#ned.

     ‘ If your da comes back for Flora, you ken you’ve more than just Faith and Fergus on your side. Aye? ’ 

     ‘ Quiet, man! ’ he hisses, though his words are followed immediately by too-loud, drunken giggles. ‘ You’ll wake everybody up! ’ 

     ‘ You know I’m always happy to see you, Pip. ’ He is, however, extremely shocked that he would see her here of all places. Ned brings his hand to her cheek, a roughened thumb brushing gently over her skin, as he rests his other arm against the table they sit by. She looks older than when he saw her last, he thinks. But that was years ago. He had just been a boy, then, and she even younger --- Bel’s age --- and time goes on. It suits her. ‘ Tell me you didn’t come all this way just for me. ’ 

     ‘ Am I irritating you? ’ he asks in a low voice, leaning close in toward her. Ned is prone to cheek, to seeing how much of his bad manners Sybil’s family can stand --- but it is meant to be in good fun. When Sybil makes a face just so at the dinner table, he reaches to cover her hand with his own and rethinks his whole, silly game. ‘ Shall I behave? ’