‘What do you mean, no?’

‘Joe has had nothing to do with it,’ he carried on, sounding choked. ‘I’m the one responsible. I’m the one who put the deal together. Joe had no idea about any of it.’

That didn’t tally with the side of the telephone conversation I had heard, but I knew better than to interrupt. I had already had one lesson that day in what could happen when you jumped to conclusions, and I wasn’t about to do it again.

Everyone was quiet now, waiting for Charlie to explain properly.

‘I’m not going to lie,’ he said, turning red, ‘I was sick of the place and I was sick of hearing about Joe’s great life away from Wynmouth and how he didn’t have to worry about crop yields and prices and long-range weather forecasts and on top of all that, I was bloody lonely too. When I was growing up at Home Farm, there had been three brothers and two parents and now there’s just me, and my stupid dog and . . . well, it’s all got too much for me . . .’

His words trailed off and Joe stepped up again. He placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

‘The only thing I’m really guilty of,’ he said, picking up the thread, his voice wracked with emotion, ‘is that I didn’t know any of this. I had no idea that Charlie was at his wits’ end and worn out running the farm that I was, if I’m honest, jealous had fallen to him. I didn’t know he was lonely or how he had planned to rid himself of the place, before he did something even more drastic.’

There was a sharp intake of breath as everyone realized what Joe was suggesting might have happened.

‘So,’ he carried on, ‘when I came back to Wynmouth and discovered what was in the offing, I felt every bit as shocked as you lot. Not only because we were going to lose Home Farm, but also because I had been so divorced from the place, that I hadn’t seen the toll it was taking on my big brother.’

‘So, what are you going to do?’ Hope asked.

Her voice was soft and kind and Joe’s eyes gratefully sought out hers from the crowd, safe in the knowledge that there were people listening to him who were prepared to wait and hopefully understand before shouting the odds and causing more unnecessary concern.

‘Well,’ Joe carried on, ‘I’ve been working tirelessly for the last few weeks, sometimes from the farm itself and sometimes further away, to untangle the deal and see if we can unravel the contract.’

‘Is that where you’ve been going?’ Hope asked.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I daresay some of you thought I was still running away from Wynmouth, but I can assure you that wasn’t the case.’