‘That’s nice. I’m glad.’ She tried to sound pleased – for Danny’s sake – but her own misery destroyed her delight in his news. ‘I want to get a job too.’ There was longing in her tone. ‘I don’t want to go to school any more.’

He was avoiding her gaze now. She watched as he picked up handfuls of sand and let it run through his fingers. He seemed so intent on what he was doing that Kate thought he had forgotten she was even there.

She prodded his bony shoulder. ‘Don’t ya care if I go away?’

He looked up quickly then. ‘Of course I care. Ya know I do!’ He leaned forward and bumped his nose against her cheek in a clumsy attempt at a kiss. ‘I’ll always care for you, Katie Hilton.’

Kate wasn’t quite sure why he whispered it when there was only a lone black-headed gull soaring above them to hear. She giggled, embarrassed, but his gesture had banished her tears.

‘Here, ya can have this.’ He held out the whelk.

‘Are ya sure?’ Kate knew the huge shell would have taken pride of place in his collection.

‘Yeah, go on, I want you to have it. Just – just so’s . . .’ A faint redness crept up the boy’s neck. He thrust it into her hand and then stood up suddenly, pushing his hands into the pockets of his trousers. Embarrassed, he scuffed at the sand with the toe of his sturdy boot. ‘So ya dun’t forget me when – if – ya go away.’

She held the whelk to her ear and heard the sound of the sea. ‘I’d never forget you anyway,’ she said softly, slipping the shell into her pocket. ‘Not as long as I live, I won’t.’

He sat down again and resumed his sand-sifting. ‘Why does yar mam want to send you to boarding school anyway? T’ain’t for the likes of us.’

Kate sighed. ‘She says she dun’t want me staying on the farm all me life – that she wants something better for me. But I reckon—’ She hesitated and then plunged on. ‘I reckon she – she wants me away from here. Away from Fleethaven Point altogether.’

He looked at her hard now. ‘Why?’ came the blunt question.

She smoothed her white pinafore over her knees drawn up under her chin. ‘Ever since the baby came, she dun’t – want me any more.’ Her mouth trembled dangerously again.

‘Don’t be daft, Katie, ’course she does.’

‘Well, it dun’t feel like it.’ She paused, then with a note of belligerence added, ‘How would you know anyway, Danny Eland? You’ve no brothers or sisters.’ She tossed her long auburn hair which fell in shining waves down her back to below her waist.

‘No,’ he mumbled in reply. ‘But I wish I had.’

‘Ya can have our squealing Lilian then – and welcome!’