‘Uncle Tom, I know what would give her summat else to think about; what would make her really happy after all that’s happened over the years.’

‘Oh, yes?’

‘I think you know, too. Why don’t you ask her to marry you? You must know that she loves you.’

Tom looked thoughtful but not at all surprised. ‘Mebbe I do. I don’t want to crowd her, though. She’s had a lot on her plate.’

‘And that’s the very reason you should ask her, Uncle Tom. She deserves to be happy and so do you.’

‘So you wouldn’t mind?’

‘Mind? Why would I mind? Don’t tell me you haven’t asked her ’cos you thought I’d mind. You must know that’s not true. Anyway, this is about what Mum and you want, and not about me. I’m marrying Ed and we’re going to be happy ever after,’ Ellen beamed. ‘I reckon you and Mum could be happy ever after, too. You’ve waited long enough; you must know it’s the right thing to do.’

‘Aye … aye, Nell, I reckon you’re right. I was going to marry a lovely lass – Sarah, she was called, Sarah Swaine – but she was killed. Road accident, it were. I was away learning gardening at a big place in Northumberland at the time. I already knew your mum, of course, from the village, and I liked her a lot; we all knew each other in Little Grindle then, just as now. All friends together. Anyway, after Sarah died I kept on with my training and then came back here to work in the Hall. I never planned to come back here especially, but the chance came up and I took it. But by then Dora was married to my brother, Philip. He was always a bit of a miserable bugger, though he wasn’t so bad in his youth as in later years. I reckon Dora thought she could make him happy, but he hadn’t a happy nature and he just got worse and worse.’

‘It was an illness, wasn’t it?’ said Ellen. ‘We tried but he couldn’t be made cheerful because a kind of blackness had overtaken him. Then he got as he couldn’t cope with the bad feelings and he was so envious of normal, happy folk, and I suppose that fed his bleak moods even more. He just grew worse and worse.’

Tom nodded. ‘Aye, you’re right there. He couldn’t seem to pull himself out of it.’

‘But,’ she smiled, ‘we’re looking to the future now, Uncle Tom, and in particular, your future. Yours and Mum’s. It would make her so happy to take care of you and to have you taking care of her, too. I think,’ Ellen added shyly, ‘she’d like to be married to a really nice man.’

‘Well, if you think I could make her happy—’