Jenny and I rode by day and slept in haystacks and barns by night. When we could find nowhere suitable, or when the need to wash overcame us, we took a night in a cheap inn somewhere. Usually these places were so full of bedbugs and men who thought that girls travelling alone must be easy of virtue that we were pleased to sleep rough again the following night. A snug nest in a haystack and a peaceful sleep was to be preferred to grubby sheets and a pistol ready under the pillow. I sold my Persephone costume at the first market town we passed through. It fetched a good price and that should have kept us going for some time. But we had bad luck. My mare, whom I’d named Mayfly, threw a shoe and we needed to pay a smith for a new one. She went lame meanwhile, and we couldn’t travel on for several days. Then the girth on Jenny’s saddle broke and we had to replace it. The money was soon gone. When it ran short, we quarrelled about how to replenish it. Jenny was all for holding up coaches, but I pointed out that it was immoral to rob merely for our own enrichment.
