‘Please ya’sen.’ Esther muttered impatiently, but nevertheless she fetched a blanket and wrapped it around him.

Then she went upstairs alone to her bed.

Fifteen

WHEN she came down the following morning, the blanket had been tossed aside and Matthew was not in the house.

Esther cleaned out the range and relit the fire. She laid the breakfast table and was about to go out and start the milking, when he came in. He sat down at the table, picked up the spoon laid ready for him and began to eat the porridge which Esther had spooned into a bowl.

‘Ya know,’ he began between mouthfuls, his eyes cast downward. ‘I reckon we could just afford a pair of ’osses. I was talking to Tom Willoughby at the pub last night an’ he reckons he knows of a chap who’s got a couple of crossbreeds for sale.’

Esther almost gasped in astonishment. Matthew was acting as if yesterday, and more especially last night, had never happened. She looked closely at him. There was no way he could forget last night’s escapade though, she thought grimly, with two black eyes and a bruise across the bridge of his nose. Esther shrugged slightly. Oh, well, she thought to herself, if that’s the way he wants it, it suits me. Aloud she said, ‘They might be a bit pricey for the likes of us, but there’s no harm in ’aving a look, Matthew.’

‘Right, I’ll go an’ see Tom later on today.’

A little later he left the house without ever looking directly at Esther or meeting her eyes.

‘By heck,’ Ma Harris shook her head. ‘Ah dun’t want many of them type of birthings. Poor lass were fair worn out, and torn – eh dear!’ She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and cast her glance skyward in an expression of regret and shook her head again. ‘’Ee were a big lad an’ wrong road on. She had a bad time, did poor Beth.’

Quietly, Esther said, ‘She had a son, then?’

She felt Ma Harris’s perceptive gaze upon her, watching her. ‘Aye, a fine lad. She’s calling him Daniel after her father. The babby’s none the worse, just Beth. She’ll get over it. She’s young enough to have plenty more bairns.’ Ma Harris cackled. ‘She’ll have to go some to catch me up, though, won’t she? Me eldest, Ernie, he’s nigh on fifteen and the little ’un, Alice, she’s just turned three seven – in all livin’.’

Esther smiled and nodded as if in congratulation.

‘Ya’ll be next, if Ah’m not mistaken,’ Ma said. ‘How far on a’ ya?’

Esther stared at her. ‘How – how did you know?

‘Lass – ’tis written in your face.’

‘But I scarcely know mesen – I mean – I can’t be sure yet . . .’