No wonder I wasn’t upset when I was told she’d been killed, Tess thought now. I was afraid of her; she was always quicker with a slap than a kiss. Then her mind returned to her first three foster-mothers. How were they different from Mrs Bell? It was a question she could not answer; she just knew that within forty-eight hours of arriving at Bell Farm and being accepted without ceremony or fuss by the family the hard knot of misery and rejection had melted and she had begun to feel, if not at home, at least not unwanted. It was not Mrs Bell’s way to cuddle or caress, but Tess’s vague memories of her mother were that she too had not been a particularly loving or demonstrative parent. And then, of course, there had been Jonty. Right from the moment she arrived at the farm he had made it plain that she was his pal. He was older than she, and when Mrs Bell had told him to take Tess to school and see that she was not what she termed ‘put upon’ the small Tess had expected to be dumped as soon as they reached the playground. But Jonty had taken her to meet her teacher, introduced her to the rest of her class, many of whom were evacuees, and without once raising his voice he had told her classmates that he would chop them into little pieces if they tried to bully her.

Tess had wanted to hide, or run away, until she heard the laughter and saw the friendly smiles, the desire not to beat her up but to get to know her. Yes, Jonty and the Bells had been her true friends, and as soon as she could arrange matters she would leave the shop for a few days and jolly well go down to Norfolk and spend time with the people who had been so good to her. She realised she had held back partly for Snowy’s sake and partly because Jonty’s girlfriend Pamela Davies might have resented a visitor from her boyfriend’s past. But now she decided that Pamela must be a nice girl, or Jonty wouldn’t have looked twice at her. Pamela would greet her as a friend.

As Tess reached the gate of Sheraton Farm and turned into the yard she was smiling to herself. When she got home she would write to Jonty suggesting that she might visit Bell Farm just as soon as she felt Mitch and Gran could cope for a few days without her.

She crossed the yard, which again reminded her pleasantly of Bell Farm, and knocked on the door.

Tess arrived home late and tired but feeling considerable satisfaction. She had bought four baby angora rabbits and meant to buy more if these sold easily. She went into the shop and saw the new acquisitions comfortably settled, and then ascended the stairs, though rather more slowly than usual, and beamed at Gran as she entered the kitchen.