Mrs Bell sighed. ‘Mebbe you’re right,’ she said resignedly. ‘Mind you, if you wanted to stay on for longer and go back to the village school I’d not deny you’d be a grand addition to the workforce—’

But here Tess felt she had to interrupt. ‘So you see, it’s impossible,’ she said, as though the other woman had not spoken. ‘But if you still need somebody next summer, I’d be glad to come over for two or three weeks. And now I promised Jonty that I’d see if I can milk with one hand. See you at suppertime, Mrs Bell.’

Leaving the kitchen she went across to where Jonty was working in the milking parlour, half amused and half annoyed by Mrs Bell’s assumption that she would be prepared to leave her grandmother in order to work for nothing at a job which was both hard and taxing. But though a part of her was outraged at Mrs Bell’s assumption, another part admired the older woman’s singleness of purpose. Mrs Bell put the farm before everything else, apart from her family. Had Maggie been as keen to work at Bell Farm as Jonty was, she would have been roped in to do all the jobs that Tess had been coping with and, Tess suspected, would probably have never received a penny. Even during the war when things had been difficult, with labour short and extra paperwork on every side, Tess had been aware that farmers’ children were expected to pull their weight on the farm and were rarely paid for their trouble. However, Jonty was receiving a good education because his parents thought it important, and he would never want for anything that the farm profits could provide. School uniform, sports equipment and dinner money would be forthcoming as a matter of course. If he wanted a new record for his Dansette gramophone player – a new possession – he only had to tell his mother how much money he needed and it would be given ungrudgingly, and every Saturday he received sufficient pocket money to pay for his sweet ration.

Tess picked up a milking stool which stood against the cowshed door and went and squatted by Violet, a placid creature who would not object if Tess fumbled to milk her with one wrist bandaged. She saw Jonty turn his head to grin at her, and when he raised his eyebrows and said ‘Well?’ in an amused voice she realised that he had guessed what his mother wanted to say. She was tempted to admit that she was rather hurt by Mrs Bell’s assumption that she would be willing to stay on at Bell Farm, though she had made it plain from the start that she meant to go home to her grandmother as soon as her three weeks were up. But that would only hurt Jonty, for though he might laugh at his mother’s tight hold on the purse strings Tess knew he loved her and his father and could never bring himself to criticise them to others.