Nat put her backpack/sack with her blankets tied at the bottom of it outside the door and went into the kitchen.  She wasn't sure where the room with the couch was for her to sleep on.  Frowning, she wandered to the door to the other part of the house and peeked out to look for someone to direct her the right direction.

Nat was looking into a single living and dining room, with a sofa and some chairs near the now empty fireplace on the one end, and a dining area on the other end. There were stairs on the right, and what looked like the front door on the left. The room was spacious and the furniture looked decent, but the wallpaper looked rather old and outdated and the room lacked decoration, safe for some portraits and photographs on the walls, some delicate plates on display in the cabinet behind the dining table, and a fancy clock and porcelain birds on the mantlepiece.

But Mr. Appleton was just taking those off and he carried them upstairs without a word to Nat. Jenny, meanwhile, was spreading blankets over the sofa. She looked at Nat uncomfortably and when her master was gone, she said. "There you go. There's an extra blanket over there on the chair, should ye need it."

Nat nodded.  "Thanks, Jenny.  In case I don't see you before I head out tomorrow, it was nice meeting you.  And I do appreciate your friendship, as short as it has been."  She moved over to the couch.  She wasn't going to change her clothing, as her sack was outside and it would just be complicated.

Jenny glanced at Nat sadly. "I'll probably see you. I'm up before Mr. Appleton. Goodnight." She rushed upstairs.

Nat nodded.  She sat down on the couch feeling so low.  She curled up in the corner of the couch with her forehead on her knees with her feet (shoes now off leaving only her worn-out socks on her feet) up on the couch.  She was even smaller than she already really was.  Tears started falling as she tried not to be heard as she sniffled crying.  She couldn't go back to being a girl, not now.  She might find a shop that would hire her but without a place to live and clean up and keep her clothing clean, it wasn't going to happen.  Leaving on the streets as a woman would also just invite the kinds of jobs she did not plan to get into.  Period.  So, it was back to living on the streets as a boy.  Though she had been there long enough that she would likely have to move on to another city, plus the fact that now someone knew her secret.  All she could think was of the bad things ahead now.

The floorboards creaked upstairs at first, but soon house was quiet, apart from Nat's sniffling. At some point a baby cried, but that stopped after half a minute. The house was quiet again for some time. Perhaps half an hour. Perhaps an hour. And then a door opened upstairs, very carefully and quietly.

Light streamed down into the room from upstairs. And then there were quiet bare feet on the stairs, and the light moved down in the shape of a candle. It was carried by Mrs. Appleton, who was wearing a white sleeping gown and a checked woolen shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She stopped on the lowest step and looked at Nat, frowning, while the light from the candle flickered on her pale face. Then she stepped down the last step, and walked over. She stopped in the middle of the room. "Why are you sleepin' 'ere?" she whispered.

Nat looked up and wiped her eyes.  She had just finally fallen asleep.  Looking at the woman that she remembered from meeting in the yard the other day.  "Umm hello, Mrs. Appleton.  I am um here because I was told to sleep here by your husband."  She blushed.  "I gave up my secret about being a girl and so now I have to go, but he wasn't going to have me sleeping in the barn again because I am a girl.  I won't be a problem I promise."

"A girl?" She whispered. She strained her eyes to get a better look at Nat, but the little flame could only do so much. "Were you cryin'?"

She nodded weakly.  "Yes, ma'am.  I was liking working here, but Jenny and I were talking and about religion and how my parents would have wanted me to be honest with the people here being so nice hiring me to work here and all.  But I just knew it would mean I would have to leave.  And I was right."  She felt the tears starting to fall again.

"I will have to go back to living as I was before.  But I just had to be honest with Mr. Appleton and Jenny and all of you all."  She was too sad and miserable about having to go back to the streets.  Even though she had not been a girl here on the farm, not yet, just the truth of it, it already felt like a punch in the belly thinking that she couldn't live honestly yet.

She quirked her head a little again and watched silently for a moment. "Ye shouldn't 'ave been honest. It's easier to be a boy." She took a few steps closer so the light fell on Nat's face. "Where will ye go?" she whispered.