There was warmth at her temples. It spread, trickling through to her cheeks, bleeding into her lips and seeping down her neck. From there it unfurled like a drop of ink in water. Tendrils raced down her limbs, bringing life and awareness to her toes and fingers. It raced towards her center, to her stomach, to her lungs and heart and suddenly, she remembered.

Hannah sat up so fast her world tilted. Hands clasped at her shoulders and voices buzzed in her ears, their words unintelligible. Hannah pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. She felt sick. Nausea was forcing her body to revolt against her, but it had no weapons. She was empty.

"Hannah," a familiar voice said in her ear. "Hannah lie back down. You hear me?"

"Porter?" she croaked.

"Yes, my dear, now please lie down." Gentle hands pressed her down, Hannah obeyed only because she didn't have the strength to do anything else.

"Joey?"

"He is here. Warming up some broth in the kitchen but safe." Porter sounded annoyed.

"Stone?"

"What's that, dear? What about a stone?"

Hannah opened her eyes. The candle light was low and flickering, and easy to adapt to. She could smell the boiled cabbages and rat poison that gave Porter's cathedral its repugnant stench. All his students would joke about how they thought Porter lived with the smell. One of Hannah's favourite guesses was that Porter bathed in cabbage broth and ate rat poison, and so found it rather delightful.

"I don't feel like eating anything."

"I'm afraid I am giving you no choice, my dear. It's either broth or Sera."

"No!" Hannah's hands gripped at priest's knobby wrists. "Please don't tell her. She'll...she'll only be worried."

"I know," the priest's pock-marked face came into view, his lips turned down at the corners—more from age than upset. His eyes drooped at the corners, and his nose was thin and sharp. It was like looking at a spotted bird. "Which is precisely why I shall have to inform her about your nightly activities. What were you doing out so late?"

Hannah swallowed. Had Joey said anything? Was Porter only asking questions so as to prove whatever tale Joey had spun false? The next time they went out, they would have to think up a backup story. "My head," Hannah moaned, pressing her palms to her ears. "Everything is so loud."

Porter clucked his tongue and shook his head. "You think the two of you's silence makes you seem any less innocent?"

So Joey had said nothing. "We weren't doing anything..." she had to choose her words very carefully if she were to persuade Porter to keep silent. "...ungodly."

"And in the eyes of a ten–"

"Almost eleven."

Porter narrowed his eyes. "And in the eyes of a young girl, such as yourself, what classifies as ungodly?"

"You know, all that stuff you go on about. Thieving and the like."

Where was Bayden with that broth? And what happened to Stone? Had he returned for Bayden? Bayden...

"And if you were not committing such sins, what were you doing at the crack of dawn when all the usual riffraff and ragamuffins commit their heinous crimes of sin and indulgence?"

Hannah made a sound to respond, but it formed no word. "We..."

A fluffy brow arched. "No words to describe your mischief? Would Sera bring more light to the situation? I have an inkling to find out, don't you?"

"No! We...I...Joey..." Hannah pressed her lips together. What could she say that would give the time of their capture seem understandable and yet innocent enough to not land them in too much trouble. A little bit of trouble would at least give the true story a little bit of protection. Porter would not hesitate if he knew they had been stealing. Even if Hannah mentioned the orphanages. The reason may be just but the actions were not. And that was all that mattered to the old priest. Once, he had punished the baker's kid, Griff for selling stolen loaves from his father's shop to the students. The boy had received ten hind-slaps. Hannah still shuddered at the idea of such humiliation. They had all thought Griff done for when he was caught kissing Myra, but all Porter had done was wash their mouths out and disappeared with them in his office for what seemed like ages. Grigg and Myra had come out beet red, but with secret smiles.

And it was that thought that gave Hannah her story.

"We were kissing," she said and covered her face before she started laughing.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Don't make me repeat it, please."

Joey's appearance saved Hannah from doing just that. She peeked through her fingers, his willowy body, framed between her fingers, held a tray with a mug and a bowl. His grin was weary.

"Hannah, you're awake."

"Yes, she is," Porter said stiffly. "Come, boy, the broth. Quick."

Joey almost tripped as he brought the tray forward. Hannah propped herself up on her elbows and took one look at the murky broth and groaned.

"I will have none of that, my dear," Porter said, his long finger wagging before her nose. "You will eat the broth and drink the water, and then," he looked at Joey and then at Hannah before Joey again. "I will decide what to do with the pair of you. Now, I have something to fetch in my office. Can I trust both of you to do nothing foolish or disrespectful in my absence?"

Joey looked confused but nodded his response. Hannah did the same.

Porter lingered a silent moment longer. His stare making Joey blush, which only supported Hannah's story further.

Once Porter's soft footfalls had faded, Joey exhaled.

"What was all that about disrespect? What we gonna do, ransack the room?"

"No," Hannah sat up and crossed her legs. "I told him we were kissing."

"What!" Joey exclaimed, his eyes as wide as a full moon. "Wh-why?"

"He was asking questions. I had to say something."

"Why...why say that?"

"Because, if I had told him we were stealing we would have been standing during class for a week."

Joey looked confused and then realization dawned. "Hind-slaps."

Hannah nodded. "I figured if he thought we were kissing the most we would get is soap on the tongue and a lecture."

Joey nodded, but his flush had been given a new life and he was struggling to raise his eyes above his toes. "He kept asking me questions but I...I was still too panicked, you know. So I said nothing."

"I thought as much. Porter said something about your being silent and I figured a little trouble would be a rug over our big trouble."

Joey swallowed and sat on the edge of the bed. "That man, he said...he said he'd go back for him. You think he meant it? I...I gotta tell my mom something and well, I don't want him just lying there, but I also got to...you know?"

Hannah frowned. "I don't know, Jo. I think he will. I just don't know what he will do with...Bay...after."

Joey breathed in slowly, his thin frame shuddering from the breath. "I figured as much."

Hannah placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and squeezed. "We can tell your mom together." Tears stung her eyes. She had thought she was all out of tears. All out of pain. She had been wrong. "I'll be there. I promise."

Joey nodded and then his body shook with a different kind of shudder, and all Hannah could do was draw small circles on his back with her palm.

Porter returned once Joey had stopped crying. Hannah suspected he head heard the sobs and waited. It seemed too coincidental for him to have walked in when he did otherwise.

The items he had retrieved from his office were shoes to replace his slippers and a coat to cover his sleepwear. Home, he announced. For the both of them. He agreed not to utter a word to either of their families, but in exchange, they would stay late and help him with menial tasks. The punishment was an annoyance, but Hannah knew it could have been far more painful and so accepted it with a huff and a sigh, but with relief too.

They dropped Joey off first. He slipped in through a window. A silent message exchanged between them before he disappeared. He'd wait for her, but if she couldn't, he'd understand.

When they came to Hannah's street, Porter placed a protective hand on Hannah's shoulder. His gaze darted to every alley, every shadow, waiting for danger, expecting it. Hannah was used to the uneasy feeling that prickled at the base of the spine and climbed its way up to the neck, it was instinct. Hannah's home was not in the safest area.

The door to her parent's old, ramshackle place was in sight when the door opened. Hannah's heart fell. She had been caught. Sera knew. But it was not Sera that appeared at the door, it was Kole and he closed it behind him. He spent a moment there, his forehead leaning against the rotting wood before pushing himself away and walking away from them, hands shoved into his coat pockets and lapels flipped up to cover his jawline.

"It is rather early for him to be heading off to work."

Hannah nodded, but a frown followed her brother. It was not the hour that bothered her. It was his direction. He wasn't heading towards the mines.

"Well, all you can hope for is for Sera to be asleep."

Hannah snorted. "I can be quiet."

"I know." Hannah detected a hint of amusement in the old voice and tilted her head to look at the expression that accompanied it. "You don't think I can get in without her knowing?"

"I don't," Porter laughed. "But please, try."

Hannah straightened her back and strutted forward alone. She'd show the old bag of bones what subtlety looked like. How did he think she had snuck out in the first place? She had the urge to use the window, to prove just how quiet she could be, but knew it was a foolish risk. Sera was a light sleeper, and with Kole so recently absent, she was sure to be on the cusp of a dream.

So she used the door. Opened it and stopped it before it could creek. She slipped through and turned to wave at the waiting Porter. He waved back, a smirk still pulling at his features. Hannah wanted to put her tongue out but refrained and instead closed the door. She could not have done it any softer and she smiled.

Turning, she took a few steps into the room, her next obstacle was the loose floorboards and the maze it created. Or it would have been if Sera had not appeared at her room's threshold. She looked just as surprised to see Hannah as Hannah was to see her.