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He took another sip from his cup; then smiled wryly as he said, "Life is a strange affair, isn't it, Anna, for all peoples, rich and poor alike? The poor think if only they had money they would be happy and all their troubles would be at an end; the rich think if only they were free from responsibilities, if they hadn't to spend so much money on the upkeep of big houses and large staffs, if they hadn't to keep up appearances with their neighbours, how simple life would be. Then there are people like me who say why have I been afflicted like this?

Why should it have happened to me? But of late, I have come to think there is a pattern in life, a certain plan. You know, Anna' his face brightened now 'if I had never had the seizure in that field, and you hadn't been sawing wood at that particular time, we would never have met and I wouldn't be sitting here with you now. Instead, I should have gone on being aware of the emptiness in my life. But since you've come into it, my dear, and have become my friend, the whole aspect has changed. "

"Oh, my dear Tim." She smiled at him now, and there was a little quirk to her lips as she said, "You talk just like my father."

"Well, I could have been."

"Don't be silly."

"There's nothing silly about it. There are seventeen- year-old fathers. You, I think I am right in saying, are nineteen, aren't you?"

"Yes, well, just about. And you?"

"Well, I am thirty-six, thirty-seven ... just about' and he laughed 'so I am in a position to have been your father."

She looked into his kind, attractive face, the wide mouth showing a row of white teeth, two of which, she knew, were detachable, the deep blue eyes, the thick brown hair, and she repeated to herself the feeling he had recently expressed: why had he been afflicted like this?

He was saying now, "You will marry some day, and likely soon, but I would like to think, Anna,

. *. *>. Yviiui-vci iic is ne win accept. / His voice was cut off here by Nathaniel coming into the room, followed by Ben who, running up to Timothy, cried "It's a beautiful horse, sir. I like horses. He let me stroke him."

"Did he? Well, you are indeed favoured because he's an old aristocrat, that one. He'll never see twenty again but he is very particular as to whom he allows to take liberties with him, such as stroke him."

The boy smiled at him, then looked up at his father and his smile widened.

With Maria's entry into the room the conversation became general and after a short while Timothy, rising to his feet, said, "I always outstay my welcome when I come to this house. It is unpardonable of me, yet you are all to blame. But I must away now."

Goodbyes were said and Anna's last words to him were, "And come back soon." To which he replied, "I will. Have no fear of that," then went out accompanied by Nathaniel and the boy.

Maria went to the window and, looking out, said, "There he goes. God help him! What an affliction to have and he such a gentleman. A life ruined and no prospect."

"Oh, Ma, I don't think he needs to be so pitied. He writes, and he grows his orchids, and he reads a great deal."

"What's that for a man of his standing' she turned 'when he'll never have a woman in his life?"

As Anna watched her pick up the tray and make her way towards the kitchen, her mind confirmed that her mother's words were true: he would never have a woman in his life . Two days later, the sun was shining, the air was warm, and Maria said, There's a turn in the weather. If it keeps like this tomorrow we'll wash the bedding.

There's nothing like it being dried in the sun. "

Then she added, "Why don't you go for a little stroll, you look pea ky

Take Ben and go along the quarry road. See how far they've got with their railing us in. I wonder how your dada is faring in Fellburn, and what advice he'll get from Parson Mason. Oh, I do wish Miss Netherton was here. She has friends in the legal world. She would see to it.

They expected her home last week. "

"Well, Farmer Billings might be able to do something, because if they bring the fencing any further he won't be able to get his cattle from one field to another. Jimmy said he was blazing mad yesterday."

"Blazing mad won't help much. It's a law man we should have to see to this business. Anyway, go for a stroll. Ben's out digging his patch;

call him. But I'd put a coat on, the wind can be keen along there, coming from over the moor. "

Anna made no protest. She took an old coat from behind the door, put it on and went out. Her mother, she knew, was uneasy, worried about what was going to happen when the fencing was finally completed. She wondered why Simon Brodrick, knowing how it would curtail their liberty, had not spoken of it. But of course, it was his brother who was in charge and so he would likely have no say in the matter. Cherry said Praggett was acting as if he were building the mar wnoever tie is he will accept. " His voice was cut off here by Nathaniel coming into the room, followed by Ben who, running up to Timothy, cried " It's a beautiful horse, sir. I like horses. He let me stroke him. "

"Did he? Well, you are indeed favoured because he's an old aristocrat, that one. He'll never see twenty again but he is very particular as to whom he allows to take liberties with him, such as stroke him."

The boy smiled at him, then looked up at his father and his smile widened.

With Maria's entry into the room the conversation became general and after a short while Timothy, rising to his feet, said, "I always outstay my welcome when I come to this house. It is unpardonable of me, yet you are all to blame. But I must away now."

Goodbyes were said and Anna's last words to him were, "And come back soon." To which he replied, "I will. Have no fear of that," then went out accompanied by Nathaniel and the boy.

Maria went to the window and, looking out, said, "There he goes. God help him! What an affliction to have and he such a gentleman. A life ruined and no prospect."

"Oh, Ma, I don't think he needs to be so pitied. He writes, and he grows his orchids, and he reads a great deal."

"What's that for a man of his standing' she turned 'when he'll never have a woman in his life?"

As Anna watched her pick up the tray and make her way towards the kitchen, her mind confirmed that her mother's words were true: he would never have a woman in his life . Two days later, the sun was shining, the air was warm, and Maria said, There's a turn in the weather. If it keeps like this tomorrow we'll wash the bedding.

There's nothing like it being dried in the sun. "

Then she added, "Why don't you go for a little stroll, you look pea ky

Take Ben and go along the quarry road. See how far they've got with their railing us in. I wonder how your dada is faring in Fellburn, and what advice he'll get from Parson Mason. Oh, I do wish Miss Netherton was here. She has friends in the legal world. She would see to it.

They expected her home last week. "

"Well, Farmer Billings might be able to do something, because if they bring the fencing any further he won't be able to get his cattle from one field to another. Jimmy said he was blazing mad yesterday."

"Blazing mad won't help much. It's a law man we should have to see to this business. Anyway, go for a stroll. Ben's out digging his patch;

call him. But I'd put a coat on, the wind can be keen along there, coming from over the moor. "

Anna made no protest. She took an old coat from behind the door, put it on and went out. Her mother, she knew, was uneasy, worried about what was going to happen when the fencing was finally completed. She wondered why Simon Brodrick, knowing how it would curtail their liberty, had not spoken of it. But of course, it was his brother who was in charge and so he would likely have no say in the matter. Cherry said Praggett was acting as if he were building the Koman wall all over again. He was a spiteful man, that Mr.

Praggett.

"Ben! Ben!" she called.

"Are you coming for a walk?"

The boy stopped digging and looked towards her.

"Where?" he asked.

"Oh, as far as we can go along the quarry top." She walked over to him, adding, "They can't take that away from us."

The boy stuck his spade into the ground, rubbed his hands on the back of his corduroy pants, then, looking up at her, he said, "Must you?"

"Must I what?"

"Well, go for a walk?"

"No, I mustn't; but I would like to." She smiled at him.

"But go on with your digging if you don't want to come."

"Oh, I want to be with you, Anna. I'll come."

As they walked towards the gate she said to him, "You're always the one for walks; what's the matter? Aren't you feeling well?"

"I'm all right, but I was turning the ground over to set my potatoes; but it doesn't matter, they'll be set. "

"I think if you were setting them in June you would still have a better crop than Dada's. Every thing you set grows. You have green fingers."

He held out his hands towards her, saying, "Green fingers! My nails are in mourning."

She smiled now, saying, "Before you were born Ma always examined our nails before a meal, and if they were dirty she would say just that:

"Your poor hands are in mourning. Go and lift the blinds." They walked side by side along the quarry top, past the narrow way and on to where the quarry itself petered out with only a four-foot drop from the path, which a little further on merged into the moor.

"Look! They've stopped the fencing by the side of the beet field,"

said Ben, pointing. Then suddenly he cried out, "Look! Anna," and when she followed his pointing finger she couldn't believe what she was seeing: "Can't be!" she said.

"Can't be! Oh no!"

They ran now to the actual end of the path and she shouted, "Andrew!

Andrew! "

The little figure in the far distance stopped for a moment, then came scrambling towards her, and as she herself ran to meet him her mind was exclaiming. Oh my God! How has he got this far?

"Oh! Missanna. Missanna." He was clinging to her, his face awash with tears.

"I've been looking for you, but this wasn't the way the carriage came.

Oh! Missanna. Missanna. Come back. Please come back."

"Oh my dear!" She lifted the child up in her arms and stumbled back across the uneven ground to the path. There she put him down, and said to Ben, "We'll have to get word to the house. They'll be looking for him."

"No; I don't want the house, Missanna. I hid from Peggy; I want to stay with you."

"I could run to Miss Netherton's; Mr. Stoddart will still be looking after the horse and trap."

"All right. Well, let's go back, and you do that. Come on, Andrew.

Come on. "

They had started out, almost at a run, when again it was Ben who stopped them, saying, "Listen!" Then turning round he said, "Look!"

And there galloping across the moor came two riders, and it was the child who gave name to the first one: "It is Mama, Missanna.

"Tis Mama. I don't want to go back. May I ... may I stay with you?"

"Be quiet, Andrew. Be quiet."

As the two horses drew almost to a skidding stop within a few feet of them, Anna had to grab the two children and jump back, and her arms around them, she glared up at the woman who now glared down at her, hissing, but almost under her breath, "How dare you! How dare you! You steal my husband and now you have taken my child."

"I have only this moment found the boy; he was wandering!" Anna yelled back at her.

"You told him when to come, and how to come." Her voice had risen; then jerking her head to the side, she cried, "Pick the boy up!

McBride. "

As Anna watched the man jump from his horse she realised it wasn't the McBride she knew. And when he put his hands on the boy's shoulders the child kicked out at him, crying, "No! No! I want to stay with Missanna. Please, please. Mama, I want to stay with Missanna."

It was as the child broke free from the man and made to run to the side which would have taken him under the horse's head that Ben, quickly thrusting out his hand, pulled him away.

What took place next was hard to define: whether it was the woman cracking her whip or pulling on the horse, or the two children together startling the horse, it reared, and instinctively Anna pulled the child clear. But what happened to Ben occurred so quickly that at the time she had no comprehension of it; only later did the picture come into her mind:

it seemed that Ben had remained just where he was and when the hoof came down on the side of his head and lifted him in the air and over the edge into the shallow dip of the quarry, she felt she had witnessed it all before; even to what took place next, when she sprang at the woman, aiming to tear her from the saddle and the whip came down across the side of her face, blinding her for a moment. Then she heard her own voice screaming and she was struggling to get away from the man's hold. She saw the woman dismount, go to the edge of the dip and say,

"He's moving. He's only stunned." She was still screaming when the woman remounted and the man let go of her and lifted the crying and thrashing child into his mother's arms.

When she looked over the edge of the quarry to see the still form of her brother lying crumpled among the stones, she cried, "Oh my God!"

And the man pulled his horse to a halt and looked back at her as if he were going to dismount again, then changed his mind and rode after his mistress.

She scrambled down the bank now and lifted Ben's head onto her arm, crying, "Ben! Ben! Come on! Come on! Wake up!" She patted his cheek, beseeching him, "Wake up! Wake up!" But when his head fell limply to the side she cried aloud, "No, God! No!" Then standing up, she bent over and lifted the boy into her arms; but then found she was unable to climb the short bank with him.

So she leant her body forward against the bank and placed him on the footpath above; then drew herself up beside him and picked him up again. And now, staggering like someone drunk, for he was no light weight, she carried him back along the path, through the gate, and there she started yelling, "Ma! Ma!"