‘Oh – oh, er, yes.’ Esther turned away but not before she had caught Matthew’s grin, and realized that he knew exactly what had been in her mind.

Esther lay in her own bed, every nerve tensed. Any moment she expected to hear the latch raised and Matthew creeping into her room.

He’s not stayed here to look after Sam, she fretted to herself, he just wants the chance to climb into my bed and he reckons this is a good excuse to worm his way into the house. She lay there in the darkness, listening. Now that her bedroom door was shut against Matthew, she could no longer hear Sam’s laboured breathing. Yet this was worse, she told herself. Now she dare not go to sleep!

But for once Esther was wrong. After some time, she heard Matthew’s gentle snoring, and only then did she allow herself to close her eyes and rest.

So they fell into some sort of routine. Matthew rarely helped directly with Sam but he took on most of the farm work, leaving Esther to devote nearly all her time to the old man. Once her initial suspicions as to Matthew’s motives had been allayed, she found she was pleased to have him there.

She did not feel quite so alone in the face of death.

When the Sunday of Harvest Festival came, Esther walked the two miles alone to give thanks at the little church as Sam had done all his life. She sat alone in Sam’s pew, but as she left the church she found herself being questioned on all sides as to how Sam fared. .

‘If there’s owt you want, lass,’ Tom Willoughby boomed, deliberately ignoring the pursed lips of his wife and her sister, ‘you just let me know.’

‘I’ll call and see him,’ the vicar promised, and though she nodded agreement, Esther was a little doubtful as to how Sam would view such a visit.

At the church gate she found Beth waiting for her. Her annoyance was tempered by the fact that the girl looked ill. Her face was pinched and although the autumn evening was not cold, she was huddled into her thick winter shawl making her girlish body shapeless. Despite the thick clothing, she still appeared to be shivering.

‘He’s with you, ain’t he?’ Beth accused Esther.

There was no point in pretending that she did not understand, so Esther merely replied shortly, ‘Matthew’s staying to help look after Sam.’

She was surprised to see tears in the girl’s eyes. ‘I don’t believe you. You think you’ve got him, don’t you?’

‘I keep telling you, I dun’t want him – not that way. But I need his help. I can’t manage Sam and the farm on me own.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ Beth whispered again.

Esther shrugged and turned away. ‘Believe what you like, then.’