Anne was hardly herself these days, since they had married Alice off. Most of the time she was lost in her own little world, doing what was expected of her without attention, and preferably without speaking. She would pretend to speak to Alice in her mind, pretending that her sister could hear her and she could whisper encouragement and comfort to her. Neither of them was alone. And then, at sudden moments, her apathy would give way to a suffocating restlessness, and a sense that she needed to get out of here, or she'd be next. But then she'd realize there was nothing she could do, and she'd slip back into a kinder daydream. 

Like this moment. I'm here, Alice. You're fine. You're not alone. I could see the moors from the harbor this morning. See? Perhaps if you just climb a hill, you can see Whitby. Perhaps if I just think of you hard enough, you shan't be all alone. Anne was carrying the long lines from the harbour on a wicker tray, passing through one of the narrow steep lanes and hardly paying attention to where she was.

It seemed that absolutely everyone in Whitby had severe problems and issues. Anthony was not excluded from that 'absolutely everyone' — not even in the slightest. There was little in his life that he didn't have to worry about or be afraid of, and the fact that he was aware of that didn't make it any more better for him. Less than an hour ago, Anthony had fixed himself yet another drink — though, to his credit, it was much less than he usually drank, not even enough to get him drunk — his mind so horrifically muddled with so many thoughts that it might as well have been empty. 

About half an hour after that, Anthony had stepped outside. For no particular reason in general, other than the fact that he felt he didn't want to be cooped up inside all day. And that led him to where he was right now — walking alongside some part of town that he barely even recognized. He was paying little attention to anything except just trying to get through the day, and he certainly wasn't paying attention to anyone who was near him. 

It was a little bit unfortunate for him, then, that by pure coincidence his path collided with some...random girl's path. Were he more focused, he would've noticed or even paid any mind to that fact — but he wasn't, which meant that whatever would happen was basically entirely in the universe's hands.

Lost in thought, Anne only noticed the footfalls at the very last moment. The girl jumped and pressed herself against the wall to avoid collision, dropping the wicker tray and lines. It could have been worse. Those lines had hundreds of sharp hooks that would doubtlessly have maimed Anthony upon collision. It seemed that the universe was not against him all together after all.

"Sir!" Anne cried out, not without accusation in her tone. Her heart was still beating fast from being startled so. Only then, did she properly look at the man and started again. The girl blushed, as people do when they encounter people they've beaten up recently.

Anthony snapped himself out of whatever state it was that he was in as soon as he saw the girl jump and press herself against the wall. It took him a moment to comprehend what was going on, but when he did, he just stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the girl.

He flinched as she cried out, and just stared at her. She looked kind of familiar, but he didn't dwell on that thought. He did, though, dwell on the awkward silence between them that lasted for a few seconds. "Are you...okay?"

"Aye ser..." she said, still pressing herself against the wall as if she was stuck. She stared at him with big anxious eyes. "I'm sorry..." she muttered, even though that was more of a sorry for kicking his ass earlier than for the near collision, which she had in fact prevented.

Anthony realized that this wasn't exactly the best of situations, but the more he looked at the girl the more he thought that she was....overreacting a bit. Unless there was something going on here that he didn't understand? He didn't think that possibility to be very likely. "Uh, alright. For...what?" He was a bit too out of it to realize the fact that, yes, he has met this girl before, and yes, she did also beat him up.

"I should 'ave been more careful..." she said timidly. Very slowly, she seemed to relax a little and no longer seemed glued to the wall, though she dared not pick up the lines. "And ermm.. t' other day... You're Elijah's friend, aren't you?" Maybe she was wrong, and she was only embarrassing herself further. Anne's blush deepened.

Anthony tilted his head slightly as she asked whether he was Elijah's friend. He wasn't really sure of the answer to that question himself, but he wasn't about to go on some tirade about that. "Well, yeah. What about it?" What did his relationship with Elijah have to do with this. Yet again, he was too stupid to figure that out.

He didn't remember then? Well, in that case Anne certainly wasn't going to remind him. She smiled sweetly (and rather nervously) at him. "Never mind, ser... Sorry I nearly bumped into ye..." She leaned down to carefully place the lines back on the wicker tray, one of her thick red braids falling over her shoulder. Then she lifted the tray carefully. The lines had tangled a little and it would be a pain to untangle the hooks, but she would rather do that in her yard than here with a stranger who might potentially remember something she wasn't proud of.

Anthony furrowed his eyebrows in thought for a moment. Okay, so there was definitely something here that he didn't understand. He tilted his head as he looked at her, now actually trying to figure out whether she was actually familiar, or whether he was just making that up. And he suddenly came to a realization. "Wait, wait, wait," he said. "were you that girl who...?" Anthony gestured in a vague and almost impossible to understand way.