"We didn't in Southsea either," she tells him, smiling as she watches him tuck the cloak around himself. "Luckily I was here on pilgrimage, so I had prepared to be sleeping outside."

Luckily, also, that her mother had been a seamstress and had bundled her up with extra clothing. Things to sell, things to offer the gods, and things to keep her safe. It had worked well enough, all things considered.

"It was awful last year," she adds after a moment of thought. "We were snowed in. Rather literally."