Setting the tray down on the low table, she prepared two cups of tea the way she had hundreds of times before, a few of the leaves slipping through into the cups and settling along the bottom. There was something soothing about watching the tea fill the porcelain bowl of the cup, and she almost missed what the stranger said.

A lodger, then. Well, that was unexpected, but not at all unwelcome. She could use the extra income, however slight it would be. She watched him remove his hat and jacket, and then smile in mischievous amusement at his joke.

"Well, we simply cannot have that," she informed him, glancing over to the pack he'd brought inside with him. "I'd say there likely isn't anything drier in your bag than what's presently on your person. I may have something upstairs for the meantime; I still have quite a few of my late husband's things."