She kept her eyes to herself as she set the jug on an old stool.
“In Sussex, sir.”
Mr. Pepys shrugged his shoulders.
“There is such a thing as a house, my dear madam.”
“So I have heard, sir; but there is no house here.”
“There is also a commandment, ma’am, that tells us not to prevaricate.”
“So I have heard, sir. My man will call you in the morning.”
She left them without another word, though John Gore called after her, bidding her to send her man with water for the horses. She came back herself anon, and left them a single bucketful, going out again as silently and sullenly as before. John Gore was holding the bucket under his horse’s nose when he heard the barn door grate over the stones, and close on them with a final heave from a heavy shoulder.
Mr. Pepys’s face looked blankly scared.
“Halloo, there, what are you shutting us in for?”