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Starling?’ Alice asked her. Starling stared at her, wide-eyed. She didn’t know the answer, so she stayed silent.
    ‘She won’t know. How should she know? Where she’s from they don’t celebrate birthdays. Most likely her mother dropped her in the field she was working, and made no particular note of day or month. Or year,’ said Bridget.
    ‘So her people are farm workers, now? Well, Starling – be happy. You have come up in the world overnight. Yesterday you were a vagrant and a thief, now you are a farm labourer’s child,’ said Alice, smiling. She had plaited her fair hair to either side of a central parting, and coiled the plaits into a knot at the back of her head. Starling thought her impossibly lovely. Bridget grunted gracelessly.
    ‘Mock all you want. This new cosset of yours could be a faery’s changeling for all you know.’
    ‘A faery! Would you like that?’ Alice said to Starling, laughing. ‘When I was a little girl, I should have loved to be a faery!’
    ‘Well, then. I see I shall get nothing sensible from you until the novelty of this new pet has worn off,’ said Bridget. Starling stayed silent, but she listened, and she watched Bridget cautiously. While the women’s attention was elsewhere, she reached out for the honey spoon and put it, drizzling honey, into her mouth. The taste exploded on her tongue, sweet and heavy and fragrant.
    ‘Oi! Filthy little beast!’ Bridget cried, reaching for it. The wooden ridges rattled against Starling’s teeth as Bridget pulled the spoon away.
    ‘Oh, let her have it, Bridget! Can’t you see she’s starving?’ said Alice.
    ‘If she’s to stay she must learn to be useful, and she must learn some manners, and she’ll not learn them by being indulged in all things by you, miss,’ Bridget declared. ‘I raised you up well enough, did I not? And you’ve never been allowed to suck the honey spoon, Miss Alice. Not in my kitchen.’
    ‘I was never half starved, nor neglected as she has been. But very well, Bridget.’ Her voice took on a tone of calm propriety. ‘Starling, you are to put the honey into your bowl, if you would like more.’ Starling poked out her sticky tongue and licked at the slick of honey on her chin, and Alice dissolved into laughter once more.
    The two women set a tin tub in front of the fire and filled it half with water from the pump, and half with hot water from a huge copper kettle. Starling watched them curiously, and had no idea of the purpose of the tub until Alice rolled up her sleeves and held out her arms to her. Starling went to her obediently, and only resisted slightly as Alice began to unfasten her filthy, rotting clothes. She made her arms rigid, to show her displeasure as the cool air of the kitchen reached her skin.
    ‘Oh, I know this seems strange, little one. But it is most necessary, and you will feel much better without all that grime on your skin. I saw at once that there were three things you needed – sleep, kitchen physic, and a bath. Well, we have had one and two, so now comes three,’ she said. Starling squirmed, and twisted away. Nothing good had ever happened to her that began with her clothes being taken from her. ‘Stop,’ Alice said gently. She put her hands on either side of Starling’s face and looked her in the eye. ‘It will not hurt, and no harm will come to you. Do you trust me?’ Starling thought for a moment, then nodded. ‘Good girl,’ said Alice.
    Alice stripped away each filthy garment. Bridget brought in a cake of soap and a comb, linen cloths and a scrubbing brush with mean-looking bristles. Starling eyed the brush suspiciously. Her clothes consisted of a long-sleeved dress which had been stitched together from mixed scraps of fabric and tied around the middle with a length of twine, then two layers of coarse wool undergarments – leggings that came to the knee, and baggy vests. All were filthy and stinking, and so stained that their original colour had been quite forgotten.