as far as I could throw ‘im. Keep your bag
with you, and don’t go anywhere alone with ‘im.”
    “ I am not that kind of woman,” Tilly replied somewhat
primly.
    The old
woman laughed. “Won’t matter none to ‘im; if you know what I mean,”
the old woman gurgled. “You ain’t from round these parts, is
you?”
    Tilly
shook her head, but didn’t tell the woman where she did come
from.
    “ When do ya leave ‘ere then? Ain’t no coach ‘til ‘omoro,” she
croaked. “Where’s ya stayin’?”
    It took
Tilly a few minutes to decipher what the old woman had said because
her accent was so thick that it was difficult to understand. When
she did translate enough to get the gist of what the old woman had
just said, she wasn’t quite sure how to reply. She didn’t want to
tell the woman that she had nowhere to go because in doing so,
would reveal just how vulnerable she was to a veritable stranger.
Although this was the furthest she had ever been away from
Lincolnshire, even she knew not to take strangers, even old ones,
into her trust.
    “ I have to find somewhere to stay yet,” she replied
obliquely.
    The old
woman shook her head and studied Tilly closely. She glanced around
the tap and lowered her voice as she leaned closer.
    “ Take a word, dearie. Don’t stay out at night round here.” She
tapped the side of her nose; then gave Tilly a direct look that
suddenly made the hairs on Tilly’s neck stand on end. “Try to stay
‘ere, if there’s room. Don’t go out a’ter dark, and get the first
coach outta town. It ain’t the place for ya ‘ere.”
    Before
Tilly could open her mouth to reply, the old woman picked up her
ale and disappeared into the crowd.
    That was
the second time in the space of an hour that Tilly had been warned
to get out of town, and it left her with a feeling of doom that
made her want leave her ale, the tavern, and follow everyone’s
orders, and leave town.
    If only I could , she thought
morosely, and settled back on her stool to sip her ale, and she
decided whether she could afford to.

CHAPTER
FIVE
     
    Harry
sighed and stomped into the crowded tap room of the busy coaching
inn. So far, he had scoured the entire town from east to west, and
north to south, but there was no sign of her.
    Nobody
in the busy coaching yard had seen anyone who matched Tilly’s
description. One of the stable lads had thought he had seen someone
who looked vaguely