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He would have to take it to London, where he had a friend in the business who was a frequent visitor to Amsterdam and many other cities in the world looking for rare jewels. Apparently they are becoming scarcer, the real ones, so are more valuable. He asked if I would trust him with this precious and ancient thing, and I said, yes. He went to London last week, and I saw him yesterday, and he told me, in his turn, that he had never seen his friend so excited in his life, and that he was a man who always kept a poker face and usually gave nothing away. "

She now looked from one to the other, but when no-one spoke she went on, "I then told him to get on with it and let me know how much it was worth ... No; not how much it was worth, because we will never handle the worth of that item, but I thought I might be offered as much as a couple of thousand pounds. Then he staggered me by saying that his friend knew of someone who would be very interested in an article like that and that he might get as much as six thousand for it." She now wagged her finger at each of them in turn.

"He's my friend, I'm telling you; but if he said six thousand, being a business man, I bet the deal would be eight." Here she pursed her lips.

"You see I know a bit about bargaining. However, I did not show any excitement at this point but said, well, he must do his best, and he said he most certainly would and that I should hear sometime this week.

Now, my dear' she placed her hand on top of Maria's, where they were gripped tightly together on the table 'whatever the mysterious big man gives, we will share. Mind again, whatever the mysterious man offers, my friend in London will take his cut; then my friend in Newcastle will also want a cut. You understand?" She didn't wait for an answer, but went on, "However, five per cent or ten per cent, I've worked out we should get at least two thousand pounds each."

Both Maria and Anna made gasping sounds and sat back in their chairs, but Nathaniel did not move, and Miss Netherton said to him, "Well, Nathaniel, aren't you impressed?"

"Miss Netherton, I am amazed, but more so at your kindness and your concern for us."

"Well, I've always been concerned for you because I like you. I like you all, and whatever I've done for you, this girl' she now put her hand across the table in Anna's direction 'has repaid me with her company over the years. Without her, at times, I should have been very lonely, and there's no money that can pay for good companionship. And anyway, after I knew that those devils had cut off the entry to your own place, which, don't you worry' she again wagged her finger from one to the other'I am seeing to. Oh, definitely. I have a solicitor working on it; and I know what you earn as a tutor has naturally been brought to a halt because you cannot use the cart now.

So I would like to think that when you get the money you will consider moving from here and all the turmoil you have had to suffer. You'll be able then to buy a nice little place in the town, or wherever you like.

Should this happen, and I hope it does, I shall miss you; but then, I've always got my own transport and I can visit you frequently. "

Maria's head was already slowly shaking when she brought out slowly,

"I would hate to leave this house. Miss Netherton. We have put up with a great deal over the years in order to stay here. And the fact that you were near and championed us has been of such help that I cannot put a name to it. I don't know what Nathaniel will say about it all, but since you let us have this house I've always imagined living here until I died. And ... and we have brought the family up here and within these four walls and our bit of ground we have been happy; that is' she bowed her head 'up till lately. But," she sighed, 'we are still a united family, so close. As Nathaniel says, only death can separate us. "

"Well, my dear, it will be up to you. No, of course not, I wouldn't want you to leave, but I was just thinking of your welfare and that tribe in the village. But... but there is hope there; you have friends, more than you know; people who have the courage now to defend you openly in the public bars ... Oh' she wagged her head 'you wouldn't believe what I hear. A poor old lady sitting in her house alone ..."

They all smiled at this, and she joined them, then she said, "Well, I must be off and go and see how Timothy is getting on. He hasn't been well these last few days." She nodded again.

"He had a strong exchange with Raymond over the fencing, I may tell you. But I understand that Raymond pointed out that he isn't entirely in control now, but he agrees, and yes, yes, I'm giving it to you straight' she was nodding again 'that you, Nathaniel, are mostly responsible for what has happened, for you will house the men from the pits."

"Would you rather I saw them die, the old people and the children on the moor?"

"No. No, I wouldn't. I would have housed them myself rather than that.

But then' her head drooped'I was never as brave as you, Nathaniel, or you, Maria. I knew there were many, at times, on the moor but I couldn't bring myself to defy convention. I work mostly with my tongue. "

Anna now put in quietly, "And it is a sword, and you've always used it in our defence."

"Well, that's as may be." Miss Netherton rose from the chair, saying,

"Now, I've got to walk back and manoeuvre that bank ..."

"Oh, you don't go down the bank!" said Maria.

"Well, how do I get out, unless I jump the fence and trudge across the turnip fields to the nearest part of the main road, where Stoddart will have the trap? But don't you worry, my dear: I do go down the bank, but Stoddart has made a little four-rung ladder that he places there.

They'll not beat us. But come along, Anna, and walk some of the way with me. The sun is shining, the May blossom is about to burst.

There are things to look forward to even now. " She spread her glance quietly over the three of them, but neither Nathaniel nor Maria made any response to this.

Anna had gone down the room and picked up a shawl from the back of the settle; now she put it around her shoulders and followed Miss Netherton out.

it was as they were walking along the path that led to the stile that Miss Netherton said, "Are , you cold, girl?"

) "Yes. Well ... not cold; I ... I always seem to i feel a little shivery."

"I know that feeling; it's from heartache. It'll pass. It'll pass, my dear." They walked on for a moment in silence, then Miss Netherton said, "Did you know that Timothy has left the Manor?"

"No. No, I didn't. I understood he was going to, but that he had to have the new place made ready."

"Yes, that was his idea; but it would have taken another three months or more. The decorators have been in and done some work, but apparently he got himself so worked up that he ordered all his things to be moved into the new place and came and asked my assistance in choosing a small staff. And so there he has been for the last week or so. He has had a really bad turn but that hasn't deterred him. I've got him a cook, a kitchen maid and a housemaid, and a butler-cum-valet, and I vetted them all very carefully before I let him engage them. He's had to buy a carriage and horse, and Stoddart's cousin has taken on that job. Stoddart also recommended a gardener; and so, in a way, Timothy is set up. But oh dear, those turns. Poor fellow; it seems that any sort of conflict brings them on. He can apparently go months at a time, though; even forget about them. I have to ask myself why the nice people in this world have to be so afflicted. Ah, here we are;

and there's Stoddart with my stepladder to heaven, or is it the other place? " She chuckled now, and as she neared the stile she pointed to the left, saying, " If I'd only been a few years younger, I'm sure I could have slid down that bank.

I've always thought what a stupid place to set a stile. But then I must remember that the road below was dug out of a field. Why, I don't know. I suppose it was to skirt the village. "

Anna helped her over the stile and then held on to the top of the short ladder until she reached the road. And from there Miss Netherton laughed up at her, saying, "There's life in the old dog yet."

As he was lifting the ladder from the bank, Stoddart looked up at Anna and said, "She'll break her neck one of these days, miss, the games she gets up to."

"What you've got to do, you old fool, is to get up on to your seat and get that horse moving."

Anna watched the trap bowl away, before turning to walk back to the house. On reaching the small gate that led through their own fencing she stopped and looked over the landscape to where, in the distance, the hills rose. The sun was glinting through clouds, casting their shadows on the hillsides and making it appear as if they were running with rivulets of silver. Of a sudden she longed to be there on those hills and beyond, away, away, anywhere but here.

She drew the edges of the shawl tight about her throat before hurrying on, telling herself now that this was one feeling she must get rid of.

They had lost Ben, so how would they take to letting her try to find a post some place far away?

Her mother had said to Miss Netherton that she wanted to die here, and during the past weeks she had seen herself going on year after year, until she too died here after a wasted life: digging in the garden, sawing wood, carrying their fodder and groceries from wherever Stoddart would drop them;

sitting round the fire at night in the winter or a table in the summer, reading. As the years went on the family would assuredly disperse.

The boys would marry: Oswald and Olan were forever talking about the virtues of their employer and her daughter. And Jimmy would marry.

Yes, Jimmy would marry. And Cherry? Oh, Cherry's heart was already placed. Anna had guessed this some time ago, for whenever she and Bobby could be together, they were. Her father must have noticed, too, but he wouldn't be displeased with that association. That left herself.

And what was her future? What had she to look forward to here? Had she been over-critical in holding up her father as a model to Simon?

She could have become Simon's mistress. Oh yes, she could have become his mistress. And what would that have mattered? At least to the surrounding countryside she was a bastard already and she would just be acting out the part again, as her mother had done. After all, a gilly was a loose woman and the vor was her offspring. If it hadn't been for her father, would she have succumbed to Simon's pleas? At this moment she didn't know;

she only knew that she was lonely; she felt lost, and she couldn't help but wonder what was happening to the child. By now he would certainly have been taken in hand by the male tutor.

Her father met her at the gate, saying, "Billy got out. He's cleared the remains of the cabbage and has taken the young carrot tops. You mustn't have put the latch on the door."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Dada."

"You should be more careful and pay attention."

She stood and looked after him as he walked away. Her dada was telling her she must take more care and pay attention. She was a little girl again, being told how to see to the animals; to put false clay eggs under the broody hens; shown how to lift the hens from the barks without them fluttering;

told always to be careful how she walked in the low grass near the pond because some of the ducks laid away; how to mix crow die hot in the winter with boiled cabbage leaves, and plain in the summer; how never to tether the goats near the bottom field because that is where the yew tree grew, and a stomach full of their leaves could kill them.

Just now he had used the same tone to her as when he had taught her those things, the same tone as when dealing with the book learning: he would say the brain had to be fed as well as the body.

Her father would never be the same again, nor would she.

She went into the house. It seemed as if her mother was waiting for her.

"Sit down," she said; "I must tell you the beginning of what Miss Netherton was on about. I mean, the cross."

As Anna listened to her mother, she was made to wonder why her dada hadn't told all this in the form of a fairy story as they sat around the

nre at night, and this made her say, "Will you tell the others as well, tonight, Ma?"

Maria looked away towards the end of the room, then down at her hand to the fingers that were tapping the table, and she said, "Your dada and me had a talk about that, and we thought it best not to say anything because you never know how a word might slip out unintentionally."

"But when you get the money, they'll want to know; you can't hide ..

"

"We've thought of that. It'll supposedly have come from my mother's people in yon end of the country. We're going to put it to Miss Netherton and she'll fix it ... I mean explain it. But then, I don't think there'll be any need; they'll take Dada's word. And we trust you not to say anything either, because, you know, if anything of this ever did leak out, there'd be a lot of trouble. Oh yes, and we've had enough trouble, haven't we?"

Her mother was staring into her face in silence now, and it was as if she were saying, "Whether you admit it or not, you're to blame. You know it, I know it, and your dada knows it. Oh, yes, your dada knows it."

It was almost three weeks later when Timothy called. He had walked from the coach road, and after knocking on the door he had shouted,

"Anyone in?" And she had opened the door and said, "Oh, hello. Oh, I am pleased to see you." And she was;

for, during the past fortnight at least, she had often wondered why he hadn't called and had realised that she was missing him, his talk, his voice, his parleying of words with her. He seemed to be the only one she could smile at, or with.

"I'll tell Father," she said immediately.

"He's in the barn with Mother. They are cutting up chaff."

"Oh, I wouldn't disturb them for a moment. Let me have a look at you.

How many years is it since I last saw you? "

She said, "I hear you've moved."

"Oh, yes, yes, I'm established, and that's what I've come to see you about. We have been living in chaos for the past few weeks but although the furniture is now in place I am stuck about the colour of drapes. I want a suite covered and I suppose the curtains should match; in fact, I intend to get rid of all the curtains in the house.