Glenys and Mo exchanged startled looks. ‘That’s Pete the Sheep,’ Mo repeated unnecessarily. ‘He lives down in one of Taid’s farm cottages. I don’t like him.’ She crossed the room and slammed the door, wincing as the cold air rushed in.

‘I don’t like him either,’ Glenys agreed. ‘He ate two scones and put another two in his beastly pocket, so now we shall be short when Jimmy and the others come in.’

‘No we shan’t. What about the little scone boys I made?’ Mo said indignantly. ‘Where’s Nain? I expect Dad and Taid have brought the cows in, so she’s probably milking.’

Glenys looked at the clock above the mantelpiece. ‘She’ll have finished by now. Want to put your coat on, poppet, and give her a hand whilst I get on with the cooking?’

Mo did not need asking twice. She dived across the kitchen and grabbed her coat from its peg, but as she began to put it on a thought clearly occurred to her. ‘I’m going to give the biggest scone boy to my daddy,’ she said, just as the back door opened to admit the three male members of the household.

Sam and his father-in-law kicked off their wellington boots and came into the kitchen in their stockinged feet. Taid said, in a tone of deep displeasure, that someone had been trekking mud in, and Mo was just starting to explain that it was Pete the Sheep when Jimmy entered the room and slung his coat at its peg on the wall. He, too, kicked off his boots, then looked around the kitchen with approval, taking a deep breath of the warm food-scented air. ‘It’s brass monkey weather out there, even though Taid says the thaw is coming,’ he said. He pointed accusingly at the dirt and dung on the floor. ‘Who did that? And where’s Nain?’

‘She’ll be along in a minute,’ Sam said. ‘She told me she meant to begin weaning Violet’s calf, and that takes time.’ He turned to his daughter. ‘I’d better go and give her a hand; you can come with me if you like.’

‘Oh yes, I’ll come,’ Mo said, beaming up at him. She had already put her coat on and now Sam did up the buttons for her. He was smiling delightedly and Glenys, realising that Mo had taken her words to heart, felt a great weight lift from her shoulders.

‘Tell Nain to hurry if she wants to have a scone hot from the oven,’ she said. ‘I don’t suppose my scones are anything like as good as hers, but they’re the best I can do.’

As soon as they were out in the farmyard, Mo seized her father’s hand. ‘Taid says when the thaw comes Jimmy and me’ll be able to go to school,’ she said. ‘But it doesn’t feel as though the snow is going to me. It’s still mortal cold, ain’t it?’

‘It’ll be warmer in the cow byre,’ Sam said. ‘When you get half a dozen cows all in a small space they create warmth, you know.’