“You shouldn’t blame Maggie about that business with Charlie Elliot,” she said. “ I’ve been thinking we haven’t been fair to her. It’s not her fault.”

“She could have stayed with her husband,” Tom said. “ That would have provided a stable home for her boys and saved us all a lot of trouble.”

“But she was unhappy!” Oliver Kerr said. “You could see how unhappy she was. And all those arguments weren’t doing the boys any good.”

“I know,” he said. “I know I’m hard on her.” He paused. “But don’t you realise that her separation started it all? Charlie Elliot told me that he would never have left the army if he hadn’t known she would be free. That’s the only reason he came home.”

“All the same,” she said. “You can’t blame her. She gave him no encouragement.”

“I can’t stand him hanging around the house,” he said suddenly. “I see enough of him at work. Whenever I go out, he’s there, waiting for her. If she wants nothing to do with him, she should tell him.”

“She has told him,” Olive Kerr shouted back. “ She was engaged to Charlie Elliot when they were both eighteen. She broke it off after three months and she hasn’t been interested in him since. She’s told him so a dozen times. It’s not her fault that the man’s as daft as a ship’s cat and won’t listen to her.”

“Then why doesn’t he leave her alone?”

“I don’t know,” Olive said. “ He’s stubborn, lonely. Perhaps he’s hoping that she’ll change her mind. But pestering her will do no good. She’s as stubborn as he is.”

“It’s not a joke anymore,” Tom Kerr said. “A couple of nights ago I couldn’t sleep. It was two o’clock in the morning. And he was still out there in the street staring up at her window.”

“Why don’t you talk to Fred?” she asked. “ Perhaps he’d speak to him.”

“No,” Tom Kerr said. “He takes no more notice of his father than he does of me.”

There was a silence. She took a heavy meat knife from a drawer and began to carve the beef.

“You know,” she said, “you could do something about it if you want to.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“If he had no work in Brinkbonnie, he’d have to leave. There’d be nothing to keep him here then.”

“I’ve no grounds for sacking him,” he said, shocked. “ He’s a good enough worker. What excuse could I use for sacking him? And you know why I took him on.”

“You don’t need an excuse,” she cried. “You’re the boss. Why should you feel guilty?”

But he shook his head. “No,” he said. “ I couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be right.”