Mam stands, stiffly, back straight and head high. Pale, as I have never seen her before.

Meddling

Bett rolled her eyes as Daniel bumped into the doorway helping her carry the table out. The day of the spring clean, and he was grateful to have his hands busy and his mind taxed only as far as following Bett’s instructions.

She was the beating heart of the farmhouse, her solid presence replacing that of the sour-faced nursemaid Daniel grew up with when he was nine and Bett only thirteen. She left a swathe of gleaming floors and scrubbed surfaces in her wake, filling the hall with the smell of baking bread and stewing meat.

She had brought order to the chaos that reigned their lives and yet theirs remained a household that defied convention, and not just for the lack of a milkmaid. Father often grumbled that in those other village families that had housemaids, the servant knew her place, worked in silence, greeted her master with no more than a bobbed curtsey. He had found the only one that confused service with advice, never fearing to express an opinion.

‘Catch hold of yourself, can’t you?’ she said. ‘Head in the clouds today.’

Not quite in the clouds, perhaps, but halfway there at least. As far as the cursed hill. He had risen early that morning and left the stone by the river, hoping Sarah had forgiven him, and would come.

He placed the table down in the yard and glanced past Bett to see Father atop the ladder Gabriel held, dropping the rope that held a holly branch down the chimney. Daniel was not needed.

‘Have you – what do you think of the new magistrate that’s come?’ he asked.

Bett stopped and rubbed her back. ‘I’m glad to see the back of the old one.’ An unfortunate turn of phrase that took Daniel to the vivid memory of what he had witnessed that night in the woods. She shook her head. ‘That poor child.’

She led the way into the hall to begin removing chairs. ‘Though what happened at the market …’

She lifted a chair in each hand, and Daniel did the same, following her once more into the bright yard. ‘Thank God you were there and had backbone to step in.’

‘Come along then, whelp,’ Gabriel said, as Bett replaced him to secure the ladder while Father climbed down. ‘Come join the men awhile.’