‘Right lass, well as much as I’d love to stay an’ help I need to get back to me chores but I’ll tell you what, I’ll take little Charlotte wi’ me for a couple o’ days. She’ll love it up at the farm an’ it will give you more time to concentrate on Barnaby if you ain’t got to worry about her. What do you say?’

Amber chewed on her lip. She had never been parted from Charlotte since they had been reunited but she knew it made sense. Barnaby needed her far more than Charlotte did at the present time and so she finally nodded and hurried away to pack a little bag of clothes and Charlotte’s favourite rag doll.

‘I’ll send the mister over wi’ more milk an’ a steak pie later on,’ Mrs Jennings promised as she set off with Charlotte excitedly clutching her hand a short time later.

‘Thank you.’ Amber watched the child toddle away with a lump in her throat before hurrying back inside where she fetched a tin bowl full of cool water and a clean piece of huckaback to bathe Barnaby’s face.

By the time the doctor reappeared late that afternoon, Barnaby was incoherent and rolling about the bed, although after checking his leg the doctor was pleased to find there was no sign of an infection.

‘It’s a bad break and he’ll probably always have a limp, but it’s the fever that worries me more at present,’ he informed her.

‘Is there any more I can do?’

‘No, my dear. You are doing all you can.’ He fished in his bag and produced a small glass phial telling her, ‘Put a few drops of this into some water and try to get him to drink it. It will probably knock him out in his weakened state but that won’t be a bad thing. I don’t want him thrashing about so much that he disturbs the splints on his leg.’

‘He will get better, won’t he, doctor?’

As the man stared into her anxious eyes, he wished that he could give her better news but he was painfully aware that Barnaby’s condition could go either way at the moment.

‘If we can just get this fever to break there’s every chance that he’ll make a full recovery,’ he said sympathetically. ‘Just carry on as you are, you’re doing a good job. Keep him cool and get lots of liquid into him.’

After he’d left, Amber continued her vigil at Barnaby’s side. By bedtime she was so exhausted that she could barely keep her eyes open and eventually she lay her head on the side of the bed and dropped into a doze.