Coming Home (15 page)

When
she read the letter, Megan’s spirits fluctuated between feeling desperately sorry for Steven’s struggles to get established in his wee farm and soaring with happiness that he was beginning to see her as a woman at last. It was the first time he had asked her out on a proper date. She danced around her tiny room hugging her pillow, wishing she was already in his arms. She came to a sudden halt. What did he mean about her young doctor friend? She frowned. Only one person could have told him about her having a lift home with Doctor Gray and that was Natalie Turner. They must keep in close contact. Had she been trying to stir up trouble? If that was her intention it had back fired. It had probably made Steven realise she was no longer a schoolgirl, but it also meant Natalie wanted Steven herself, or why would she want to cause a rift between them?

It
would be years before Steven could seriously consider marriage, even without Fred’s dirty tricks holding him back, but if he married Natalie her father would give him all the help he needed, and probably get Steven a large farm to rent, she thought dejectedly. Marrying Natalie would be the easiest and the quickest way to becoming an established farmer. Resolutely Megan refused to think about Natalie Turner. Steven had invited her to go dancing and that’s what mattered. Lost in her youthful dreams, Megan was oblivious to the snow storms which were affecting the whole country. It didn’t enter her head they might have dire consequences for Steven and his family. People were miserable enough without the atrocious weather; the rationing was already serious but the strikes and fuel shortages had added even more restrictions.

***

Fred had never seen his father look so grim and silent as he did when he returned from Steven’s. He knew the reason but he felt no remorse. It didn’t occur to him that it was not only the condition of the cattle which dismayed Eddy Caraford. He was an honest and trustworthy man himself and he was sickened by the knowledge that his elder son would play such a mean and shabby trick. He could no longer turn a blind eye to such faults. In his heart he had known for a long time that Fred resembled his late father-in-law rather than himself, and he bore no resemblance at all to the gentle woman who had been his mother. He knew Hannah blamed herself because she was responsible for Fred’s upbringing, but he knew she had always been fair and kind to both his sons. He could not have managed without Hannah. He could no longer hide from the truth. He had done his best to set a good example. He had done everything he could to compensate for the loss of Fred’s mother, and to show him he was loved, but Fred had become increasingly selfish and demanding as the years passed. Enough was enough. He had to accept the true character of his elder son and do something about it before it was too late.

‘On Friday I’m going to the market myself,’ he said to Fred. ‘You bought those ill thriven beasts from a dealer. I shall find him, even if I have to ask everybody I meet. I shall ask him to take them back,’

‘You must be mad!’ Fred said, staring at his father as though he had grown horns. He gave a harsh laugh. ‘Even if you find him, he’ll never take them back. You’re crazy.’

‘I’m not expecting he will, but I intend to try. You paid a ridiculous amount for them anyway. I thought you were a better judge of cattle than that. If he won’t take them back I’ve told Steven to send the two blue greys as store cattle and I shall buy him two decent animals in their place.’

‘
You can’t do that!’ Fred blustered. ‘Remember I’m a partner. I have a say in what happens.’

‘
I haven’t forgotten I was fool enough to make you a partner. I thought I could trust you. Now I know I can’t. There’ll be little profit for any of us this year unless the dealer will repay me for Steven’s animals.’

‘
Suit yourself,’ Fred smirked. He had all the profit he needed for a while with the fifty odd pounds cash he had hidden away. That had been a nice little deal he’d done at the ringside. Even his clever little stepmother hadn’t suspected he had tricked them all.

***

Steven smiled and his spirits lifted when he received Megan’s reply to his letter.

‘
I
shall
look
forward
to
going
to
a
dance
with
you
Steven
but
if
you
intend
doing
the
American
jitterbug
you
will
have
to
teach
me
first
,
though
I’m
not
sure
if
our
local
bands
will
be
able
to
play
the
music
.
I
hope
you
will
not
find
us
all
too
tame
after
army
life
.

I
have
another
bit
of
news
.
Dad
has
bought
a
second
hand
car
and
he
has
promised
to
teach
me
to
drive
during
the
summer
holidays
.
He
knows
you
can
drive
so
he
may
offer
us
the
car
–
not
that
I
mind
walking
,
as
you
should
know
,
but
I
hope
the
weather
is
not
as
bitterly
cold
as
it
is
here
tonight
.
We
are
all
wrapped
in
our
eiderdowns
as
we
try
to
study
for
our
exams
.’

Steven always felt better for Megan’s cheerful letters. She wrote as she talked and he could almost imagine she was at his side. He would never admit it to his mother, or anyone else, but he did find the silent house rather lonely during the winter evenings. He had grown used to the company of his fellow soldiers during his years in the army. He had yearned to be free then but it seemed there was a price to pay for freedom too. He found himself longing for Megan’s companionship – and more. The blood stirred in him as he remembered the feel of her pliable young body against his own. She was so small and neat, and yet she was remarkably strong and tireless.

Looking
back he thought he had always felt a tenderness for Megan, but recently he recognised it was more than tenderness for a childhood friend he felt. When he thought of the hard work and small rewards which lay ahead he wondered whether he had made the right decision. During these first few weeks all he seemed to do was spend his precious savings. They were already into March and he had hoped the spring grass would soon be showing signs of growing but the heavy snow and the bitter March winds had blighted his hopes for an early spring. He was glad to buy all the turnips the McGuire’s could spare to feed his few cows.

‘
How long has Mr McGuire been lame with the arthritis?’ he asked his wife one morning as he shovelled turnips into his cart.

‘
Och it’s bothered him for years but it got really bad about harvest time last year. That’s why we sold half the cows and the reason we have turnips to sell. He would hate to leave here but I don’t know how he’ll manage to carry on. He keeps saying he’ll be better once the warm weather comes again, but I can’t see him being fit to trudge behind the horses to plough our field for the corn and it’s still a government regulation even though the war is over. Things are scarcer than ever.’ She sighed heavily.

‘
I reckon we shall all feel better when we get some spring sunshine,’ Steven comforted her.

‘
Aye, I hope so. I’ve been baking scones. Come in and try one before you go back round to your own place, laddie.’ She scurried back into the house, leaving Steven wondering whether he could manage to plough his own fields and help the McGuires as well. He guessed Mrs McGuire was hoping he would but the year was getting on. He didn’t know then that the ploughing would prove a simple problem compared with the other worries which awaited.

Eleven

Hannah was tense and worried as she drove Eddy to market the following Friday. It was already snowing heavily and she hated driving on icy roads but he was insistent he must go today, and in person. All week he had looked drawn and tired. Her heart ached for him. She knew how disillusioned he must feel now that he had seen Fred’s treachery for himself. She had known it must happen one day but neither of them had yet discovered the lengths Fred would go to cheat his own father.

‘Are you sure we shouldn’t turn back, Eddy?’ she asked for the third time. ‘The weather could be worse before we get home again.’

‘They’ve had most of the snow in the south this year. We had the driest February I can remember in this area,’ Eddy said. ‘We’re into March now so even if the snow does get heavier it’ll probably have gone by the time we return home. I can’t delay another week or that dealer will have forgotten he ever sold those beasts to Fred. I expect he handles thousands. That’s his business.’

Eddy found the dealer without much difficulty. He knew most of the farmers in the market, as well as the auctioneer and the market helpers and several of them had been surprised to see Fred doing business with the man. He had less success trying to persuade him to take back the cattle. In the end he offered to buy back the two cross bred heifers for fifteen pounds each.

‘Fifteen pounds!’ Eddy echoed incredulously. ‘Fred paid over forty. That’s daylight robbery.’

‘Forty?’ The dealer stared at him as though he had lost his senses. ‘He paid twenty eight a piece and the two milk cows were fairly decent animals, for that price. I buy for another dealer. I don’t usually sell to local farmers but he was such a cocky fellow I thought he needed taking down a bit. Is he your son?’ Eddy didn’t answer. He frowned and rubbed his temple.

‘Twenty eight pounds,’ he said hoarsely. ‘For all four? Then what did he buy with the rest o’ the money?’ he muttered, more to himself than the dealer.

‘As to that, he was doing some sort o’ deal at the ringside. I couldn’t reckon up what kind o’ game he was playing, but if ye dinna mind me saying so, I wadna trust him wi’ my money. I saw him buy a damned good cow through the auction but he sold her again straight away. Privately. To the runner up. He must have got less than he’d paid for her. It didn’t make sense to me.’

‘You didn’t notice who the runner up was, I suppose?’ Eddy asked carefully. His face was white now and he gripped the metal bar of the pens tightly, feeling another dizzy spell. They were coming too often recently. The doctor had said it was tension and he ought to relax more. Relax! How could he do that?

‘
It was a farmer. I think his name is McDougall, but I could be wrong. I see hundreds of cattle sold every week, but I often buy through the ring.’

‘
McDougall?’ Eddy repeated vaguely and blinked, trying to clear his head.

‘
So what d’ye want to do about the two blue-greys?’

‘
They’re at my other son’s. Collect them soon as you can. I’ll give you his address. Pay him the thirty pounds. He can put the money towards a decent dairy cow.’ The dealer nodded.

‘
I’ll pay him in cash when I lift them.’ He jotted Steven’s address in his note book then moved on to attend to other business, leaving Eddy Caraford still holding onto the rails as he struggled to make sense of Fred’s actions. A little while later he saw a neighbour of the McDougalls’ and without any prompting, the man remarked on Fred’s peculiar behaviour at the market a fortnight ago.

‘
Billy McDougall was delighted when your lad changed his mind about taking yon cow home to Willowburn. He’d bid it up as far as he could afford to go because she was a pedigree beast and he fancied the breeding. What was wrong with her? Your lad must have lost a guinea or two for Billy to buy her off him.’

‘
I don’t know what was wrong with the cow. He didn’t say.’

‘
Queer way to go on if ye ask me. He wouldna accept a cheque so he was lucky Billy had just drawn the money from the sale o’ his pigs. That’s why he had enough on him to pay in cash. He said it was his lucky day.’

He
moved on to talk to some other farmers. Eddy stood still, his mind refusing to accept what he had just heard. His head swam but there was no getting away from it - Fred was not only mean and spiteful with his own brother, he was a thief and a liar. Slowly he made his way back to the place he had arranged to meet Hannah. She was already in the van, drumming her fingers nervously, although she hadn’t expected Eddy to return for another half hour or more.

‘
Eddy, you look frozen.’ Worse than that, he looked blue around his mouth. ‘Let’s get home. I don’t suppose you found the man you wanted but it’s not worth all this worrying.’

‘
It will be a bigger worry if those dratted animals have carried any disease to Steven’s place. I did see the dealer though and he’s agreed to take back the two scraggy wee heifers but he’d only offer for fifteen pounds each.’ He hadn’t meant to tell Hannah about Fred’s dishonesty but he couldn’t keep it to himself. It was going round and round in his head until he thought it was going to burst.

‘
So he must have pocketed the cash,’ Eddy’s voice trailed away. He looked defeated. Hannah was speechless. She couldn’t believe even Fred would stoop so low. She reached out a comforting hand to Eddy but at that moment a small lorry came skidding down the incline towards them. The driver couldn’t control it on the slippery surface. It caught the rear end of the van and slewed it around before it continued on its way slithering down the hill. One rear wheel of the van was stuck in a shallow ditch on the opposite side of the road. Hannah and Eddy climbed out to survey the damage. The snow was falling faster now.

‘
Such weather for March!’ Hannah muttered, setting her shoulder against the van in an effort to force it back onto the road, but she was too small and her strength too puny to have any effect.

‘
You get back in,’ Eddy said, ‘and be ready to drive it off as I lift, and keep it going until you have it under control. I’ll catch you up.’

Hannah
obeyed and on the third heave from Eddy the van shot forward, skidding until it was almost facing the way it had come but Hannah managed to get it straightened up and continued driving as slowly she could. She was almost afraid to stop in case the van wouldn’t draw away. She reached the top of the incline and pulled the van to a halt to wait for Eddy, keeping the engine running. Her fingers and toes were so frozen she had little feeling in them in spite of her woollen gloves and thick stockings. It seemed to take a long while for Eddy to manage the few hundred yards but at length he climbed into the van.

‘
Let’s get home,’ he gasped and slumped into his seat. His face looked a strange purple colour now but Hannah assumed it was due to the cold wind and the effort of lifting the van. She was truly thankful when they reached the road up to Willowburn. She noticed the milk churns still on the stand at the road end and knew the milk lorry had not managed to get through yet so some of the roads must be even worse than theirs.

It
was a relief to drive into the open fronted shed next to the house.

‘
Come on Eddy, I expect you’re as ready for a cup of hot tea as I am.’

He
opened his eyes and looked at her vacantly. In the dim light of the garage it was difficult to see but she thought his face looked grey and haggard.

‘
I can’t let it go, Hannah. I’ve been thinking what to say to him. I have to confront Fred this time, and without Edna listening in. Those two are getting too friendly and too smug. I wouldn’t be surprised if she knows what he’s done and thinks he’s smart but she’ll find out that a man who has no respect for his parents will have none for a wife, if that’s what she’s aiming for. She’ll be as doomed to disillusion with Fred, as I’ve been.

‘
Oh Eddy,’ Hannah said softly, ‘I’ve never heard you so cynical before. Don’t think about Fred now. You look shattered to bits. Money isn’t everything. Come inside and get something hot inside you then you can decide what to do.

Fred
and Edna were already sitting at the kitchen table, their dirty dinner dishes strewn around them. They were drinking tea and they had eaten almost the whole of the cake which Hannah had baked early that morning. Fred eyed his father with sullen defiance. The sight of them sitting there so warm and comfortable seemed to light a torch in Eddy Caraford. He looked at Edna.

‘
Get out to the byre and do the work you’re paid to do. Now!’

The
land girl stared at him in amazement. He was always so polite and gentlemanly. She opened her mouth to protest, closed it again, glanced at Fred and shrugged as she made for the door. Hannah busied herself shoving the soup pan onto the hob and making fresh tea but her heart was pounding. She had never seen Eddy so angry or upset. Fred didn’t care for his father’s expression either. He stood up.

‘
Stay where you are!’ Eddy ordered, ‘I never thought I’d have a son who is a cheat and a liar. I expect you thought you were clever to send Steven the cheapest rubbish you could buy. It was a dirty selfish trick.’

‘
It’s as much as he deserves.’

‘
Shut up and listen to me for once. You’re jealous and spiteful and you’ve never had any reason to be. Today I discovered that my own son is a thief and I can’t forgive that.’

‘
What d’ye mean by that?’ Fred demanded belligerently but Hannah saw the wary look in his eyes.

‘
I mean the cash you pocketed and said nothing about, pretending you’d spent it on cattle for Steven.’

‘
I did…’

‘
You bought a good cow and sold it again for cash. Where’s the money now? I’ll tell you where! You pocketed it. That’s stealing, stealing from your own family.

‘
I’ve earned it,’ Fred sneered. ‘Stop your ranting, old man. You know you can’t farm Willowburn without me. You can’t even drive the tractor and -’

‘
I can manage without you,’ Eddy snapped. ‘You find yourself a job and see how you like working for a boss and earning your living. You’re the one who should have gone to the army. I see that now. It would have done you good!’ The veins were standing out on his temples as he became more and more agitated.

‘
Hush Eddy, sit down and I’ll pour you some tea,’ Hannah said soothingly. She looked at Fred and jerked her head towards the door.

‘
You’d better get on with the work until your father calms down,’ she said quietly. Fred scowled at her.

‘
I’ll go when I’m ready.’

‘
Get out! Get out of my sight!’ Eddy shouted, then before either of them could move he seemed to crumple and crash to the floor. In a flash Hannah was kneeling beside him, her heart pounding. She stroked back the wisps of white hair. When had Eddy gone so white? She saw his mouth working but no sound came and his face looked strangely lopsided.

‘
Phone for the doctor, Fred,’ she ordered.

‘
He’ll not come out in this weather.’

‘
Phone him! You must meet him with the tractor. Tell him… Tell him I-I think your f-father has h-had a stroke.’

***

The next few days were a nightmare to Hannah as she watched over her husband with tender care. She had telephoned the McGuires with a message for Steven, telling him Eddy had suffered a stroke but he was holding his own. Steven longed to visit his parents. Instead he had to struggle with the snowstorms which blocked the roads and isolated him and his fellow smallholders from the rest of the world. He blamed himself for his father’s stroke, but how could he have prevented him from seeing the animals Fred had sent. After all it was their father’s money Fred had wasted.

He
longed to tell him the cattle didn’t matter, nothing mattered in comparison to his health and peace of mind. Many of the phone lines were down and he didn’t like pestering the McGuires to use their telephone. He wished he had put his name down for one of his own now instead of penny pinching.

‘No news is good news, laddie,’ Mrs McGuire comforted him.

‘I know but Mother could have talked to me whenever she needed if I’d applied for a phone connection.’

‘Och laddie ye’d never have been in the house to answer it,’ McGuire said. ‘You’ve spent every spare minute shovelling snow.’

This was true. The remaining prisoners of war from one of the local camps were working to clear the main road but the side roads were piled high with drifting snow. All the Schoirhead Loaning smallholdings shared the same side road running from the main road almost to the shore. The milk lorry had been unable to get through to collect their milk. Steven’s holding was the nearest to the main road but it was still a couple of miles away. On the second day of being snowbound they all assembled at Schoirhead and worked together to dig their way through. Then they worked their way back making a track wide enough for a careful driver to get through with his horse and cart. After the next milking, each of the farmers brought their milk across the fields to Steven’s yard, where they helped him load the churns onto his cart. He and Daisy did a valiant job of getting the milk to the main road but the frozen surface was treacherous and exhausting for both horse and man.