Glenys’s mind dwelt rather sadly on this image for a moment or two, but presently she forced herself to return to her next move. She had decided that going away from the farm was the right thing to do. Thinking back over her past as she lay in the warm dark, she realised, perhaps for the first time, that she was woefully inexperienced. Sam had been kind to her, but he had never given any hint that he loved her, and she had no idea how one encouraged – or for that matter discouraged – a young man to show his feelings. Come to that, she did not even know how to show her own. She had been reared in an orphanage for girls, had gone to a school for girls, had even gone to a training college for girls, and then she had taught in a girls’ academy. Her months at Weathercock Farm, in fact, had been her very first experience of how pleasant a friendship with a young man could be. She had enjoyed Sam’s company immensely, but then Sam was not a young man; he was at least a dozen years older than herself, and a widower to boot. He had fathered two children and clearly, compared to herself, had a good deal of worldly knowledge. If I had agreed to marry him, Glenys told herself, it would have been an unequal match. I could help Taid run the farm, and I could look after the children, and help Nain run the house, of course. But the other side of marriage . . . she felt her cheeks glow at the thought . . . is a closed book to me, and one I don’t particularly want to open. If we were in love with one another it would be wonderful, but as it is it is just frightening, so I think the only choice I can honestly make is to leave.

Having made up her mind Glenys slid off the bed and went over to the window. She pulled the curtains back and looked out. The dark sky above was lit by a thousand twinkling stars, but when she looked to the east she realised that dawn could not be far distant. If she were to get away before anyone was up she must write her letter to Nain and pack her few belongings at once, then steal down the stairs and make for the railway station, though if she were to be pursued that would be the obvious place to look. And if Sam does come after me it will be proof that he truly does love me, even if he doesn’t know it, she told herself wistfully as she got down her trusty haversack from where it had been sitting on the top of her wardrobe, ignored now for many months. Yes, if he finds me, if he begs me to come back, I shall see it as a sign that I’ve made the wrong decision and will return with him to Weathercock Farm.