Something niggled at the back of my mind. I’d asked Ezra about a tailor, and he’d said the town had none. Surely he was close enough to Ainsley to know that she mended clothes. I’d have to ask him tomorrow.
Happy to leave the sad little cluster of buildings, I made my way to her house, finding myself eager to see her again and to check up on Henry. I’d seen too many children dead and dying, and my imagination gladly supplied me with unreasonable concerns—thoughts of Henry falling ill and suffering.
“It’s this talk of the wasting,” I muttered to myself, annoyed at the lingering thread of worry I couldn’t quite chase to its source. “There’s nothing wrong with the boy.”
As if conjured by my fretting, Henry skipped up to me on the path leading to Ainsley’s house. He had a fishing pole twice his height that bobbed above him like a long spear carried by a knight in a picture book.
“Sir Henry,” I said, laughing. “Are you off to defeat beasts?”
He gave me a quizzical look. “No. I’m going trout fishing.”
With tremendous effort, I swallowed back laughter and matched his serious tone. “Do you think Miss Ainsley can take in a pair of trousers?”
“She made mine from an old dress! But you’re bigger than me.”
“Not considerably,” I said with a smile. “Is she home? I’m hoping to commission her.”
Henry nodded, squirming in a way that indicated he would far rather be fishing than making conversation with me. On a whim, I pressed one of my coins into his hand. “This is for helping me carry my things to the Mission. Thank you.”
His eyes widened before he pushed it into his pocket. “You’re very welcome, Apprentice Haven. What happened to your hands?” he asked.
I stretched my fingers out and studied my scratched palms. Though the salve had helped, the cuts were still livid pink. “I got scared by a bee and fell.”
His small mouth quirked, but to his immense credit, he did not laugh at me. “Bees won’t hurt you. They’re busy looking for pretty flowers.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Is there anything Ishouldlook out for?”
“Water snakes. Wolves in winter. Rapids.” He scrunched his nose thoughtfully, and my heart sank—the list was already too long for my liking. “Hornet nests. Wood spirits.”
“Wood spirits,” I echoed, recalling him saying the same words the day I met him. “Surely those aren’t real.”
“Ezra says they are. He says they’ll protect us when we need it. They’ll drive the wasting away.”
“I thought Miss Ainsley said you weren’t meant to be friends with Ezra,” I said, wondering if either of them knew what Ezra was capable of—and if that was the source of Ainsley’s cautions.
Henry’s eyes widened. “He only said that once, a long time ago. I always mind Miss Ainsley. And I’m not meeting him to go fishing. I don’t need anybody to help me.”
“I’m sure of that,” I said gently. “I’ll ask Ezra about the wood spirits myself, how does that sound?”
He gave me a conspiratorial grin and dashed off, calling out a hasty goodbye. The fishing pole bobbed, its thin line trailing behind him like spiderweb.
Ainsley answered her door quickly, as if she’d seen me coming. “Don’t tell me you’re already sick of that sour-faced boy in charge of your Mission. I can’t promise I’m better company.”
I blinked, torn between laughter and an odd impulse to defend Julian. “No, no. I came here to have some trousers taken in and hemmed, if you can spare the time. I can pay. Well. Soon.”
“Those are them?” Ainsley asked, nodding at the paper package I carried.
“They’re all the store carried.”
Beckoning me inside, Ainsley shut the door behind me and dusted flour off her hands and onto her embroidered apron. “With a growingboy in my house, I’m forever altering trousers. They won’t be as fine as your city clothes, but you won’t trip over them either.”
“Trip over them?” I asked, a little too loudly for my liking.
Ainsley gave me a strange look. “I imagine that’s the problem. Unless you simply prefer the feel of trousers.”
“Yes. No. I thought maybe …” Ainsley had told Henry not to talk to Ezra, so she had to know him. I decided most of the truth wouldn’t hurt, as long as I left outhowhe helped me. “I thought maybe the midwife’s apprentice already told you that I took a terrible fall. It was mortifying. Ezra happened to see and help me up.”
“Ezra has a way of being around at the right time, doesn’t he?” Ainsley asked with a tight press of her lips. They were definitely close enough for him to irritate her. But he’d managed to irritate me mere minutes after introducing himself, so that didn’t mean much.
