Rosie stood back and looked at Ethan’s new living quarters. The room smelled of the barley, wheat and corn maize used to feed the hens and pigs, stacked in one corner. But it was warm and dry and quite homely now. The spare bed, which had been there for any travellers and drovers, was now made up with clean sheets, and Rosie had hung the red gingham curtains around the windows and whitewashed walls, as her mother had suggested. In the corner she had placed the old kitchen table and two chairs from Windfell, which had once been in her grandfather’s kitchen at Butterfield Gap. They had found a home, just like Ethan, she thought, as she placed a jam jar of late-flowering Michaelmas daisies on the table to brighten the room up.

Ethan was gradually being made welcome at Crummock Farm. Perhaps it was a blessing that she had lost her baby; this way everyone would know that both of them were serious about one another. It didn’t matter that Ethan was a stable boy. Anyway he wasn’t any more; he could say he was the farm man now, and he’d hopefully have an even better position in the future.

Rosie smiled as she closed the paint-worn door behind her and climbed down the stone steps that led into the farmyard. Ethan had made it this far and, with her love, he’d get even further with her beside him, of that she was sure. Sunday could not come soon enough, and in six months’ time hopefully they would be able to marry.

22

22

‘Seen any tarts on bikes, lately, Fox?’ Geoffrey Brunskill, the school bully and prefect, hit Luke hard around the head as he walked down the dormitory, checking that all was in order for night. ‘Oh no, sorry – your father just kills them, I’d forgotten.’

Luke hung his head and then pulled his covers back to climb into bed, watching as Brunskill left the room. How he hated him. Since his father’s accident Brunskill and his little gang of followers had made his life hell.

‘Take no notice, Luke, he’s a bastard.’ Bill Palmer looked across at his best friend, who he knew was upset about events at home and the fact that he’d been sniggered about for weeks. ‘Nobody else even gives a damn about what they heard. Besides, he’s only having a go at you tonight because you’ve received your rifle badge so quickly. It took him ages, and he still hasn’t received his red star and fully qualified as an NCO. I bet you get there before him – he’s too thick to become an officer. I’d like to know what his parents are like. He’s only from Bradford, and they can’t be that posh.’