Standing by the dry-stone wall adjacent to & enclosing the garden of her favourite countryside pub, The Royal Oak, Valeries attention was drawn to a bare-foot young-girl of no-more than 10yo in a plain period-dress looking directly at her.  ‘Are you lost’ asked Valerie, ‘Where are your shoes’.  ‘No madam, I am not lost & I have no shoes, I am waiting for my brother, we work in the flour-mill behind this tavern.  Valerie was confused, the flour-mill was a derelict-ruin & the water-wheel had been broken for as long as she could remember. Husband Allan walked up to wife Valerie, took her hand & asked with whom was she talking; ‘To this adorable-child’ Valerie replied.  Turning to the ‘little-girl’ Valerie spoke ‘My name is Valerie & this is my husband Allan, may I know your name’.  After a curtsey she replied ‘My name is Elizabeth, I am 10yo, Sir, Madam’... Elizabeth initially appeared in a plain, light-blue, short-sleeve, knee-length dress addressing modesty, practicality & her moms financial-situation [tied-cottage...].  Child-workers were expendable at the time, even where enlightened-employer Mr Fate ‘invested’ [training, machinery-guards...] cash in the expectation of increased profitability & loyalty [no social-security, welfare...]. At this point Elizabeths brother walked-up & joined his sister; ‘& this is my brother Noah.  We both work for Mr Fate at the flour-mill’.  ‘Mr Fate held a Christmas-celebration for all his employees today, he read a most-wonderful new book called A Christmas Carol by Mr Charles Dickens’.  ‘Mr Fate encourages ALL of his employees to learn to read & write though few adults take-part, choosing to earn extra-money in the one-hour allocated every-day.  I love to read, dance too, though I could never afford to buy my own books‘.  Valerie asked Elizabeth if she knew todays-date.  ‘Yes Madam, today is Christmas Eve in the year of Our Lord 1843’. Valerie & Allan bought Elizabeth & Noah a sparkling-orange each at the bar. The logs on the open-fire crackled & waves of heat warmed their skin.  Sitting by the fire Valerie asked ‘Are you cold, this is not the weather to be walking barefoot‘.  Elizabeth innocently replied ‘Thank-you, we are used to the Winter‘. Walking the few hundred-yards to the snow-covered derelict-ruin that once was the flour-mill where the kids believed they had worked only hours-before, Valerie led the conversation ‘I did not know the flour-mill was still in use‘.  Shaken-&-disbelieving all-four walked-back from the ruin, half-mile to Valerie-&-Allans home. Wide-eyed Elizabeth & Noah recognised their former-home, though 21st-century inventions of electric-lighting, fridge-freezer, LCD TV... were more amazing than fresh fruit & vegetables in Winter.  It was their home too though not as they left-it that morning.  Valerie was in a dilemma; who were Elizabeth & Noah, how did they know so-much about Valerie & Allans home, the village & the flour-mill?