I moved to stand between the two pens so I could watch both lambs. The first one was already on his feet and feeding from his mother. His tail was shaking like mad. Barbara had returned to chugging down grass and seemed oblivious. I glanced back at Nancy. She was having a lie-down. I didn’t blame her after what she’d been through. The other lamb was almost all grey. It was a different sort of grey. I could see now why Maggie called them lavender lambs. I watched it feed for a bit and then noticed Nancy was tensing up, something was going on. I moved around the pen. Oh crap. No! There was another lamb coming out.

‘Maggie!’ I yelled in the general direction of the house. There was no way she was going to hear me if she was in the shower.

I dashed inside the pen to join Nancy. With any luck she’d pop this one out like she had the first. I took a deep breath and lifted up the tail. There was a head and there were legs. I looked again. There were three front legs. Three? Bloody hell.

20

MAGGIE

Maggie checked the tomatoes weren’t overdone under the grill and gave the scrambled eggs another stir. She let out a huge yawn. If Tom hadn’t been there she would have happily returned to her bed for a well-earned nap – she was knackered and her bones ached in protest at being out in the damp field for hours. But despite that she didn’t want to miss a moment with Tom. He was like a blood transfusion. He gave her the pep she needed to go another week on her own. She wandered to the back door and stuck her head out.

‘Tom! Breakfast!’ she called. She was about to retreat when a distant but panicked reply reached her.

‘Maggie! Help! Maggie!’

‘Bugger,’ said Maggie, under her breath. She dashed inside, switched off the cooker and marched out, swapping her slippers for wellies on the way.

When she reached the field she could see Nancy was obviously in trouble and Tom looked like a stressed expectant father pacing and rubbing his hands together.

‘It’s got three front legs!’ he said. He dropped to his knees as if he needed to have another look to be sure. His eyes darted from Maggie’s face to Nancy’s back end.

‘Three front legs?’ She couldn’t stifle the laugh.

He glared at her. ‘It has. Come round and look.’ He was genuinely distressed.

‘Or she’s got two more lambs in there and they’re trying to exit together.’

Tom frowned hard. ‘Huh. Yeah… that makes more sense.’ Nancy’s breathing was off. ‘She’s not right,’ said Tom, looking anxious.

‘She’s not,’ agreed Maggie. She’d almost lost Nancy in a similar situation the year before and she doubted she could go through it again.