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Come in. Come in. You've caught me napping, really napping. Frances`--she was calling softly along a passage now--`we have a visitor. Come here.`

Daniel was in the sitting-room when Frances appeared at the door, and her manner to him seemed slightly offhand as she said, Òh, hello, Daniel. Are you lost?`

Àlmost`--he smiled at her--`but I'll be all right; Rustler knows his way back home,` which caused general laughter.

`How's Moira?àsked Mrs Talbot now, and he answered, Òh, much better, stronger.`

`Brave woman that, brave woman. Always a cheery word and a smile. I don't know how she does it with that crowd about her; it would drive me mad. Well, now that you're here, what about a cup of tea?`

He wasn't very fond of tea but he would have drunk anything to prolong his time with Frances, and so his answer was quite eager: Òh, yes, yes, Mrs Talbot, that would be very nice. Thank you.Às Lilian Talbot went from the room she exclaimed to no-one in particular, `Mr Talbot is upstairs having his once-a-week nap; I won't disturb him.` Then, after she had disappeared from their view, her voice came to them, calling from the hall, `Luke! that bird of yours is making for the road. You'd better come and rescue it.`

Òh.` Luke laughed now as he went

towards the door, echoing his mother's words, 107 `That bird of yours; why mine?`

Left alone with Daniel, Frances now sat at one end of the couch, and when Daniel still stood she said,

`You may sit down and wait until the tea comes; we don't charge for waiting.`

He did not consider the remark at all frivolous, like something Maggie Ann would voice, but he smiled, and for a moment was tempted to sit on the couch beside her, but decided that would be going too fast and be out of place at the moment, and so he made for a chair opposite her. When he was seated she asked, `You never managed to get to the market?`

`No; no, I didn't. But it wasn't for want of trying.`

Òh. So why didn't you make it?`

Ì was told I was needed in the yard. Apparently the yard cannot get on without my presence there.`

She smiled at him quietly; then her head bowed and her voice low, she said, Ì ... I was silly the other day; I mean, when I was with Janie. As Janie said, I was forward.`

With some gallantry he replied, Ìf that's

what you call forward I would welcome you being forward at any time; in fact, I'd look forward to it.`

Her head came up and she laughed a free laugh, one that almost resembled Moira's, then she said, `You talk so politely, Daniel, sometimes as if you were reading it out of a book. Oh. Oh`--she closed her eyes tightly now as she saw his colour change--`you're blushing, and it's because I've embarrassed you. It's my silly tongue. I ... I don't mean it.` She leant towards him now, her forearms on her knees, her hands joined. Ì ... I want to say the right things but they never come out. I know I sound silly and forward--`

`No, you don't; to me you could never sound silly.`

They were staring at each other in silence when Luke returned, saying, Ì've had to put it in a pen;` then immediately added, Òh, by the way, I saw Ray Melton. Isn't that his name? I met him at your house one Christmas and he remembered me and he asked after you, and he did say he was going to look you up, because his family are moving to Durham and he'd be much nearer to you.

His people seem well off, judging by the way 109 he was dressed and the carriage he was in. That was later, when I saw him in it with his parents. Well, I think they were his parents.`

`Yes, they are tolerably well off; they have grocery shops.`

`Tolerably well off, you say;ànd Luke laughed. Ì wouldn't mind if we were ... as tolerably well off. And it's a pity you aren't too: you were going to be a doctor, weren't you?`

Òh,`--Daniel's chin jerked nonchalantly--`that was just a dream.`

`Do you think you'll like being a farmer?`

`Yes; yes, I'm getting to like it. You have a different feel about it when you are actually doing the work.`

Ì'll say. I'll say.` Then, as his mother came into the room carrying a large tray of tea things, he added, Òh, here's the drink that puts leather in your guts.`

`Luke!`

Àll right, Ma, all right ...`

The drinking of the tea and the eating of the buttered scones took half an hour; then Daniel knew it was time to take his leave, so, rising, he said, Ì'd better be on my way or Rustler will have your front gate down. He hates being tied up. But I have enjoyed the tea, Mrs Talbot, and my visit altogether.`

`Well, you must do it more often. We never seem to see any of you now.` Then turning to her daughter, she said, `Go on, Frances, and walk with Daniel down to the turnpike. No further, mind; don't go on to the road.` Then bringing her attention to Daniel again, she said, `See that she doesn't go on to the road, will you, Daniel? And send her straight back.`

Without answering, he smiled as he turned to Luke, saying, `We'll be bumping into each other in the market soon,ànd Luke said, `Yes; yes, we will an' all.`

`Goodbye, Mrs Talbot; and thank you again for the tea.`

`Well, Daniel, I can only repeat, you can have that tea whenever you have a mind to call in for it.Àgain he smiled, adding, Ì'll take you at your word, Mrs Talbot,às he followed Frances from the room.

After untying the reins of the horse from the 111 gate, he walked him along the path with Frances by his side.

Within forty yards or so of the house they had to pass through an area of woodland, before emerging on to a broader stretch of road that led to what had once been a toll gate, to the side of which stood the ruins of a cottage and, beyond, the coach road.

Until now they had walked in embarrassed silence, but here they turned and looked at each other, and it was she who spoke first, saying, `Will you be riding this way every Sunday?`

Òh no,`--he shook his head--`not riding. I'm only riding today because Father has sprained his ankle.

He doesn't usually let me near Rustler. But he hasn't been exercised for some days now.`

`Couldn't you ride one of your other horses? You have more, haven't you?`

`Yes; yes, I suppose so. But I also have a pair of legs.` He looked downwards, and she too looked at his legs, his long legs, and she laughed as he said, Ì suppose I could use them to get this far; it must be all of two miles.`

Suddenly she thrust out a hand to him, and he gripped it and their gaze held. Then quickly turning from him, she picked up the front of her long dress and ran back down the road. At the wood she turned and waved, and he responded, then with almost a spring he mounted the horse, jumped it on to the road over a broad ditch that was bridged by wooden planks, and galloped it all the way back to the house.

But he did not see Frances the next Sunday, nor for a number of Sundays following, because little Catherine took the croup; and what was worse, Margaret and Annie both developed whooping cough.

Sean had already had whooping cough but they hadn't needed to call the doctor. However, Margaret became so ill that Moira insisted Hector send for him, and he pronounced that indeed Margaret was ill, and that they had to watch out for pneumonia because, as everybody knew, that could be fatal. Oh, yes, yes. Dr Swift had wiped the saliva from his grey moustache and repeated, Yes, that could indeed be fatal. Did they happen to have any ale in the house? The best thing to do at present would be to make it hot

by sticking a poker into it, add some ginger and 113 gentian root, then feed it by the teaspoonful to the child.

After so saying, he promised to look in the next day; if they didn't send him further word there would be no need for his visit before then.

When he had gone, Maggie Ann stood on the landing, shouting, `Beer, ginger and gentian root! I wouldn't trust him as far as I could toss him to look after a mangy bullock. I'm not putting any gentian root into that potion. It's like bitter aloes.`

Nevertheless, whenever the child could swallow she was given the hot ale with ginger.

It was Sunday afternoon and Daniel was sitting by Margaret's bed holding the child, who seemed to be gasping her last after another dreadful bout of coughing, when Moira, returning to the room with another steaming mug of ale, said briefly, Ànother one?`

`Yes.`

Then looking up at her, he said, Ìt's bad, and she's in a fever. She can't go on like this, Moira.`

`No, she can't go on like this: she hasn't the

stamina of the others. Look, you're tired. You were up all night; go and lie down.`

`What about you?`

Òh, I'm used to it. Now, if you won't lie down, why not take a run out? It's a nice day. It's a while since you went over to the Talbots. Oh, it's all right; I've not been spying on you.` She laughed. `Lilian called in yesterday for a minute. She said you had dropped in to tea.` She bent over her child now and wiped the sputum from her lips as she added, `She's a bonny girl, that Frances. And Janie Farringdon is a nice girl, too.Ànother time he would have laughed and said, `What are you trying to do?` but he made no response, not even to question why she had mentioned Janie Farringdon. He did say, though, Ì'll go and get a breath of fresh air, but I'm not taking any strolls.Òn opening the bedroom door he was confronted by his father, but they passed each other without speaking. They had not said a direct word to each other for weeks now. It was always, Would you tell Father so and so? Or Moira would say, Your Father wants so and so done.

Further along the landing stood Sean, 115 and the boy asked, `How is Margaret?`

`Much the same, Sean.`

`She's very ill, isn't she?`

`Yes, she's ill, Sean. Very ill.` He turned the boy about and they walked together down the stairs and out on to the terrace.

The day was warm, the sky a deep blue. It was a day for walking, for walking the two miles to see Frances.

`You expect her to die, don't you?`

Daniel looked sharply down on the boy, saying, `No,ànd stammered, `No ... no; no, I don't expect her to die. Well, I mean, she's very ill but--`

`People who get pneumonia nearly always die.`

Daniel continued to stare at this half-brother of his and, as before, he could not believe that he was but five years old, because there was the oddity of age already on him: he didn't think like a five-year-old, he didn't talk like a five-year-old, he didn't look at you like a child of only five years. And now he was really startled when the boy said, `When Mama had the

baby that was dead, Maggie Ann said it was one less to feed and that God had a way of evening things out. D'you think that's what He means to do with Margaret?`

Daniel was unable to answer for a moment, then dropping on to his hunkers he placed his hands on the boy's shoulders and looked into his eyes as he said, `Why do you say such things, Sean? What puts them into your head? You know, you're only a little boy. Don't you know you're only a little boy?`

`No. No! I just know I'm me an' that there's some folks I like, some folks I love, and some I hate.`

Slowly Daniel drew himself upwards, then turned his face to the view before him. This child of five was saying there were people he liked, and some he loved and some he hated. Even he, coming up seventeen, couldn't have expressed his feelings more plainly about love and hate. He turned now and looked down on his half-brother, but the child was gazing into the distance. He thought, There's something uncanny about him. He seems to be imbued with all the weirdness of the Irish, which was very noticeable in Maggie Ann, and yes, in Moira too.

Of a sudden he shivered, and when he 117 turned abruptly to go indoors the boy followed him. And in the hall he said, `May I sit up with her along of you tonight, Daniel?Ànd Daniel, as if it were he who was responsible for the boy's doings, said, `Yes. Yes, you may sit up, but you'll likely fall asleep.`

Ì won't.Àgain Daniel looked down on this fair-haired boy, and thought, No; if he says he won't, he won't.

The bedroom was like an oven heated by steam. Maggie Ann was sitting beside Margaret's bed. The child was breathing heavily as if she were asleep, but it was Maggie Ann who was asleep, whereas Sean, sitting near her, was wide awake, as were his mother, sitting opposite near the head of the bed, and Daniel towards the foot.

The sound of Margaret's breathing was such that each tearing breath seemed to cut into Daniel and he wished, for her own sake, that the end would come quickly.

When Moira sat back for a moment in her chair he put out his hand and caught hers; then, with his other hand, he hitched his chair nearer until

now they were sitting side by side, both gazing at the child.

And that was the last thing he remembered until somewhere around dawn, when he awoke to see the light streaking through the curtains and the lamp about to gut itself out. Blinking through his bleared lids he looked to where Moira was fast asleep in the basket chair, then to the bed where, side by side, lay Margaret and Sean. They were hand in hand and both breathing deeply and regularly.

He sat transfixed by the amazing scene, a sight that made him shiver. And such was the effect on him that he did not move until Moira let out a long low sigh; and when she opened her eyes, he was quick to grip her hand as he motioned with his head towards the bed. `Dear God in heaven! 'Tis Sean,` she breathed; and to himself he repeated, `'Tis Sean,ànd he shivered again.

4

It was on Daniel's seventeenth birthday that he and his father again almost came to blows.

It had been a happy day: Moira and Maggie Ann had made him a birthday tea.

The long dining-table had been piled high 119 with an extraordinary amount of fancy things to eat. The family always ate well, but plainly; however, today there were jellies and iced buns, and coconut cones in various colours. And as well as the birthday cake there was a cold chocolate pudding.

Seated at the table had been Patrick, Sean, Margaret, Annabella and Annie. Catherine was placed in a high chair, while Michael bounced in his cot set to the side of the fireplace.

But also seated at the table were Frances Talbot, Janie Farringdon and Ray Melton. Frances and Janie had been invited by Moira, but Ray's visit had been unexpected. Being on his Christmas vacation and now living quite near in Durham, he had looked up his old school-friend and to his surprise had found that the sixteen-year-old schoolboy he remembered was no more, for he had been confronted by a seventeen-year-old young man. But they had both been pleased with the meeting and it was a natural thing for Daniel to invite him to stay to tea; and, surprisingly, Ray turned out to be the life and soul of the party. Then, after tea, he had brought squeals of delight from the children with his very real imitations of animals and birds, the squeals turning to screams when, imitating the cry of a monkey, he jumped up on the back of the padded couch and leapt along it on his hands and feet.