‘It’s my bloody leg,’ her grandmother said, then smiled feebly as Mo’s mouth dropped open. ‘I’m sorry, cariad. Your taid and I hardly ever swear, but there’s times when a bad word just pops out, and this is one of them. Fetch Sam, because I don’t want Taid coming out here and trying to move me.’

But even as she spoke Sam’s large figure appeared in the doorway. They saw him look round then turn to leave, clearly unable to see them crouching in the straw. Nain tried to call him back, but it was Mo’s shrill voice which brought her father running. ‘Dad, Nain’s fell down and can’t get up,’ she shouted. ‘I tried to help but she were too heavy and she wouldn’t let me fetch Taid ’cos she said only your strong arm would do. Did you get the calf?’

Sam crossed the intervening space and entered the catching pen, looking down at his mother-in-law with deep concern. To Mo’s surprise he did not immediately try to pull the old woman to her feet but squatted beside her and put an arm about her shoulders. ‘If I fetch Taid . . .’ he began, but was immediately frowned down.

‘Taid’s too old to be lifting heavy weights and I’m not exactly a frail flower. If Mo will run for Glenys, and Taid’s walking stick, then the two of you can get me to my feet.’

But getting Nain to her feet only proved that she was more seriously hurt than any of them had realised. Sam took one look at her leg and commanded that a chair be brought. ‘But don’t let Taid bring it out; Jimmy can do that,’ he told Mo. ‘It’s mortal slippy in the farmyard and we don’t want Taid laid up with a broken ankle as well as Nain.’

Mo shot off, big with news, but she remembered Nain’s insistence that she wasn’t to worry Taid, and merely said that Jimmy and she were to carry the kitchen chair to the byre. Before Taid had finished wondering aloud what had happened to the milking stool, they and their burden were halfway across the yard. Presently Sam and Glenys carried the chair with Nain perched on it into the kitchen and stood it down as close to the fire as they could get, and one glance at Nain’s strained white face was enough to put Taid on the alert. To his anxious enquiries Sam replied briefly that he thought his mother-in-law’s leg might have suffered a fracture. ‘I’ll go along to the Evanses’ and borrow their phone and we’ll have Nain in hospital before you can say knife,’ he said cheerfully. ‘They won’t want to keep her there long, probably just for a couple of nights, but if I’m right they’ll want to plaster that leg. Do you hurt anywhere else, Nain?’

‘Yes, I hurt all over and want nothing more than my bed,’ Nain said crossly. ‘What a thing to happen, and just when we’ve been getting on so well! And if I know hospitals they’ll want me under their eye for days, and the doctor will try to insist that I keep to my bed when I do get home. Oh, damn, damn, damn, why couldn’t it have happened to somebody else? Why was I such a fool? I should have guessed that the calf would rush forward as soon as the gate was open.’ She turned to her husband. ‘I’m that sorry, Gethin. I’m pretty sure I shan’t be able to help on the farm for a few days at least.’