Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart

Well, what was luck for if it never was to be tempted?

I turned my back on the black little alley. Two minutes later we were sitting at a red-topped table near the stove while a long thin man with a soiled apron and a face like a sad heron waited to be told what we would have to eat.

 

Well, I think the most reasonable thing to do is to eat something in a restaurant, while bad people, who wants to kill the boy, are in pursuit of you.