"Oh, I have no doubt," Kate says at his last statement, mixing belief with gentle teasing. It's much the same philosophy that she's been using, although she's clearly faltering before him.

It doesn't surprise her, this girl from the reign of Queen Victoria. A man's strength is assumed to more than a woman's, the same with endurance. Particularly with some evidence in front of her.

Then again, she thinks Thorfinn knows the need to keep going, no matter how tired. Work doesn't go away.

Of course, no matter how tired, there is something very intimate of him looking at her so closely, his eyes following her mouth as she talks. Its his height, she thinks. And the care he takes to understand.

But rather than go on about it, she lifts up the needle.

"Could, would you show me how to make these?"