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"No. No, not at all, if you're feeling like that." And Nathaniel, looking at her, said, "Go, my dear. You need to rest."

She nodded towards Bobby, saying, "Goodnight." And he said,

"Good-night, Anna."

It was a good hour later when Cherry came into the bed. She was shivering and she said, "Are you asleep, Anna?" And she answered, "No, Cherry."

"Isn't it awful down there at nights?"

"Yes. Yes, it is."

"I dread coming home."

"I'm home all day, Cherry."

"Oh, yes, I know, Anna, yes, I know. And you've had a rough time of it. In all ways you've had a rough time of it. I said so to Bobby, and he said he doesn't know how you got through looking after them; I mean, Jimmy and then Ma, because Dada wouldn't be much use. Well, I mean, slops and all that."

Anna said nothing, and so they lay in silence for some time until Cherry said, "You don't talk like you used to, Anna. You're miles away most of the time, and' her voice broke now' and I've wanted to talk to you. I need to talk to you. Anna ... Anna."

"Yes? What is it?"

When Anna turned round in the bed. Cherry put her arms about her and laid her head on her shoulder and she muttered something, which Anna could not make out.

"What did you say?" she said.

Then when Cherry repeated it, Anna felt herself stiffen for a moment; and yet in a way she wasn't surprised. And so, all she said was, "When did

this happen? " and Cherry said, " One Sunday when I went down to see him. It was a nice room above the. Anna pulled herself away from her sister's hold, hissing now, "I don't want to know details; I mean, how long have you gone?"

"Nearly three months."

"Oh, my God! And they don't know? I mean, Ma?"

"No, no. I've wanted to tell you. Well, we didn't seem like we used to be, but I can understand, I can understand with what you've been through. But... but I ... I love Bobby, and he loves me."

"He's so young."

"That doesn't matter. There's only about a year between us. And he'll get on. Oh, he means to get on. And I can always work."

"Having a baby? Who's going to look after the baby?"

Anna closed her eyes rightly and the blackness of the room was shut out for a moment by a bright light that showed herself nursing a baby.

Cherry's baby, for Cherry would have to work, because they'd never be able to live on what Bobby earned. And there came again Jimmy's voice, urging, "Escape. Escape."

"What am I to do, Anna?"

"You know what you've got to do. You've got to tell them, and soon, and let them work it out for you. Now stop crying and try to go to sleep. You've got one comfort. Dada is very fond of Bobby, and Ma is, too. You'll have their approval, up to that point."

"Anna."

"Yes, dear?"

"You ... you wouldn't break it to them, would you?"

"No, I wouldn't."

"Oh, Anna, I'm ... I'm frightened. I'm ... I'm the only one that ..

well, has gone wrong and they'll be ashamed. "

"They can't be ashamed of you for doing what they did. Just look at it like that."

"The people in the village."

"Damn the people in the village. I've paid the people in the village for all of us. It wasn't for me alone, the degradation I was put to, it was against. Ma and Dada, paying them out for their daring to flout society, especially in a narrow village filled with narrow minds. Dada used to be always bragging that we were the happiest family in the county. That was because he had us all in this little nest; he knew that because of the stigma he had laid on us, we would never be able to fly far."

"Oh, Anna, Anna, fancy you thinking like that. I never thought you would turn against Dada. They did what they did because they were in love, and I understand now exactly how they felt."

"Shut up! Shut up! They only knew one kind of love. The same kind as you do. There are other kinds of love: sacrificing love; love that is shrivelled up through convention and the dirty tricks of fate and--'

She stopped suddenly and muttered, " I'm sorry. I'm sorry. " Then she turned on her side, only to turn quickly back again when Cherry said, "

It's a shame. I know you wanted to go with Mr. Simon, and you should have. And you wouldn't have been any the worse. "

"Cherry' it was a deep whisper 'if you don't shut up, you know what I'll do? I'll slap you across the face. I won't be able to stop myself. I had no intention of ever being Simon Brodrick's mistress.

Never! Never! Do you hear me? Even if I'd loved him desperately, I still wouldn't have become his mistress. "

"All right then; all right, you wouldn't, but I don't see now why you are blaming Ma and Dada for doing what they did. Anyway, if you want to know, people are saying the same thing about you and Mr. Timothy.

There! now you have it. And whether you are or not. "

Anna sprang from the bed, and yelled now at the top of her voice, "I am not sleeping with Mr. Timothy! or with anyone else. Do you hear me?

Do you hear me? "

In the deep silence that followed she heard the quick steps on the floorboards. Her parents, as usual, would have been sitting by the fire, hand in hand, before going to bed. And now the door burst open and her father, holding the lamp high, and from behind their mother, said, "What is it? What is it?"

Cherry was now sitting up in bed, her arms hugging her waist and rocking herself backwards and forwards as if she already had a baby in her arms.

"What were you yelling at? What was the matter?"

It was her mother that Anna now addressed. Still in a loud voice, she cried, "I am not sleeping with Mr. Timothy. Do you hear, Ma? I'm not sleeping with Mr. Timothy. I am not his mistress."

"No one said you were, daughter. No one said you were." Maria's voice was quiet. But Nathaniel seemed to ignore Anna's outburst for, after putting down the lamp on the wash-hand stand, he put his arm around Cherry's shoulder, saying, "What is it, dear? What is it? What's the matter?"

When Cherry shook her head, Anna cried, "Tell them! This is your opportunity. Tell them!"

"Tell us what?"

When Cherry still continued to shake her head, Maria came to Anna's side and said, "What is the matter? What has she to tell us?"

"Only that she's going to have a baby. Now, is that any surprise to you, Ma?"

Anna watched her father straighten his back; she watched her mother move slowly and stand beside him, and it was she who said, "Is this true, girl?"

And Cherry, falling back on to the pillow, said, "Yes, Ma. Yes, it's true."

"Well, well!" Nathaniel looked at Maria and she at him. And now Maria, putting her hand out, said, "Come on. Get up, and tell us about it."

Their reception of the news seemed to deflate Anna completely. She suddenly sat down on the wooden chair to the side of the bed, and her mother turned to her and said, "Put a coat round you, dear, and come along; we must talk about this."

A few minutes later the four of them were seated round the fire again, but now Cherry's head was resting on her father's shoulder and his arm was around her and what he was saying was, "Don't worry, dear. The first thing we must do is get you married. There's only one problem. He's a good boy, and I like him. But you can't, as you said, go down there and live above that boathouse. What you must do is to come home. After all, this has been his home for many months now. So that's what I think you must do. Isn't that so, Maria? "

And Maria agreed.

"Yes, dear, yes," she said;

then added, "It'll be good to have a child about the house again."

Anna closed her eyes and there was the white light: there she was, nursing the baby, but added to the scene now was her mother talking to Cherry, and her father in deep conversation with Bobby. Of a sudden she was so tired that she couldn't even hear the voice of Jimmy's urging, "Escape. Escape."

But she heard Jimmy's voice loud and clear on the Saturday evening when the boys came home. She could see immediately that they were excited, and when Oswald began with, "I know, Ma and Dada, it's not so long ago since we lost Jimmy, but you see I had me news before that to tell you.

Well, it's just this; I'm engaged to Carrie; you know, Mrs. Simpson's daughter, and you'll never guess what. Mrs. Simpson's taken me into partnership, and Olan an' all."

"But ... but I thought she was much older than you, Oswald?" This was Maria speaking.

"Yes, Ma, she's ... she's all of five years. But I care deeply for her and she me, and she doesn't look her age and she's young in her ways.

Anyway, there it is. What d'you think?"

It was his father who answered, "I think it's very good news, excellent news, Oswald, and I'm delighted for you. And it's a marvelous opportunity you're being offered, because from what I saw of that place it should prosper."

"It is, Dada, it is already prospering, but it will do more so. We can open up another place; we've got it all planned."

Nathaniel now looked from one to the other as he said, "The saying is, never one door closes but another opens. And it's true in this case.

The house will know a family again, and children. Cherry's and Bobby's will be brought up here and yours when they come, Oswald, will make our weekends bright. It's something to look forward to. Don't you think so, Maria? "

"Yes. Yes, I do, Nathaniel.

"Tis something to look forward to."

"Well, let's drink to it. Go and bring out the elderberry, Anna."

Anna went into the kitchen and from the floor in the stone pantry she picked up a bottle of elderberry wine and, taking it into the kitchen, she placed it on the draining board where also stood a tallow candle in a tin holder. And she stared at it for a long while before she spoke to it, saying, "I hear you. Jimmy, my dear, I hear you. I'll wait till Monday."

The sun was shining, but weakly. There had been a heavy frost and there was the smell of snow in the air. She had milked the goats, and then cleaned out the goat house and the chickens; she had tidied the hay bales in the barn; she had brushed Neddy; and finally had swept down the whole yard.

At twelve o'clock she joined her parents for the mid-day bite, when her father said, "I shouldn't be a bit surprised to see it snow before the day's out, so I think there'd better be some more logs cut. Eh?"

He had looked at her, and she had returned his look and said, "I'm sorry, Dada, but I'm going visiting this afternoon."

Maria was all attention now, but she didn't speak; it was her father who asked, "Is he back then?"

"Yes, he was due back yesterday."

Now Maria did speak. With her head lowered, she said, "Wouldn't it be better if you waited for him to call?"

"Not in this case, Ma."

"What case, daughter?" Nathaniel was looking hard at her and his voice was curt; and after a moment she said, There is something on my mind.

I have a question to ask him. "

"Well, I've always answered your questions up to now. Can't you ask me?"

"No." She smiled a tight smile.

"Not in this case, Dada." As she rose from the bench at the end of the table Nathaniel said, as if to no-one in particular, "The log-pile's going down fast. It always does in this weather, and when they come in from their work it's comforting to see a big glow."

"Yes, it is." She nodded at him and only just stopped herself from adding, "So you should spend more time down on the block instead of reading."

In her room, she stood against the closed door for a moment and muttered aloud, "How blind one can be!" She had never realised, all these years, that her father was lazy where actual work was concerned.

Of course, it was different when he was dealing with book-work, for that to him was important.

It was a full twenty minutes later when she emerged from the room, to be greeted by a gasp from Maria and her saying, "Oh, no! Anna; you're not flouting convention to that extent, going into grey."

"My cloak is dark, Ma."

"Your cloak reaches only just below your knees, girl."

"Ma." She walked up to her mother and, standing close to her, she looked straight into her face as she said, "Has it ever dawned upon you that I ceased to be a girl some time ago, and only a matter of days ago stepped into my twenty-first year."

"You are twenty, not twenty-one."

"I said I had stepped into my twenty-first year, Ma. And one is considered to have left girlhood at

twenty. I would have thought you, above all people, would be aware of that. "

"What's come over you?"

"Nothing's come over me, Ma, that hasn't come over you and Dada."

"Oh, girl, you used to be so pleasant to have in the house, but not any more. Anyway, let's hope that when the baby comes you'll feel different."

Anna's face actually stretched, and then she laughed and the sound finished on a "Huh!" before she turned about and, saying, "I certainly shall," went out.

She avoided the stile road, for she felt she would never again be able to face that way. She crossed the edge of the moor, then followed the bridle path that led on to the coach road. This way put two thirds of a mile on to her journey, but she didn't mind that. Moreover, there was less chance of meeting anyone, especially at this time of the day.

When she finally turned into the drive it was to see the carriage standing in front of the house. And when Walters answered her ringing of the doorbell he exclaimed, "Why! Miss. How d'you do? You're just in time; the master was for visiting you."

"Oh! Anna. Anna."

She turned quickly to look up the stairs to see Timothy descending, his hands outstretched.

"I was just about to drive to see you. Come in. Come in. Oh' he turned to Walters - 'bring my case in from the coach, will you, Walters, please?" Then helping Anna off with her cloak, he said, "Oh, it is wonderful to see you again. It seems years, but it's just over a fortnight. Give me your hat."

He took the hat from her as she was about to press the hat ping back into it, and he said, "Where do you stick this?"