Alfred couldn't help but smile at her response. What kind of an uncle would he be if he'd shown up with an outing planned and expected Charity to pitch in and cover the costs? It made him wonder, fleetingly, what her life had been like before she'd come to live with Evander. He'd never gotten the impression that Evelina or her husband had struggled with money, but it had been years between the last time he'd seen them and when Charity's father had ultimately passed away. A lot could have changed, and he would have been none the wiser. But surely, if something was really desperate, Evander would have known...?

That was, however, relying on Evander to be socially aware, and Alfred wasn't sure it was fair to put that expectation on him. Not that Alfred was doing much better, generally speaking — he hadn't even bothered to find out he'd had a niece, after all, until the fact had been presented to him at a solicitor's office.

"You don't need anything," he told her as he moved out of the doorway, making room for her to follow. "We're going sailing. Have you ever been before?"