"Well they..." How did she explain a wave breaking. Especially while most of her attention was taken up by the three boats. "It just means they tumble like most do, and that's dangerous when the waves are as high as they are now." She did not take her eyes off the boats. "We... we shouldn't distract them." Mostly she did not want to distract herself, as if watching the boats was what kept them save and the moment she took her eyes off of them or did not focus all of her attention on wishing them safely in the harbour, they would perish.

Luckily, just then, the men in the boats suddenly began to row and they made it past the bar on a surge of water. Anne breathed an audible sigh of relief. Then she turned to Mable and smiled. "It will be easier now. Oh!" Her eyes landed on the basket Mable was carrying for her. "I should meet them by the quay, but I should first bring that basket home. Will ye join me? Me 'ome ain't much to look at, I warn ye."

Anne was so good at explaining things.  Mable was very thankful they were friends.  Waves breaking sounded very scary, and Anne's sigh made her worried before she saw the girl's smile.

"Oh!  I'd so much love to see your home.  And don't worry about the state of it."  She leaned in close, her voice a whisper.  "My brother and I are staying in a hotel, but we used to camp in alleys, so whatever you have will be much nicer than that I'm sure!"

She didn't want Anne to feel embarrassed about her home.  It was never something to be embarrassed about, and Mable wouldn't judge her for it in any case.  She hopped from foot to foot, taking a step back every time.

"Let's go, quickly, so we can still meet them at the - the quay?  The quay!  Oh, will any of your family be at your house?  I'd like to meet them too, if you're okay with that.  I'll do my very best to make a good first impression too, I swear!"

Anne looked at Mable with an expression of horror. "Oh, ye mustn't ever camp in alleys again, Mable. Some of those streets are really not safe at night. Oh... oh come on!"

She began to lead the other girl down the pier back to the town. "Our Bram was sent on an errand. He might be back. Will and me da' are in t' boat. Ye'll meet them." But Anne felt a little bit of dread at Mable's words. What if her father somehow disapproved of Mable and wouldn't allow them to be friends. He could be so oddly specific yet so very unyielding in the things he approved and disapproved of.

Anne led her friend through a street by the harbour, but then she suddenly turned and led her up a few steps trough a narrow alley between two buildings and turned left. They found themselves in a long very narrow street, or perhaps it was better to call it an alley, parallel to the main street. There were houses opening directly on to it, as well as several yards with even more homes. Some ragged shoeless young children were playing in the street despite the foul weather. A toddler sitting on a doorstep to watch her siblings play, looked up when Anne and Mable approached and pointed at Mable. "This is t' Cragg. There's a lot of fisherfolk livin' 'ere. Don't point, Polly. It's rude."

With no small amount of wonder, Mable followed Anne through the streets and alleys of Whitby until they came to what she called the Cragg.  Anne knew the streets so well!  To be expected of someone who lived in the town their whole life, but it was still amazing.  There was so much to know, and Mable had so much to learn.

Despite Anne's words to Polly, Mable pointed right back at the toddler with a wide grin.  "Don't worry, Anne, I don't mind.  She's so cute!  Is this your sister, or another friend?  Or both?"

Anne was secretly relieved that Mable didn't take offense. She was a little uncomfortable introducing her friend to her people. So many outsiders considered fisherpeople strange, if not simply dirty and beneath them.

And this wasn't even her family yet.

"No she lives over there. She's the Davies' lass."

"And I'm 'er brother. 'ow come ye speak funny like that?" one of the playing children piped up.

"You talk funny, Nick. Shut up," Anne scolded him, and she turned to Mable. "Come on!"

She led her friend further into the Cragg and then turned into a yard. There were two outside privies and a shed in a corner. On the other side of the yard there was a pump. Some of the pavestones had cracked or were missing. There were doors on the ground level, and then steps up to doors above them, suggesting that there were in fact many homes opening on to this yard. At the far end there was crumbling a flight of stairs further up to the cliff, with more cottages on either side.

Anne led her friend up some steps to one of the doors above ground, and inside. The room was dimly lit for there were only two modest thick glass windows on the yard side and none in the back, and the sky was dark today. There was a table in the middle of the room, covered with old newspaper that functioned as makeshift tablecloth, and a black kitchen range in the back, with clothes hanging nearby to dry. Overhead there were wires from which more clothes, some fishing gear and other items were suspended. The area around a trap door in the ceiling was left clear though. On the left there was a door. On the right, the was a wooden panel spanning most of that side of the wall. The shutters in the middle were open, and revealed blankets and pillows behind. Anne quickly closed shutters of the bedstead, a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I was airin' it."

Whether that was effective was up for debate. The entire room was damp and yet smelled of smoke. "Uhm, like I said, it ain't much. Ye can put the basket down 'ere by t' table."

Nick's comment didn't bother Mable at all, because she agreed with Anne and thought that he was the one talking funny.  Anne even told him to shut up!  She was so cool.

Anne's house was so pretty!  And her yard so similar to what Mable's had been in Pennsylvania.  The girl nearly tripped over the uneven pavement, she was so distracted looking around and trying to take everything in.  Her friend even walked up stairs before getting to her front door!  Mable had never been in a house with stairs before!

Inside was even more amazing than the outside.  Mable stared in wonder, trying to see everything as fast as she could before Anne hid anything away in embarrassment.  Embarrassment!  How could she be embarrassed about this!  It was wonderful!

"No need to apologize Anne, truly!" Mable said, setting the basket down where she'd been directed.  "I love your home!  It really does feel like a home, you know.  So lovely, so lovely!  Would you mind giving me a tour?  Only if you want to, of course!"

"Oh, you.. you really do?" said Anne. Her cheeks coloured a little, but she was really quite pleased. It wasn't one of the spacious newer homes like the one the Blackes lived in, with a separate kitchen and living room and a whole upstairs plan. Neither did they have a private garden. But Mable said it felt like home!

"Well, we ain't got much time. But well... She pointed at the kitchen range. "There's our kitchen, and well, this is the room we spend most time in. My father sleeps there," she pointed at the bedstead. "And my brothers sleep up in the attic." She pointed at the trap door in the ceiling. And I sleep here." She moved to the one remaining door and opened it. The small room behind it was dark, for there was brown curtain covering the window. There was an iron bed with an old matrass and blankets and some decorated pillows, a chamberpot tucked under the bed, a dressing screen in the back, a wooden cupboard, and a ragrug on the stone floor. "I used to sleep 'ere with me sister Alice." She felt her sister's absence most strongly at night when she lay alone in the dark and hugged herself and sent whispered prayers of comfort across the moors.

Mable's eyes turned to a new corner of the house as Anne explained them to her, hands close to her chest like she was afraid to touch something and ruin it.  Anne even had her own bed, in her own home!  True she used to share it, but it was all hers now.

"I used to sleep beside my brother, when we were younger," she said.  "Though it was mostly in grass or hay... Alice is a beautiful name!  Where's she now?"

Anne hadn't said she moved out, but if she wasn't staying here anymore, Mable figured she must have.  Was she independent, like Anne wanted to be one day?  Or maybe married to a handsome man and eating wonderfully lavish dinners every night?  Mable hoped she was.

Anne cast her eyes down. "She got married," she muttered. "Come on, I need to be at the docks to help me father and brother." A very welcome excuse. She stepped out of the cottage and held the door open to Mable.

The short answer surprised Mable, made the girl freeze.  Oh, perhaps Alice had married a very ugly man then.  Or a mean man that Anne didn't get along well with then.  She'd not ask about Alice again.

"Let me come along and help too," she said, following Anne out the cottage.  "Thank you again for showing me your home.  I must take you to the hotel I'm staying at sometime in return!"