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Back Plough the Furrow
Chapters (53)
  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Dedication page
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-one
  25. Twenty-two
  26. Twenty-three
  27. Twenty-four
  28. Twenty-five
  29. Twenty-six
  30. Twenty-seven
  31. Twenty-eight
  32. Twenty-nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty-one
  35. Thirty-two
  36. Thirty-three
  37. Thirty-four
  38. Thirty-five
  39. Thirty-six
  40. Thirty-seven
  41. Thirty-eight
  42. Thirty-nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty-one
  45. Forty-two
  46. Forty-three
  47. Forty-four
  48. Sow the Seed
  49. Reap the Harvest
  50. About the Author
  51. ALSO BY MARGARET DICKINSON
  52. Acknowledgements
  53. Copyright page

‘It’s all right, missus. She can come and play with our young ’uns. Me ma won’t mind.’

Esther bit her lip. She had no objection whatsoever to her daughter playing with Ma’s children, but she knew that Danny Eland often played with the Harris brood.

Esther sighed deep within herself. How could she hope to keep Kate and Danny apart for ever when they lived only a few hundred yards from each other and in such a small, self-sufficient community? She bit her lip and wondered what Beth too felt about the matter.

‘All right then, but only half an hour, mind.’

‘I’ll bring her back for her tea, missus,’ Enid promised and held out her hand to the child who trustingly put her own small hand into it.

Esther watched them go, then turned away and went back to lead the two horses out into the early spring sunshine. She groomed them, brushing away the last shreds of the winter coats they were shedding until they gleamed.

‘My, you pair have got fat through the winter,’ she said and was rewarded by Punch tossing his head and butting her gently. She laid her head against the horse’s neck, drawing comfort from its warmth. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you two now Matthew’s gone,’ she murmured. Silently, she acknowledged that her husband had indeed done her a favour when he had bought the pair. She drew back and patted their necks in turn.

‘But, me lads, it’s work for you tomorrow.’ Tom Willoughby had promised to lend Esther his seed drill and another of his horses for sowing the fields at Top End.

She screwed her mouth up thoughtfully. ‘I hope he remembers I need at least another feller to help me. That’s one thing I can’t manage on me own,’ she told the two horses as she led them out of the farm gate and along the lane into the first grass field.

It was as she was closing the gate to the meadow and about to turn back towards the farm gate that she saw a distant figure striding purposefully along the lane towards the Point. She stared, straining her eyes to see if she could recognize him. She saw that the man was carrying a pack on his back and that he was in uniform.

‘Matthew?’ she whispered and involuntarily took a step towards the approaching figure.