Red Sky in the Morning (12 page)

‘That’s not true, Bertha—’

Bertha’s tone was vitriolic. ‘Isn’t it? You’re off up that track two or three times a day and you don’t come back for an hour or more. And don’t try telling
me you’re with your sheep all that time, ’cos most of ’em are down here in the barn or the yard. I bet you’re off up there to watch her feeding her kid. Getting an eyeful,
are ya? Disgusting, that’s what you are.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘Disgusting.’

Tony’s head hung lower as he felt the colour creep up his own face. He’d watched Anna feeding little Maisie. He’d not thought it wrong. So was he ‘disgusting’ as
well, then, in his mother’s eyes?

He’d not go to the cottage again, he vowed silently. He didn’t want to upset his mam – didn’t want her to think that about him. And he didn’t want to see the baby
any more. Not if his dad was going to love her more than him. Yet he liked going to see Anna and the puppy, and the baby, too, if he was truthful. He’d helped name the little girl. He’d
begun to feel she belonged to him a little bit as well. But his mam was so angry. Angry at his dad, angry because the girl was even there. It seemed to him that she hated Anna and the little baby.
But he still couldn’t understand what his mam meant when she said the baby was his dad’s.

The young boy, with a tumult of emotions going on inside his head that he couldn’t really understand or rationalize, pushed the food around his plate and chewed each mouthful round and
round, unable to swallow for the lump in his throat.

‘You all right, lass?’ It was Eddie’s voice shouting through the front door.

Anna climbed down the ladder and stepped into the water. She pulled open the door and smiled a welcome. As Eddie stepped inside, she said, ‘We’re fine. Managing to keep warm and
dry.’

‘Pat wants to come and see you. Check on you and the bairn, but—’

‘Tell her not to worry till this lot’s gone. We’re all right. Honestly.’

Eddie nodded, but the worried look never left his eyes.

‘There’s something else, isn’t there?’ Anna said.

Eddie smiled ruefully. ‘I don’t think Tony’ll be coming to see you any more. His – his mam’s put a stop to it.’

‘Well, I expected that. I’m sorry, though. I’ll miss him.’

‘Aye, an’ I reckon he’ll miss you. He keeps asking about you and Maisie, but—’ His voice trailed away.

‘But what?’ Anna prompted.

Eddie sighed. ‘Oh, nothing really.’ He didn’t want to tell Anna about the full extent of Bertha’s spite, though he knew she would guess most of it.

Her presence in the cottage was causing Eddie Appleyard all sorts of problems that he had not foreseen when he had brought the girl home that night. He hadn’t known what he was doing, he
thought wryly, in more ways than one!

But, despite it all, not for one moment did he regret that Anna had come into his life.

It was late the following afternoon when Anna heard movement outside the cottage and then someone hammering on the front door at the bottom of the ladder. She climbed down and
stood near the door, but did not open it.

‘Who is it?’ she called.

‘Me,’ came Tony’s voice. She pulled open the door, rippling the water further into the cottage.

The boy was breathless from wading through the flood to reach her.

‘What are you doing here? You shouldn’t—’

‘Me dad sent me,’ he interrupted. ‘He ses can you come down to the farm? He needs help and he ses I’m not big enough to do it.’ For a moment, the boy’s mouth
was a disgruntled pout and there was resentment in his eyes as he looked at her, as if she was personally to blame for taking the place he believed was rightfully his. ‘He’s got two
ewes dropping at once and they’re both difficult. He needs help and I can’t get to the village—’

‘Of course I’ll come, but I’ll just have to get Maisie wrapped up warm—’

‘Dad said not to take her.’ His head drooped sulkily. ‘I – I’m to stay with her, he said.’

Anna bit her lip, uncertain whether to trust the boy in his present mood, though she really had no choice. Eddie Appleyard had been good to her. In fact, he had probably saved her life and that
of her child. She couldn’t refuse his plea for help.

‘All right then. She’s just been fed, so she’ll be all right for some time and she’s asleep. But don’t touch the stove, will you?’

‘Course I won’t,’ he said, vexed that she could doubt his common sense.

She followed him up the ladder and dressed herself quickly in the warmest clothing she had, then, with a last glance at her child, she descended the ladder again and left the cottage. Once out
of the water, she hurried up the track towards the farm. She was gratified to find that she had almost recovered from the birth of her child. She was not quite as strong as normal, but youth had
helped her to heal quickly.

She paused at the top of the hill to look down at the farm below her. In the low-lying parts of the land, water stood in small lakes, and as she set off down the track she could see that part of
Eddie’s yard too was under water. As she waded through it to reach the barn, she glanced apprehensively towards the farmhouse, hoping that Bertha would not catch sight of her.

She reached the huge barn door, pulled it open and stepped inside. There were two makeshift pens at one end with straw bales where Eddie could attend to the ewes in labour. Anna pushed her way
through the flock, patting a head here, stroking a woolly back there until she reached him.

‘I’ve got a bad one here,’ Eddie said. ‘Breech and I reckon it’s twins.’ Then he nodded towards the ewe in the next pen. ‘I want you to have a go at
that one. The forelegs are presented but there’s no sign of the head. Do you know what to do?’

Anna nodded. ‘I think so. Push it back very gently and try to manipulate the head into line with the forelegs?’

Eddie gave a quick smile. ‘That’s it. Your hands are smaller than mine. Tony tried, but his wrist wasn’t quite strong enough.’

As she squatted down beside the ewe, Anna smiled ruefully. ‘He’s not very happy at me taking his place.’

‘I’ll talk to him later. At the moment I’ve more to think about than Tony having a mardy.’

There was silence between Eddie and Anna as they struggled to help the ewes. The only noise the bleating from thirty or so sheep.

‘There!’ Anna said triumphantly, as the lamb slithered safely from its mother. Swiftly she cleaned its mouth. ‘It’s not breathing, Eddie.’ But without waiting for
instruction, Anna bent her head close to the tiny creature and blew into its mouth. After a few attempts she looked up, smiling. ‘It’s fine now.’

‘Well done, lass. Mind you dry it well and don’t forget to see to the navel.’

‘How are you doing?’

‘Not good. I think I could lose this ewe. She’s quite old and, like I thought, it was twins. I’ve got them both and they’re OK, but she’s not cleansing
properly.’ He shook his head sadly and ruffled the sheep’s coat. ‘Poor old lass. You’ve given me a lot of healthy lambs, though, in your time, haven’t you?’

‘Mine’s all right. She’s cleansed and I’ve checked her udders. Do you think she’d take one of those lambs?’

Eddie looked doubtful. ‘I’d sooner rear these by the bottle and let her feed her own. One strong lamb’s much better than two weaker ones. Mind you,’ he said, scratching
his head thoughtfully, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to cope. I’ve two lambs in the house already and Bertha won’t have owt to do with them. Tony’s been looking
after them, but now the snow’s gone he’ll have to go back to school. The lane to Wintersby village isn’t too bad with flood water.’

‘I could take them home with me,’ Anna offered.

In the warm cosiness of the barn, they looked at each other. In the soft glow of the lamplight, Eddie marvelled at the girl’s beauty. Her eyes were dark pools and in the light from the
lamp her skin was a golden colour. And, it was not lost on either of them that she had referred to the tumbledown cottage as ‘home’. Tremulously, Anna smiled. ‘I’ve nothing
else to do – apart from looking after Maisie – and I could manage to carry them up the ladder.’

‘Well, if you’re sure, it would help if you could take at least one. I’ll bring you bottles and everything you’ll need for feeding.’

He glanced at the ewe near Anna. ‘Tell you what,’ he said, suddenly coming to a decision, ‘Let’s risk it. She’s young and healthy. Let’s try her with one of
’em and then you can feed the other. If we can get hers and one of these twins to suckle, we might trick her into thinking she’s had the pair of them.’

Eddie picked up one of the lambs and passed it over to Anna, who rubbed some of the adoptive mother’s afterbirth fluids over the orphan. She gave it to the ewe to lick first and kept the
animal’s own offspring back from her until she had accepted the other lamb.

‘That’s it,’ Eddie murmured, not needing to give advice and amazed, yet again, at the young girl’s knowledge.
She’s been brought up on a farm
, he thought
briefly.
She must have been. And she’s been taught well.

It wasn’t until late at night that both lambs were suckling contentedly. Anna stood up and eased her aching limbs. She glanced towards the other pen, an unspoken question on her face.
Eddie shook his head. ‘Gone, I’m afraid,’ he said of the ewe and sighed.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. Then she glanced around the barn. ‘If there’s nothing else I can do, Eddie, I’ll be getting back. Maisie must be hungry by now
and—’

‘Another minute won’t hurt, love. Here, sit down and have a drink first. There’s a flask of tea I brought out somewhere. Ah, here it is. I reckon we’ve earned
this.’

They sat side by side, leaning against a bale of straw, and sipped the warm, sweet tea gratefully.

‘What a night,’ Eddie murmured. ‘I couldn’t have managed without you, lass.’

‘We’ve still lost a ewe, though,’ she said sadly.

‘Aye, but I’d likely have lost more if you hadn’t been here.’ He bit his lip, wanting to ask her about her past, wanting to ask how she knew so much about sheep, but he
held back the words, knowing that if he so much as mentioned the subject, she would withdraw into silence.

Anna was sitting watching the newborn lambs, a gentle smile on her face. ‘Isn’t it wonderful—?’ she was beginning when the big door of the barn opened and they looked up
to see Bertha standing there.

‘Eddie? Where are you? Oh, there you are. What do you mean by keeping Tony up all night?’ At that moment, she became aware that it was not Tony sitting beside Eddie, but the girl.
‘You! What the hell are you doing here?’ She glanced around the barn. ‘And where’s Tony?’

Eddie sighed and struggled to his feet. Wearied by the night’s events, the last thing he needed was a confrontation with Bertha. But there was no way out this time. Flatly, he said,
‘We’ve had two difficult births and Tony couldn’t help so I sent him to fetch Anna.’

‘Oh aye,’ Bertha said sarcastically. ‘Any excuse.’

‘It’s not an excuse, Bertha. It’s the truth. She’s saved me a lamb and possibly a ewe as well, to say nothing of getting this ewe to adopt—’

‘Never mind all that. Where’s Tony?’

‘Looking after Maisie.’

‘Maisie?’ Bertha glanced around the sheep. ‘Which one’s Maisie?’

Eddie almost laughed aloud, but the thought of what was going to come in the next few seconds killed his laughter. ‘Maisie is Anna’s baby.’

For a brief moment Bertha stared at him in disbelief. ‘You – you’ve sent him up there to look after this trollop’s bastard?’

‘Bertha—’ Eddie began, but his wife was in full flow. ‘Well, that takes the biscuit, that does. I’ve heard it all now. I must be the laughing stock of the village.
You and your carryings on. For two pins I’d pack me bags and go.’ She wagged her forefinger at Eddie. ‘And take Tony with me. But I’m not going to, ’cos that’s
just what you’d like me to do, isn’t it? And then you could set up home with your fancy piece here. Well, you aren’t going to get what you want, ’cos I’m staying put.
I’m not going to see my son done out of his rightful inheritance. Oh no!’

‘Bertha, you’ve got it all wrong.’

‘Oh, I don’t think so. I’m not blind. But you’ve a nerve, Eddie Appleyard. Parading your love child for all the world to see as if you’re proud—’

‘The child isn’t his,’ Anna said huskily. ‘What he’s told you is true. He’d never met me before that night he brought me here. Why won’t you believe
him?’

Bertha stepped closer and thrust her face close to Anna’s. ‘’Cos I know men. Dirty buggers. Only after one thing.’ She prodded a vicious finger into Anna’s stomach.
‘
You
ought to know that.’

Even in the half-light, Eddie could see that Anna’s face had turned white.

‘That’s enough, Bertha. There’s no call to say such things to Anna.’

‘I’ve every right. She’s no better than a whore and a marriage-wrecker and, mark my words, if the old customs still survived, I’d have her ran-tan-tanned out of here.
Yes, that’s what I’d do, I’d get the whole village up against her.’

‘I’ll go,’ Anna murmured and picked up the lamb.

‘Yes, you go. Get out of my sight and off my boy’s land. The quicker you and your bastard leave the better.’

‘You’d best go on home,’ Eddie said in a low voice. ‘I’ll bring all the paraphernalia you’ll need for feeding.’

As Anna moved away towards the barn door, she could feel the woman’s malevolent gaze following her like a knife in her back. And as she hurried across the yard and up the track, her heart
was pounding.
We’ll go
, she promised herself.
As soon as the flood waters have gone and the weather improves, we’ll go.

It wasn’t until she reached the cottage that she began to breathe easily again.

Tony was peering down from the upstairs. ‘What happened?’ he asked eagerly. ‘Is everything all right?’

Huskily, Anna told him, ‘I’m afraid we lost a ewe, but she gave us two healthy lambs. Here.’ She began to climb the ladder, holding up the lamb. ‘Take this one. We
managed to get the other ewe, which only had one lamb, to take one of the orphans and I’m going to look after this one.’

Tony took the lamb and held it close. ‘Why?’ he asked and his eyes were belligerent once more. ‘I can look after it. I’ve already got two at home.’