Ricketty Jim had turned up in the parish on a summer morning some three years ago. He was shabbily dressed with an old sack of a few belongings, obviously a rover, but he asked for no charity and would put in a hard day’s work on the local farms and ask for no more than a good meal in return. He informed the folk curious about him that he came from the north of the county and preferred to live under the stars, usually moving on every two or three months, and that he was likely to leave a parish as suddenly as he’d arrived in it. While he was in Perranbarvah he made his camp where Rosie had seen him. The Trenchards didn’t mind him squatting on their land and other folk soon grew to respect him and took his presence among them for granted, seeking him out for interesting discussions and to listen to his entertaining story-telling.

Rosie could see no sign of him now. Under the hedge by the stile on Trecath-en’s side of the valley was one of his favourite spots but he had obviously moved on to another. As always, there was no sign that he had ever been there.

Rosie moved down the valley in careful side steps making for the path at its bottom that led straight home. The ground was rough and uneven all the way down to the cheerful river that ran alongside the path and needed careful negotiation through thick clumps of tall sharp thistles. There were no suitable plants for Beatrice’s needs here but Rosie knew she would find a wealth of them down by the river.

Afterwards, Rosie couldn’t recall the reason why she lost her footing and fell. She may have been deep in thought about leaves or wild flowers, or where Ricketty Jim had gone, or it may have been her anger with Clem. But she had felt her ankle go in one agonising movement and she was falling, rolling over and over the fierce thistles with the bottom of the valley rushing up to meet her.

When she finally came to a halt, the breath knocked out of her, her hat had come off, her faded blue dress torn from her petticoat. It was several minutes before she could pull herself up to a sitting position but the effort ended with her hunching her upper body over her knees. Her head was spinning and she was horrified to think that somehow she was badly injured.