Tess laughed as they emerged from the stuffy interior of the village hall into the roadway and saw the old bull-nose Morris, with Mr Bell at the wheel, waiting for them. ‘I didn’t really think he’d leave us in the lurch,’ she protested. ‘But you know him much better than I do.’ She punched Jonty hard in the ribs and smiled as the air woofed out of his lungs. ‘Serve you right, Jonty Bell, for trying to scare me!’

The ride home in the car was enlivened by an exact recital of everything that had happened during the interval, even the memory of it setting both Tess and Jonty off giggling once more. Mr Bell smiled but said he just hoped Mr Lyons would not punish the entire village by taking them off his list of visits. Then, as they drove along the country lanes towards Bell Farm, he told them how he had passed the extra time. ‘Bob Tillett and Sam Hornigold were waiting for their kids to come out of the village hall too,’ he said. ‘We had a good old mardle about that there storm and what it had done to the land. We were lucky, you know. Bob lost two fields of barley as well as a couple of cows. His skiff on the Broad sank too, but he reckon he’ll bring it up when he and his farmhands have got the time. Sam, on the other hand, is still searching for two of his store cattle what got through a hole the storm had torn in his hedge and made off the Lord know where. Still, as we told each other, it was a freak storm and unlikely to occur again.’

The rest of the drive was filled by Jonty telling his father the story of Jungle Woman, so that by the time they reached the farm Tess was quite startled to drive into the yard and see a gap where the henhouse had been, and the stable door swinging loose, for Mr Bell had decreed that the horses were safer out in the field than shut into a stable which had had a large section of its roof blown away.

As they ate their biscuits and drank their cocoa before going up to bed, Mrs Bell took Tess to one side and thanked her for all the hard work she had done that day. ‘You’re a grand little worker; I just wish the gal Maggie was more like you,’ she said. ‘But there you are, Maggie’s always been ambitious and she know the farm will go to our Jonty when Father and I pass on, so it’s up to her to make a life for herself.’ She smiled down at Tess with more kindness than she had ever shown before. ‘Goodnight, gal. I’ll let you lie in a bit tomorrer. I reckon you deserve it.’

A week after the storm had passed over Tess awoke feeling a mixture of pleasure that she would soon be going home and sadness at leaving Bell Farm. But today was to be a holiday. Because they had managed to put right most of the storm damage, Mr Bell had announced that they would take a picnic and go down to the coast so that Jonty and Tess might have an outing before Tess left them. ‘A day away from the farm will do us all good,’ he told her firmly. ‘Adam’s coming in early and Jonty’s Uncle Keith is drivin’ over to keep an eye on things while we’re away.’ He had turned to his wife, for they had been in the kitchen, about to sit down to their evening meal. ‘Will that suit you, my woman? I’m sure you deserve a bit of a holiday same as these youngsters do.’