Play@YSDC

The woman answers, but seems to find the question strange.
"Me... ´bout my cow's milk ... and the wheat in the field. It´s two moons still ´fore the harvest...
and then.. I care the others get fish.. you got food where you come from? Is that why you are here?"

"What did the guy from the sea look like?" asks Kathryn. She describes Carson. "Did he look like that?"

The woman say no with the head.
"The man you look for comes here every week. Comes from over the sea every week. The grains of our fields ... they do something with them and then they make barrels.. a lot of barrels. The man comes from the sea to pick the barrels.. then goes back to the sea... he needs to do that... because of the fishes we take from the sea."

She says this the way a tribesman would speak of his mythic life cyrcle.

"Was the boy with him?" asks Kathryn.

Figuring these guys are just a bunch of numbskulls, Michael casually strolls over to the womenfolk to see what's going on.

The woman shakes her head.
"The boy was with the man today only. They being here the sun was a little higher in the sky. Other days, this man took the barrels at the dock to put them on his boat. Never came near here."

"What does the man's boat look like?" asks Kathryn. "Is it still here on the island?"

Growing increasingly impatient with these slow-witted locals, Ivy keeps tight-lipped while the others ask questions, lest she lose her temper.

"Small boat .. only the man and child"
The woman points her finger at a point on the beach, to the west.
" Overthere... near the Jennings' house ... the one in front of the Anderson's big house."

Another woman is staring at Ivy's jacket with curiosity. She notes that it looks very different from her vest, which is made from rough wool. She asks Ivy:
"What kind of animal you killed to get this?"

"Thank you," says Kathryn with a smile, now having confirmed that they are both still on the island. "Do you know which way they went from there?"

Ivy can no longer help herself.

"It's a little thing called 'tailoring'," she snaps. "Now, the boy and the man: you say they went to the Jennings House? Who is Jennings?"

The woman responds with a tone of vagueness.
"He was a young man, fair hair. Yes the child was with him. They walked coming from the beach and I saw them.. They were heading to the Jennings' house oh mybe to the Andersons. They walked in the moor and I not see them nomore. Something goes behind other thing no way to see it nomore."

The other woman looks at Ivy with her mouth ope, like a curious pupil.

"Oh ... and how you feed this tayloring? You eat it after you kill it?"

When he has a chance, Michael will draw Ivy aside, nodding and smiling at the women to indicate that he's no danger to them.

"These dames are inbred. The guys are even worse. Score one for the suffragettes, I guess. Anyway, they haven't got enough brains among them to have built a halfway decent house. We've gotta talk to these Jennings and Andersons. They might be something like the feudal lords over these poor dopes."

"Thank you, ladies," says Kathryn, now that she has the information they need. "Her jacket is made from wool. It comes from a sheep, but you don't have to kill the sheep to get it. You just shear the wool off. Then it grows back and later, you can do it again."

Fighting hard to keep her cool, Ivy is glad of Michael and Kathryn's intervention.

"These people are positively prehistoric!" she mutters. "I agree - clearly there's nothing to be gained from talking to them any longer. Shall we try the Jennings House next?"

"Yes, let's go," says Kathryn walking away with her. When they're out of earshot, she continues. "Imagine not knowing about sheep and wool. I'm a city girl, but even I know that."

As they head for the Jennings place, Michael notices the inn off to the side.

"Now who in blazes would want to stay in this godforsaken place? We better check out that inn over there, too, see who's been visiting lately."

“Good point; we’ll need somewhere on this god-forsaken rock to stay, more’s the pity. Let’s go to the inn first.”