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407her work was to do with the staff. Of course, again, there are very few staff to control. I think*-he smiled wryly now-'if it wasn't that I am very necessary to the master I, too, might get my walking orders.''Oh, Bright, I am simply amazed, and dreadfully sorry.''Oh, you've got nothing to be sorry for, miss. I know, and it won't go any further, of your kindness in financing Mr Lionel. I should imagine it was about that very thing that the brothers fought. There must have been a reason, a good reason, and that, I suppose, was as good a reason as any.''Do you hear anything of Mr Douglas? Where he might have gone?''Oh yes, I know where he's gone, miss."'You do?''Yes. But of course I didn't at first. It was when a hired cart came, driven by his mason, and took the stone away that they had been working on. He had to make two journeys and have the help of the yard man to load.''Where did they go? I mean, where has he set up his business?''Well, as far as I can gather it's in a sort of 408barn-like place belonging to a farmer yon side of Fellburn. I think the farmer's name is Pearson or Pearman . . . no, Pearson. It's odd, but we all agree that we miss Mr Douglas from the house. He was never a one to make demands. I think it was because . . . well, as you're not of the family, miss, I can say this, that he felt he had no right to make demands. It was impressed upon him as a boy, because, you know, he didn't really start growing until he was about fourteen; and then he had an illness and was in bed for some time. It was from then he began to sprout, so to speak . . . upwards'-his face went into a little smile now-'but never sideways, and although he had a real good appetite he never seemed to put on any flesh, not even to this day. Yet I have been amazed at his strength: I have seen him lift a piece of stone that I couldn't even move. Then of course-' He gave a slight hunch to his shoulder now as he said, 'We both had different training ... in all ways.'When she looked at her watch he said quickly, 'I am keeping you; but it's been so nice to talk to you.''Oh no, Bright, you haven't kept me; I'm 409so pleased to have met you. Will you do something for me?''Anything, anything that I am capable of, miss.''Your mistress must be near her time. When the baby comes will you inform me, please?''I shall. I shall, miss. But that is another thing that is ... well, not worrying the staff, but causing comment, because when Kate spoke to her about a nurse and asked if they should prepare a room for her, she said, not permanently, just for the confinement. She means to look after the child herself, miss.'Bridget would have liked to say, 'Well, that isn't a bad thing. Tens of thousands of women are doing that every day.' But such an occupation was, she knew, in this man's eyes attributed only to the lower orders; ladies who lived in houses such as The Grove could not possibly manage without a nurse, besides the wet nurse. Yes, they would indeed be shocked if Victoria decided to feed the child herself.She now leaned over to one side and took up from the floor the satchel that she had

410been carrying together with her leather handbag, and, under the pretext of taking her gloves from the handbag, she slipped out the letter from an envelope that was addressed to her in Shields and, taking a number of sovereigns from the middle pouch of the bag, she placed them in the empty envelope, straightened up and handed it to Bright, explaining, This is my address;' and, lowering her voice, added, Tlease accept half the contents for yourself and the rest divide among your staff.''Oh, miss, miss.' His hands covered the envelope. 'What can I say?'She smiled widely at him and when getting to her feet she said, 'Just a happy Christmas.'He, too, was now standing, and his voice was sincere as he murmured,

'We all wish you that, miss. And . . . and I shall keep you informed about the mistress's condition, and anything else I think you should know.'Thank you, Bright. Thank you very much. You have eased my mind. And now, do you think I would be able to get a cab? I was about to go to my agent's office, but I've changed my mind.'

411'Oh, I'll see you get a cab, miss.'And he did. And after he had opened the door and helped her in, he asked, 'What address shall I give him, miss?'And she looked straight into his face and without any hesitation, she said, 'Mr Pearson's farm, Fellburn.'And he repeated, 'Pearson's farm, Fellburn. Very good, miss.'He closed the door on her, shouted the destination to the cabbie, then stood back; and as he watched the cab move away down the muddy road, he said to himself, 'Well! Well! . . . Well! Well!'She could see immediately that it was a poor farm. The cabbie had got down from the box and opened the door for her, and now he was saying, 'Want me to wait, miss?''Yes. Yes, please.' . . ,It was the farmer's wife who, after weighing her up from top to toe, said, 'Aye, we have a Filmore here. He rents an old barn in Long field. Works the stone, he does. Will you come in and I'll go and send somebody for him?''No, thank you.' She didn't like the look

412of the woman, or the smell of the yard; it had likely permeated the house. 'If you will kindly direct me I will find him.''Aye well; that's easy. Along the yard there, past the piggeries, through the gate. But be careful of the planks across the burn, they're slippery. Then you can't miss him.'She knew that the woman was watching her as she followed her directions.Before she came to the planks across the burn, she could see what looked like a turnbled-down building to the right of her.The planks themselves indeed were slippery and after crossing them she found herself impeded by the heels of her shoes sinking into the sodden field. Then she was standing outside the weather-beaten double doors of the barn.An intermittent sound was coming from behind the doors. It wasn't loud, not loud enough, she thought, to obscure her knocking; but after she knocked twice and the door hadn't opened she now pressed one side of it forward. It swung easily from her hand and she was looking into a long structure, and she took in immediately not only the man standing with a mallet poised over some 413stone and the man on his knees rubbing at another piece of stone, but also that the roof at the far end of the structure showed daylight.Douglas did not immediately come towards her because the sight of her so surprised him she could have been an apparition. When he did make a move it was slow. He laid down the mallet and a chisel onto a bench, then stepping across the roughly paved space, he exclaimed simply, 'Why! Bridget.''Hello, Douglas.''How on earth did you get here? I mean . . .''Yes, I know what you mean. How did I find you? Quite simple; I ran into Bright.''Oh, Bright.' He smiled now; then turning to where the man had risen from his knees, he said, 'This is Sam. You remember?''Oh yes. Yes, indeed.

Hello, Sam.'Standing up now, Sam touched his forelock and replied, 'Good day to you, ma'am.' Then looking towards Douglas, he added tactfully, 'I'll take time for me bait, sir, and stretch me legs.''Yes, do that.'

414It wasn't until the man had passed through the barn door and closed it after him that Bridget, continuing to look about her, now allowed her gaze to rest on Douglas as she said, 'Oh! Douglas, what a place. You must be frozen.''Not a bit of it. Not a bit of it.' His voice was light. 'Can't you feel a difference from outside? Look.' He pointed to the other end of the room from where the rafters were letting in light.

'That old stove gives out a mighty heat.' He walked towards it, and she followed him; but her eyes weren't so much on the stone as on what lay to the side of a wooden partition: a bench on which stood a spirit lamp, and a pan and some odd bits of crockery; and beyond, an erection that appeared to be a bunk standing four feet off the ground and on which were some neatly folded but coarse-looking blankets.In utter amazement now she turned to him, and she actually stammered as she said, 'Yo , . . you

. . . you're not . . . what I mean, living here? Oh, Douglas!*'Madam, I'll have you know that my bed is very comfortable. And I am learning a

415Inew trade; I might open a restaurant any day.''Be quiet! Don't make fun. Why didn't you let me know?''Let you know what?' His tone had changed. 'What was there to let you know? That I had fought with Lionel and that life had become unbearable there? And would you please do something about it for rne as you always do for everybody you come in contact with?'His head dropped and he muttered now apologetically, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Bridget.'After a pause she said, *So you should be, making me out to be a busybody or dogooder maiden lady.'He smiled faintly now as he repeated her words, still muttering: 'Bo-gooder maiden lady.''May I now ask,' she said, 'what started the trouble at the house? It must have been something drastic to cause him to give up that amount of money.'He looked away from her as he said, 'Yes, it was quite drastic.'!l

416She waited, then said, 'Well, can't you tell me what it was?''No. No, Bridget, I can't. It is something that is best left dead and buried.'His head gave a little jerk: he was immediately aware of the simile he had come out with, for Joe Skinner was definitely well dead and buried. He'd had nightmares thinking about the poor fellow. One lately had caused him to wake up screaming. In it he had yelled at the poor man, telling him he was going to cut him down. The simile seemed not to have struck Bridget, for she was saying, 'It must have been something pretty bad to have the reaction it did on Victoria. She's an entirely changed person.''Well, perhaps that's for the better, because she needed to shed her little girl image.''Have you seen her since?''No.''Then, I can assure you, at least to my mind her change isn't for the better, because she has turned into an embittered woman. There seems to be nothing left of her former character.'He let out a long sigh; then said as though

417in explanation: 'Our family's fate seems to have hung on money for the last two generations, on money that we have never earned. We have lived in debt for so long: we have eaten in debt, we have been waited on in debt. Yes, many a time I knew those servants hadn't been paid. That's why they left, they weren't dismissed. And all the time I partook of the whole; yet I must admit, with shame at times. But'-he now looked along the length of the old building-'I am now earning my living, and it has got to keep me and pay a man. And I can sleep easy at nights.' That, he thought, was a stupid thing to say. But it could have been so, for without the knowledge that he had unearthed . . . literally unearthed, this work, and even making this derelict building his home, would certainly have afforded him peaceful sleep.'You rent this?''Yes. Yes, I rent it.'They should pay you for occupying it.''Oh, not this particular farmer. As Sam says, "That man would skin a louse for its hide."''Well, I wouldn't consider that I myself would come into that category with the

418places that I let. But I do have a building to let.''You have?''Yes. And you've seen it.''Oh, huh!' He wagged his hand at her. 'Now you are playing your lady bountiful. No way, Bridget, no way. Not that I wouldn't like to be working near you, because it's always nice to have someone to fight and argue with at times.' He smiled; but then the smile sliding from his face, he said, 'Thank you all the same, Bridget, but no.''You don't believe that it is to be let?''No, I don't, dear. You were going to put Lily down there with her child.''Yes, I know, and the house is finished. But would she go? No. She said it was too far away.

She prefers the lodge, and it's as she says, she has got it very nice. I have spent quite a bit of money on that place, I can tell you, and, being a business woman, I always want results. So, I am letting it, together with a four-acre field as a smallholding. It would be ideal for that. It is now in my agent's hands and I understand he has already one applicant. So you see, I am not 419playing my lady bountiful. I only made the suggestion because I thought it would be (ideal for your requirements, there being a (large barn and three other buildings, besides a little house.' She pulled a face now as she said, 'But . . . but I think it's the house that's going to be the drawback. It's rather small for a family, at least for anyone with sufficient money to start that kind of business.'She knew that his mind was busily working, in fact it had already done a somersault. So she turned away from his awful arrangement for living and walked towards the door, which she had almost reached when,1 at her side now, he asked quietly, 'What are you asking, by the way, as rent?'She stopped and glanced upwards as if thinking deeply, then said, 'You know, I can't really remember. It was a bit complicated. There might be the prospective tenant who wanted only the house and buildings, others might only want the field to work. In the last resort it was decided they could be let separately. I even thought if no one wants the field then I could extend the gardens. But in parts it's a bit boggy and it would 420need drainage. Anyway, I must be off. Oh, Douglas, it's been lovely seeing you; but look'-she leant towards him-'there's no reason why you can't visit me. What about coming for Sunday dinner?''Yes, I would like that. I would like that.''All right, we will leave it at that.' She did not immediately make for the door now, but turned and looked at the pieces of stone dotted here and there about the room, and she said, 'How's business going really?''Oh, pretty well; enough for me to still keep on Sam. The main trouble seems to be the transport. It's difficult to get a cart down here. It's a good job that both Sam and I are as strong as horses, not the dray kind, you know, just the ordinary ones.'They were smiling broadly now at each other, and she said, 'You always surprise me, Douglas,' at which he threw his head back and said,

'Oh! lady; not as much as you surprise me, not as much as you have always surprised me.'Following this their hands joined and shook; they exchanged a long glance, and then she was walking through the sodden field again.

421When she reached the cab she quickly gave the cabbie directions, and forty minutes later she was standing in her office in Newcastle, talking rapidly to her agent, saying, 'Well, there it is. He may come or he may not, but just say to him what I've said to you. You could add that you were going to take a client out there. Would he, too, like to go and see the place? to which he will likely reply that he knows it. Then let him sign the agreement: eight shillings a week for the house and stables; eleven shillings if he wants the land as well. You can add that he can have access to the main yard, et cetera. You understand?''Yes,'