Just putting the problems here down on paper was helpful but she doubted that he could suggest a way to help this town any more than she could. When she had finished she walked the short distance from the hotel to the High Street and after stopping in at the Post Office to send her letter, she set about buying what the cottage needed. It had a large table and benches in the kitchen as well as enough plates and pots to make do, so she bought a second chair to sit by the fire, a rug for the stone floor where the younger children could play, feather mattresses for everyone so that they wouldn't have to share for the first time in their lives, bed linen, pillows, plenty of warm blankets, towels and various other sundries. The shopkeepers clearly all knew who she was and reaction varied from open distaste (though they were happy to take her money) to whispers behind her back to one shopkeeper who propositioned her. She left his shop immediately and thankfully the haberdashery was able to provide her with bed linen.
