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"Yes, of course I do. And now what we all want is a nice glass of elderberry wine, heated."

When Maria returned to the kitchen Nathaniel looked at Anna and, all the steam going out of his tone, he said, "If we can't get the cart out, how will we manage to get the hay and animal feed in, and our groceries? And then there are the boys; if the moor is cut off they'll have a mile and a half to walk, and have to pass through the village to get on the old coach road."

"Well, don't worry about that, Dada, they'll do it. Or they can stay in the town, you know: there's those rooms above the shop that they're always talking about. I'm sure Mrs. Simpson would like them there permanently. As for Bobby, he'll tramp with them, and then there'll be less likelihood of their being set upon than if they were on their own; even though we know, and they now know, that Oswald is capable of taking on two men, as he's already proved. That leaves Cherry and me.

Now, Mrs. Praggett will see that Cherry gets there all right or you'll soon know what'll happen to Mr. Praggett. " She laughed now.

"As for me, well, Dada, I'm thinking seriously of leaving the tutoring."

"Why? Now why? I understood the child isn't to be put under a male tutor until he is six?"

"Oh, there are numerous reasons; the main one, of course, is that the mistress will be home shortly and I couldn't risk another up-and-downer with her without hitting her."

He returned her smile and said, "I understand'; then taking her hand, he added, "I understand more than you know. I think you're a very, very wise girl, and I love you dearly."

"And I you, Dada, because you are an idiot, a folklore fairytale idiot." And bending, she put her arms round him and kissed him. And Maria, at this moment entering the room and carrying a tray holding three mugs of steaming wine, said, "And I'll be expected to manage him after that!"

She always went into the house by the side door, the one which the housekeeper had told her she must use when taking the child for his afternoon walk, and on this occasion she was just about to mount the stairs when she heard the familiar voice of Betty Carter from along the passage, saying, "The gig's in the yard. She's back." Immediately she felt the urge to turn and confront the speaker, but told herself to get upstairs and continue to ignore that person.

She had hardly reached the landing before the nurse's sitting-room door opened and the old woman said, "Oh, lass, 'tis good to see you again.

Like a touch of spring. Come in, come in. He's all ready and waitin'

as he has been every day. I told him you'd be here the day, though.

Here, give me your hat and coat and let me have your news.

Don't worry about him. " She thumbed towards the door.

"Peggy is with him at the moment. The thing is, we won't have to laugh else he'll be in here like a shot. Sit down a minute ... Hasn't it been a winter?

I thought after that big do we had it was finished, but then, to start again! I hear they've started fencing part of the land in. How's your da taking that? "

Anna gave the old woman a brief account of how her father was taking the latest situation, but went on to say that, otherwise, the family were all fine.

But how was she faring? And what was her news?

"Oh, lass, you should have been here yesterday. There was high jinks downstairs. Her lady ship returned the previous night with luggage that would fill a train, so Betty Carter said. And her and Conway took nearly an hour to sort things out. Grayson said he had seen happier faces at a funeral dinner than was around the dining table that night.

But that was nothing to yesterday. She must have collared Mr. Raymond on his own and had a screaming match in the library with him. Tis said that Mr. Timothy went down to her and she went for him an' all; then Mr. Raymond came upstairs and told his man to pack a case and off he went.

And all this, you know, because of his engagement. You would ask what it's got to do with her to get her boiled up. But then you needn't ask, if you know what I mean, lass. "

Anna knew what she meant, but she made no remark and the old woman went on, "When Mr. Simon came in later he had been in Newcastle he had word to go to madam straightaway. Well, from there he apparently went looking for his wife, and this led to another shindy, and then another black dinner, so Walters said, with poor Mr. Timothy talking first to one and then the other about this, that, and nothin'. Eeh! by lass, this is a house, and all since that one came into it..." Here the door burst open unceremoniously and the child darted in, crying, "Oh, Missanna! Missanna! I knew it was you. I told Peggy it was you.

And she said it wasn't. Oh, Missanna, have you come to stay now the snow has gone forever? "

Anna looked down into the face gazing up at her. The boy had his arms around her thighs and his head was back on his shoulders and he looked so appealing that she wanted to bend and kiss him.

But all she did was stroke his hair back and ask him, "Have you been a good boy and kept reading your books?"

"Oh yes, Missanna. And I have teached Peggy."

' "Taught" Peggy. "

He gave a gurgle of a laugh and repeated, "Taught Peggy." Then added,

"But she is stupid."

"Now, now, Andrew; that is very naughty. You must not say that anyone is stupid."

"Well, she does not know the alphabet."

"She may not, but that doesn't mean that if Peggy doesn't know the alphabet she is stupid. Now turn and tell Peggy you are sorry."

Peggy was standing at the open doorway leading into the classroom and she smiled broadly as the child now walked towards her and, looking up at her, said, "I am sorry I called you stupid, Peggy. But you still don't know the alphabet, do you?"

The girl laughed, the nurse laughed, and Anna said, "Go on with you!

Get inside there. You are a wily young man. When you apologise, you apologise; you don't end up by throwing a brickbat. "

"What is a brickbat?"

Laughing now, Anna said, "It is what I'm going to take to your bottom if you are not careful." And at this she slapped him playfully on the buttocks, causing him to squeal gleefully and run madly round the table. And as she brought him to a stop she thought to herself that her welcome in all ways

at this end of the house made up for a lot. And she would miss it, because soon the fencing would cut off the road to the gate and that would mean she would have to walk, and through the village, before she could reach McBride and the gig. The walking itself wouldn't matter, but having to walk through the village would. However, it would provide her with an excuse for leaving here.

It was as the child was having his morning milk and she was about to take her cup of coffee in company with the nurse that Betty Carter appeared in the classroom; no knocking, just an abrupt opening of the door and that broad, thick twang saying, "She wants you downstairs."

Anna immediately paused in her walk towards the nurse's sitting-room door and looked hard towards the girl; and now she said, "Who wants me downstairs?"

The girl wagged her head before she answered, "The mistress."

"And where does she wish to see me?"

"Where d'you think?" And with this the girl turned abruptly about and went out, banging the door after her.

Anna drew in a long breath before tapping on the nurse's door, and at the, "Come away in, lass," she said, "I'm wanted downstairs, nurse ..

the mistress wishes to see me."

"Oh, dear, dear. Well, all I can hope for is she's in a better temper.

But now, lass' she put her hand on Anna's shoulder 'just let her get on with it. D'you hear me? Just stand there and take it. The others do; so learn a lesson. It's a backward one for you, I know, an' it'll take some doing, but don't answer her back. And keep that chin of yours down a bit. The cut of your jib, you know, says a lot of how you're thinkin'. "

"Oh! nurse." Anna smiled now.

"The cut of me jib! The first time I heard that was from Bobby, you know, I've told you about him, the pit lad, when he said some of the men down the pit didn't like the cut of his jib. Dada had to translate it for me. Anyway, I'll remember. I'll try." She poked her face forward now.

"That's all I can tell you, I'll try. I'm not promising, but I'll try."

"Go on with you!" The old woman pushed her, and a voice from behind them said, "Can I come with you, Missanna, and see Mama?"

"Not now, dear," she said; 'perhaps later. You come and sit with nurse, and--' she bent to him and in a stage whisper said, 'see if nurse can recite the alphabet? I don't think she can, not as well as you. " And she now pressed the boy towards the old woman, then went out. But at the top of the stairs she hesitated. That girl hadn't said where she would find the mistress. Perhaps she was in the library or in that room next door. But why would she be there? Well, where else? she couldn't go to her private apartments. Oh! that girl. She should go and find her; but that would mean keeping that woman waiting, and that in itself could cause an eruption. And there was no-one else at this end of the house she could ask. And so she made for the library, only to find no one in the big room, or the smaller one. She stood in the corridor, thinking. She'd likely have an office down Mere where she would see the housekeeper and give her her orders for the day. But where would that be? The only other place she might be was in the studio. So, it was to the studio that she made her way.

She tapped on the door but heard no reply, so she waited, then knocked again, and when she wasn't bidden to enter she gently turned the handle, pushed the door open and went into the room and in one sweeping glance she took in the chaotic scene. The canvasses that she had noticed on her previous visit, stacked against the wall, were strewn over half the floor. Some just had holes in them, others were ripped across; but there on an easel near the window was a full-length canvas and on it the startling picture of a naked man. What was more startling still was that he was dripping with paint. His face was almost obliterated by it, and it had run down his chest and onto his loins. But although the face was hardly recognisable, she knew it to be that of Mr. Raymond.

Looking about her at the chaos the room presented, realisation came, and it was frightening, and she told herself that she must get out of here and quick before . But she was too late, for through the open door now strode the enraged figure of the mistress, and Anna, swinging round and facing her, had a fleeting thought that told her she had never seen this woman other than mad, but never as mad as at this moment.

"You! You! How dare you! You were sent for to my office."

She was beginning, "I ... I didn't get any directions, mistress, so .

"

"Shut up! Shut that yapping, slimy mouth of yours!" She was advancing now, each step deliberate, and Anna steeled herself for the coming blow which she was sure was intended. But a yard or so from her the woman stopped, the words spewing out of her mouth: "Legal separation and ...

and then divorce, so your bastards would be recognised.

That's it, isn't it? But I'll see you in hell first! D'you hear? You brazen, black-haired bastard, you. "

The hand wasn't extended towards Anna but to the table to the side, and in a flash it slipped beneath a palette thick with an assortment of still-wet paints and although she knew what was about to happen, she wasn't quick enough in jumping aside. But the palette, missing her face, still came flat against her shoulder and chest. Then, as she screamed and thrust out her hands towards the woman, a heavy object hit her on the side of the head and she felt the liquid flowing over her face. She knew that the woman was screaming, and she was screaming too, but she was also sliding down into somewhere and the scream inside her head was telling her she mustn't let herself faint, because that woman might kill her.

As she felt her body hit the floor it seemed such a long time since she had first begun to fall; she knew that now there were more people screaming.

Unaware that she'd had her eyes shut, she now opened them to see the tall figure of Simon Brodrick pushing his wife against the wall. They were the

ones wno were screaming. She couldn't make out what either of them was yelling; but then she felt her own body jerk as she saw him lift a hand and catch his wife a blow across one side of her face, then lift it again and bring the back of it across her other cheek. She actually felt the impact when the woman seemed to bounce from the wall, and when next she saw him grip her by the shoulders and throw her onto the floor amid the torn canvasses, she again closed her eyes tightly.

A voice was crying, "Oh my God!" Then, "Anna! Anna! Wake up! Wake up!

Are you all right? No, no; of course you're not all right. Oh, my dear. "

She opened her eyes to look into Timothy's face now; and she became aware that there was another man bending towards her and Timothy saying to him, "Help me to get her up, Mulroy."

Then the housekeeper's voice came to her as if from a distance saying,

"The blood's coming from just above her ear, I think, sir."

They were leading her from the room now. There were more people in the corridor. She couldn't make out who they were: there was something spilling over her face. She seemed to be floating. She was floating:

she felt herself rising in the air;

then someone pulled her down and thrust her into some dark place . She became aware that she was lying on a bed. She knew the sun was shining because it was hitting her eyelids. There was someone standing near her, speaking. She recognised the voice as Mr. Timothy's. Dear Mr.

Timothy. She liked that man. He was saying, "When did you tell her that?" and the answer came, "Last night. I'd had enough. To make a show of herself like that with Raymond, and almost in front of my face

... man, it was impossible to bear. It's been under cover too long; it was bound to come out. So I told her, a legal separation and then divorce."