“Off out, Pitman?”
“Off out, my love.”
“Will you take Josiah?”
His son looked up, hope in his eyes.
“I will not, love. I need him to be with you, in case you fall to labour. He knows where I am bound and will run to fetch me then.”
“I’ve told you, it is not going to happen till after the Sabbath. At the earliest.” Bettina came to the doorway, wiping her hands with a cloth. “I have had enough of them to know.”
She gestured back onto the room, where the whole tribe was busy—Josiah, Grace, Faith, even little Imogen had a cloth in hand and was scrubbing. Since the house four along from theirs had been shut up the previous Sunday, each day they cleaned every surface with vinegar in which Bettina had steeped rue, valerian and clove. Every part of their bodies had a soaked cloth passed acro
