“Police? No. We have lost our way, and want shelter.”
“There’s no one in the house but me. How many are you?”
“Two. Myself and my sister. We can pay you well.”
She drew her head in for a minute, and then looked out again and said. “Are you sure you’re only two? Let’s see you.” We stood back that she could do so. “I’ll come down,” she said.
When she opened the door the light she held revealed to me one of the most forbidding faces I have ever seen on a woman’s shoulders.
“You’ve got horses, have you? You must stall them in the shed.”
She handed me a lantern, and Volna came with me. When we had fumbled our way to the shed, and tied the horses up, giving them some hay we found in the place, we went back to the house.
She admitted us without more delay and as soon as we were inside, locked and bolted the door. “A lone woman needs to be careful,” she said in explanation, as she led us into a room at the side where a fire was burning.
Two glasses and a spirit bottle were on the table, and a smell of rank tobacco smoke hung about the place.
Volna went in first, and the woman, having placed the light upon the table, stood holding the door for us to pass.