Coming Home (11 page)

‘Natalie went with you?’ She couldn’t hide her dismay.

‘Aye she did.’ He frowned ‘It would take a richer man than Steven to keep up with her ideas.’

‘What has it to do with her?’ Megan asked, but she didn’t need an answer. She knew already that Natalie was attracted to Steven. The Turners would probably want someone richer for their only daughter but Steven was intelligent and ambitious, and he was a fine looking man, even if she was prejudiced. If Natalie had set her heart on having him for her husband Mr Turner would do a great deal to help him on his way, if only for Natalie’s sake. Some day Martinwold would belong to Natalie and her husband. It was a prize worth winning.

Megan
felt tired and depressed. She knew it was not all due to her recent illness. She had waited eagerly for Steven’s return, longing to hear his ideas for the farm but he had discussed them with Natalie and her father instead. No wonder he hadn’t bothered coming in for tea. She sighed, remembering how foolishly she had allowed herself to dream. Except for his kiss at the station he still seemed to regard her as Sam’s wee sister. He hadn’t been home five minutes and already Natalie Turner was claiming his attention.

***

The following morning, Steven waited to drive his mother to Schoirhead but his initial enthusiasm had been dampened by Natalie’s criticism yesterday. It was not that he cared about her opinion except that she was a woman so presumably she knew what most women would expect. Even so he wished she had never seen Schoirhead. He was prepared for hard work and a struggle to get himself established but she had left him in no doubt of how little he had to offer in the eyes of a woman. Would Megan have considered the house a dump, he wondered?

‘Put these in the van, will you, Steven?’ His mother interrupted his thoughts. He looked at the large cardboard box in surprise.

‘
What’s all this?’ he asked, taking it from her, as well as the bucket swinging from her arm. There was an assortment of brushes, cloths, scouring powder, a packet of soda and various other cleaning materials. ‘I haven’t signed on the dotted line yet,’ he protested. ‘I’m waiting for your verdict.’

‘I know,’ Hannah chuckled, ‘and much notice you’d take of my opinion. This is your chance laddie and I know you’ll seize it. I’ll do a wee bit of cleaning while you’re looking round the fields. The minute you get permission officially you’ll be moving in if I know you. So you’ll need a clean kitchen and a bedroom to sleep in. There’s another couple o’ boxes in the kitchen if ye’ll carry them out for me? We’ll kindle a fire to boil a kettle for a cup of tea.’

They were almost ready to leave when Eddy Caraford came round the corner from the stack-yard.

‘If you can hang on a minute, Steven, I’d like to come with you.’

‘You would?’ Steven couldn’t hide his delight. His father was interested in his future after all. ‘We’ll hang on as long as it takes, Dad. I’m glad you want to come.’ His enthusiasm returned.

‘I’ll have a quick shave and change my collar then,’ his father said and disappeared into the house.

‘I will ride in the back of the van, Mother, if you will drive?’ It occurred to him how well she had adapted to changes during the war. He remembered when she had driven him and Fred to the village in the pony and cart but she was the one who had saved up and bought the second hand van and learned to drive. His father seemed wary of anything mechanical, but he would always be one of the best stockmen in the area. Neighbours often came for his advice over a sick calf or a difficult calving.

‘I’m glad your father is coming. He’s worried about you Steven.’

‘
Mmm. I’m glad too. You drive as far as Gretna, then I’ll take over. Schoirhead and the other holdings are on a narrow back road.’

‘Schoirhead must be getting near the water then? Are the fields wet?’

‘
One of them floods occasionally. The land officer said it was all fertile loam so it should grow good grass. Mr Turner offered to lend me one of his tractors and a trailer but I don’t want to start borrowing things unless I have to. Anyway a well schooled horse would walk on while I throw the manure off the back of the cart. A tractor can’t do that. I’d need to get on and off every few yards.’

‘
I hadn’t thought of that,’ his mother mused. ‘Fred uses the tractor for everything these days, but he never did like the horses and he always has Edna running after him so he doesn’t do any jumping on and off. I’ve packed some sandwiches. I think there’ll be enough for your father too.’

When
they arrived at Schoirhead, Steven looked at his mother.

‘
If you go next door to ask for the key you’ll meet my neighbours, Mr and Mrs McGuire,’ he said. ‘She looked very stern and disapproving when I returned the key yesterday.’

Hannah
hurried away. It would be such a relief if this venture worked out well for Steven. In her heart she had known for a long time that he and Fred would never be able to work together at Willowburn. Steven unloaded the van while his father walked along the row of sheds, peering over the half doors in the triangular yard. It was an unusual shape for a farmyard but he guessed it was the only way to divide the original yard. The dairy washroom, with the steam chest and tubs, was almost an extension to the house. Next to it was the dairy where the milk was cooled and filled into churns for taking away to the creamery, and beyond it was a byre with stalls for eight cows with a feed passage in front and the usual channel and walk way behind. At the end of the byre there was a taller building with stabling for two cart horses and a pony, with a hay loft above. Then came the midden piled high with manure and an upside down wheelbarrow as though someone had used the last of his energy to empty it and left it there.

‘
At least the midden has a wall all round or the manure would be spread all over the yard by now,’ he said wryly as he joined his father.

‘
Aye,’ Eddy Caraford agreed, ‘but ye’ll have plenty of work to get it all spread, and didn’t you say there’s two fields to be ploughed, Steven?’

‘
Yes. One is three acres and the other is nearer five I think. It’s compulsory to sow them with cereals for one more year, after that I can sow them with grass again so long as I plough up an equivalent acreage. It will suit me until I get enough stock to graze them all and it’s a chance to reseed with some of the newer varieties of grass. I reckon I’ve enough money to buy a sow and four milk cows or in calf heifers so long as I don’t need to pay more than forty five to fifty guineas each. There’s an old cart in one of the sheds. I think I can mend it well enough to do for this year.’

‘
Mmm,’ his father nodded thoughtfully.

A
gate next to the midden opened into a small stack yard with half of a rick of hay and a small straw stack. Beyond that a track led to the fields. Along the other side of the triangular yard there were three sheds for carts and implements but two had been used as housing for animals and the manure was three feet deep or more in them. Next came three pig sties with a low loft above. A gate into a small orchard separated the sties from the high stone wall which divided the garden and the adjoining holding. Steven wondered what it would be like having a neighbour so near.

‘
Here we are,’ Hannah said as she came hurrying through the garden with the key to the house. ‘Your new neighbour seems pleasant enough Steven but she’s a lot older than I expected and her husband looks crippled with arthritis.’

‘
He is,’ Steven agreed. ‘Come and see the house.’

‘
The kitchen is a good size, and it’s light and airy,’ Hannah said as she looked around. ‘That’s a grand solid table and dresser somebody has left. A good scrub will make all the difference.’ Steven felt a wave of relief at his mother’s sound common sense. Natalie’s criticism still niggled more than he cared to admit. He wished they could have brought Megan with them. She was young but she was down to earth like his mother. Hannah shooed them away to inspect the fields while she unpacked the boxes she had brought.

Steven enjoyed his father’s company as much as he had when he was thirteen and learning to plough. They went round each field in turn, inspecting the fences and looking over at the neighbouring fields too.

‘The conditions for maintaining fences and ditches are written into the tenancy agreement. We can use timber if we need it but we can’t sell any of it, and same with stones. The mineral rights and everything else belongs to the landlord.’

‘Willowburn lease is similar,’ his father nodded, ‘Fred wanted to chop down the trees in the wee copse but I told him he’d get us put out.’

‘Why would he want to do that?’ Steven asked puzzled.

‘
He intended to saw them up and sell them for firewood to make himself some spending money, with coal being rationed you see. The previous tenant has kept the fences better than he’s kept the sheds,’ he said changing the subject.

‘
I think he would be too ill for any heavy work by the end. Anyway the manure is part of the tenant’s valuation so it will not cost me as much to take over if I do the spreading myself.’

‘
You always did look on the bright side of things, Stevie,’ his father said. ‘I reckon you’ll do all right. I’ve been thinking… how would you like to have Daisy? She’s getting old but she’s a steady worker and she always worked well for you when you were at home.’

‘
What would Fred say to that?’ Steven asked cautiously, but his heart was singing. His father wanted to help him and he knew Daisy had always been his favourite Clydesdale.

‘
Fred has no time for the horses. He says they eat their heads off. It’ll take about three acres to keep Daisy between grazing and hay, but I reckon she’d be worth it until you can afford a tractor.’

‘
Thanks Dad, if you’re sure?’

‘
Aye, I’m sure. You can have the single furrow plough as well if you like. It’s no use to us now. Fred bought a new plough for the tractor. You’ll need to borrow another horse to work beside Daisy for the ploughing.’

‘
Daisy solves my first problem and it will save a chunk o’ my savings. Now I might be able to afford a gilt as well as a sow,’ Steven grinned. ‘I’ll get my bike out when we get home. I’d like to go down to the Oliphants.’ He wanted to tell Megan his plans before she returned to college. He felt more optimistic now and Megan had always shared his dreams – and many of his fears - though he was finding it a bit different talking to Megan in person since he kissed her. She was a desirable young woman, although he tried not to dwell on such thoughts. He sighed. It would be years before he could consider asking any girl to marry him and he couldn’t expect Megan to wait.

He
pulled his attention back to the land with an effort.

‘
This is the field that floods sometimes,’ he told his father as they walked beside the river bank. ‘You wouldn’t think the water would rise high enough.’

‘
Water is a powerful beast,’ his father warned. ‘I’ve heard the tides can come up mighty fast and you’re not far from the Solway Firth. It grows good pasture though. Your cattle should do well here.’ He looked at the dark skeletons of the trees against the grey of the January sky. ‘There must be a fair bit of wind the way the trees are leaning but if you keep the hedges thick the cattle will have shelter.’ He sighed heavily. Fred had refused to learn to lay hedges or to keep the ditches and drains clear and he felt it was all getting beyond him. He wished Steven had been joining them at Willowburn but he knew the atmosphere between his two sons would lead to nothing but quarrels. He had had enough of that when Eleanor’s father had kept trying to interfere and tell him what to do but he had been a young man then and he had coped with the stress. In his heart he knew he should have been firmer with Fred when he was younger instead of always trying to compensate for him losing his mother.

On
the way back they saw one of the other smallholders spreading farm yard manure prior to ploughing his field. He came to the fence to talk to them.

‘
You the new tenants for Bob McKie’s place?’ he asked curiously.

‘
I’m seeing the solicitor and signing up today,’ Steven said warily.

‘
Aye, Mistress McGuire said ye were a wee bit of a lad but we’re needing some young blood around here. I’m Bill Kerr frae Number Four Loaning,’ He spat on his hands and wiped them down his brown cords before extending one in greeting.

‘
I’m Steven Caraford and this is my father. He farms at Willowburn, about six miles north of here.’

‘
Pleased tae meet ye. We like to help each other when we can but we mind our ain business. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for ye. My son, Jimmy, is a mechanic and he works in Annan but he helps me when he can. By the way I’ve two fine collie pups left if you need a dog? You can take your pick at a guinea each. They’re well bred and their mother is a good worker.’

‘
Thanks, I’ll think about it,’ Steven said slowly. A dog would be company when he was living on his own and useful if he did take on any sheep to eat the grass until he could buy enough stock of his own, but he needed to watch his money carefully until he had all the essentials.