"Twas always that way for us," she says thoughtfully. "There was a place for women and a place for men. Even those of us who weren't wealthy had the same. No women went down into the mines and if we wanted to work in that field, we were only ever bal maidens. Or we work in kitchens or takin' care of the children. Nothin' at all like what the men do."

That was the future she'd seen for herself. Until Ross, of course.