When Tess finished her tale with the invitation to stay on at the farm Gran felt a moment of panic, but it was short-lived. Tess assured her that though the hard work and long hours had not put her off the farming life, she was pretty sure it would never be for her. ‘I’m a city girl, even though I love animals and growing things,’ she assured Gran. ‘So you needn’t worry that when I’m older I’ll look round for a job on a farm. There are all sorts of careers I might take up, but right now I’ve got another year in school – maybe two if the government decides to make education compulsory for a further year – so it isn’t a decision I have to make in a hurry.’ She looked quizzically across the table at the older woman. ‘And now it’s your turn, Gran. You mentioned in your letters that you’d met Mr Payne at last. Did you get on? You didn’t say much apart from the fact that you’d been on the same trips a few times. Go on; I’ve told you everything that happened to me, now you can jolly well do the same.’

Tess listened to Gran’s story with interest and, it must be confessed, a little anxiety. She had been so happy to return to the flat, to Gran and to her old life, but now it looked as though that ‘old life’ was going to be rather different from her imaginings. Gran made no secret of the fact that she and Albert Payne had talked of going into partnership in order to start an ice cream parlour, or a soda fountain, as Albert apparently thought it should be called, quoting his daughter Janine, who worked in one in America.

‘Of course, such an enterprise would need capital – that means money to set it up – and neither Albert nor I can lay our hands on that sort of cash,’ she explained. ‘But banks will lend on security, and Albert owns his shop and the flat above it. So perhaps, if we can find the right premises—’

At this point Tess felt she must interrupt. ‘You and Mr Payne are daydreaming,’ she said accusingly. ‘Just like I do when I talk about getting my School Certificate, then my Higher, then going to university . . . You’ll never persuade a bank to lend you money for a daydream, any more than it would help me to take my School Certificate, let alone to sit for a scholarship.’

‘You aren’t daydreaming,’ Gran said. ‘And neither are Albert and I. Oh, we may not find premises and get a loan this year, mebbe not even next, but one of these fine days we’ll do it, you’ll see. And in the meantime we’ll both save up and go without, and—’

‘Gran, I don’t like to be selfish, but what about me?’ Tess said plaintively. ‘I don’t fancy saving up and going without for years and years just to get an ice cream parlour I don’t believe in! And if I’m not daydreaming, what about the scholarship? You’ve always said that if I did get into the grammar school you’d see me right, because scholarships don’t pay for everything, though they’re a big help.’