John raised an eyebrow "and what have I been up to kate?"

Kate narrowed her eyes and blushed. "How stupid do you think I am?"

Pretty stupid, as she couldn't tell the difference between a few weeks pregnant and a few months.

John smiled and shook his head "the baby pippa is carrying isnt mine kate. The babies father was lost at sea on a fishing trawler."

Kate's angry expression fell, but her blush deepened. She looked nervously at the young lady in question. If that was true... she had behaved real boorishly. She looked back at John, suddenly hot and sweaty. "Doesn't look like a fishwife," she muttered under his breath, stubbornly willing him to lie.

John looked at his sister "because she worked for doctor Wells before finding out about her family." John looked to pippa "Pippa. Id like you to meet my youngest sister. Kate"

"It is very nice to meet you, Miss Blacke." She paused. "The man I was with was the captain of his ship." Not a lie. "There was no love lost." Also not a lie. "I worked for Doctor Wells because the estate was frozen. Thankfully, my solicitor has helped and I can provide for the baby." Half lie by omission that it was her father's business, no lie. She looked at John then. "Your brother is quite honorable. He saw how scared I was for my baby that their father would return. I am thankful I am free to start anew. I am thankful for his protection, though I have told him he is free to go his own way if he wanted, but it seems he wants to do the opposite."

Dr. Wells... She remembered what Anne had told her about him.

She looked at the maid turned lady.

Kate was sweating at this point. She was embarrassed about her own assumptions, though this 'Pippa' seemed to take it well. The tension rose as the young lady spoke. So John was a substitute? A willing one at that?

She was not a child, of course. She had already embarrassed herself once. She would deal with this like a grown up. She opened her mouth. Then she balled her fists.

"Well, you'll ruin all our lives if he carries on with it!" She shouted and she turned on her heel and ran.

John raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Shes sounding like Doctor Wells did that night i helped him home. The night he tried to get me to upsticks and leave you in the dead of night never to return"

She stood and called out, "And so will running away from conflict..." then she sat and said to him, "I should know."

John laughed "yeah well had i run from conflict and not into it. I wouldn't have bullet holes in me. Which is part of the reason im leaving the army. I wont pass a medical." He shook his head in disbelief "that girl should know that we dont run and protect our own. Kates the youngest of my 4 siblings. My eldest brother passed. But ive got one brother and two sisters. As you can imagine. Kate being the youngest. She gets away with murder. Normally we get chased with a rolling pin"