Black Jack pulls his shoes off.  So John does the same, grimacing at the dark blood stains on his stockings.

Jack frowns. ‘Let me look at your feet; see if I need to find the extra coin to cover a barber-surgeon.’

With flushed cheeks John pulls off his stockings.

Black Jack kneels and takes John's feet in his hands, twisting them gently. ‘A body has to take good care of their feet: you won’t last long if you can’t run. A year gone, a girl I was friendly with, Lil Jennet, got so cold one night walking the streets that her feet froze in her shoes, but she refused to take them off because of the pain. It took days, nay, weeks, before she was finally in so much agony that she decided the shoes needed to go. And the skin had stuck to the leather, so when they were pulled off it pulled her feet off too, and she was left with nothing but stubs. Needless to say, she didn’t survive much past that.’ Jack continues to study John’s feet as he chats away. ‘You can carry on without a hand, or even a whole arm, but feet are a necessity.’

John’s eyes are drooping. He murmurs, ‘I saw a man with only half a leg today.’

Black Jack cocks an eyebrow at him. ‘What did he look like?’

‘He had a beard and brown hair. His clothes… needed mending. But there was a woman, too, in a fine dress. She touched my elbow, and I thought it was my hob… I turned around, and the one-legged man said…’ John closes his eyes, and is back in the street with the two people. ‘He said, I baited perfect for ye, but still the great Bess Porch ain’t able to pick a simple country gull, and she said…’

Black Jack roars with laughter. ‘The moment I saw you I knew you were a special one! All your innocence, but you must be quick as a crow to catch Bess with her hands on you.’

He remains laughing as he brushes his thumbs over the bones of John’s ankles. ‘Your poor feet. They’re as dainty as everything else about you. But I believe they’re tougher than they look, and in my expert opinion will do you well enough.’

John looks at the bed. Would Black Jack think him rude to fall asleep so soon?

Black Jack follows his gaze. ‘This truly is a fortunate day - to get a room like this, just the two of us. Let’s to bed early tonight, and enjoy it to ourselves before other guests turn up and we have to share.’

‘Yester night, or it may have been the day before, or maybe the day before that, I slept in a hedge,’ John mumbles.

He stands up with effort. Leaning against the wall, he gazes down at his bare legs, which are somehow both stiff and boneless, unable to support his weight.

Too much has happened today. Too much has been said. He can’t piece his thoughts together. There is an itch inside him, is he truly going to share a bed with a near stranger for the first time in his life? But he is too tired for it to develop into his normal debilitating shyness.

He draws the back of his hand across his eyes and walks with faltering steps towards the bed. Then he falls forwards and lets the darkness take him.