"Well, alright. I never turn down tea. I do want to meet the lass who put ye back on the straight and narra. She can't all that bad."

Bill exhaled slowly. There was time. Time to think things through and come up with a plan. Time to decide where he stood.

"Aye, she ain't a bad one at all," he said tenderly. "She's the best thing that's e'er happened to me, Lottie is."