‘I know.’
‘I’m going to miss him.’
‘We both will.’ Her hand was now resting on his shoulder and when she bent and he felt the fleeting touch of her lips on his cheek his agony intensified tenfold. She had kissed the damaged side of his face. That she could bring herself to do this both amazed and humbled him, but it also brought to the fore the pain of that hidden longing. He did not respond immediately, forcing himself to breathe deeply several times and bring his emotions under control before he said quietly, ‘I think I can hear Dr Stefford. Would you give me a moment more before you show him in, Hannah?’
She nodded and left the room silently. He reached into his pocket and took out his handkerchief to wipe his eyes.
Once he was alone, Jake stared down into the face of his friend. ‘She thinks of me as a brother,’ he murmured, ‘same as she thought of you as a father. I know it, Seamus, but pray for me that I’ll have the strength never to do anything to betray her trust.’
It was two weeks later and the first time Jake had gone to the house in Wayman Street since the reading of Seamus’s will after the old farmer’s funeral.
The harvest was in - such things could not be delayed for either tragedy or blessing - and only just in time because for the last three days violent thunderstorms had swept the north-east. Although the morning had been dry, thunderclouds had begun to gather since midday, and Jake was glad he had taken Hannah’s advice and used the horse and trap when rain began to fall heavily as he reached the top of the street. He had deliberated on this for some time. He knew full well the news he was about to impart to the occupants of the house would receive mixed reactions and he hadn’t wanted his stepfather and Adam to accuse him of playing the wealthy farmer before Seamus was cold in his grave. But then as Hannah had pointed out, he
was
now a wealthy farmer. Furthermore, he had had free use of the horse and trap before Seamus’s death and although he had usually chosen to walk into the town, he had used the horse and trap when needs be.
Knowing Adam and Wilbur were presently working on the late shift, he had timed his visit accordingly. Owing to the rain, the street was abnormally quiet and devoid of the usual quota of snotty-nosed bairns playing their games. After tying the reins to the lamp post outside the house, he knocked on the front door. For years his mother had been telling him to walk straight in, the door was never locked, but from the day he had left to go to the farm he had always knocked.
It was his mother who answered and she looked harassed as she opened the door, but her face broke into a smile when she saw him standing there. ‘Come in, lad, come in. How many times do I have to tell you, this is still your home while I’ve got breath in my body?’ She drew him over the threshold with her hand on his arm. ‘How are you? I still can’t take in Farmer Shawe going within days of Joe.’
‘How are you, more to the point?’ He stopped her when she would have bustled ahead of him into the kitchen.
‘Oh, you know.’ For a moment grief thickened her voice.‘Middling at best. But come and sit yourself down and I’ll make a brew.’
Once seated in the kitchen with a pint mug of tea in his hand and a plate of girdle scones in front of him, Jake said, ‘I’m glad you’re on your own. I’ve something to tell you.’
‘Lily’s upstairs but it’d be a miracle for her to come down. She has a morning nap and an afternoon nap . . .’ Rose’s voice died away and was little more than a whisper when she said, ‘Is it good news, lad? I’ve been worried to death you’d find yourself out on your ear with the farmer going. What a thing to happen and on the day we buried Joe.’
‘I think you’d term it good news.’ Jake leant forward slightly, he had been looking forward to this moment. ‘It’s all mine, Mam.The farm, the land, the house. Seamus left the lot to me.’
‘No.’ She stared at him, her hand going to her chest as though to still her heart. ‘Oh, lad, lad.’
‘I knew about it some time ago but it wasn’t for me to say. But now it’s all official like.You are now looking at a well-to-do man, Mrs Wood, although if I could go back a month to when Joe and Seamus were alive I’d do it like a shot. If only I had had the brains to get Joe out of it that night, he’d still be alive. And if I’d been there the day Seamus died, I might have been able to do something.’
Rose stared at Jake. Silas had been a man without moral conscience, without a shred of normal human compassion come to that, and yet his son had enough for two men. Perhaps that was it, perhaps God in His wisdom had given Jake a double portion to even things out. If that was the case, God might be infinitely wise as the priests said but she didn’t think much of His common sense. Her lad’s thinking was a torture to him these days. Immediately her hand went to her pinny pocket for her rosary as she asked the Lord’s forgiveness. She had found she was having to do that more and more lately. ‘I doubt it, lad. What will be, will be,’ she said softly. ‘As Father Gilbert said, it was Joe’s time.’
‘Maybe.’
The sound of the baby crying upstairs filtered through to the kitchen and as much to change the subject as anything, knowing how Jake felt about Father Gilbert, Rose said quickly, ‘That bairn’ll need changing again, poor little mite. Red raw her little backside is because she’s never changed from one day to the next. How Lily can be the way she is is beyond me. I’ll just go and tell her to see to the bairn, but,’ she stood up and put her arms round Jake’s broad shoulders, placing her face against his for a moment, ‘I’m right glad for you, son. If anyone deserves good fortune, you do.’
Jake sat quietly after his mother had left the room. He heard her remonstrating with Adam’s wife and then the sound of raised voices. How did his mother put up with it? Would life go on like this for her until she was an old woman?
The rain was lashing against the window with ever-increasing fury but the glow of the fire in the range made the kitchen cosy. He reached for a girdle scone and bit into it, and then he heard the back door open. A moment later Adam opened the scullery door into the kitchen. They stared at each other for a full ten seconds while the rain dripped off Adam’s cap. Then he came further into the room, his tone aggressive when he said, ‘What are you doing here?’
Rose reappeared as he spoke and before Jake could reply she said, ‘I could ask you the same question. Why aren’t you at work?’
Adam held up a bandaged hand in answer. ‘Sliced my hand open. The deputy sent me to get it stitched and said I’d have to lose a shift. So?’ He looked at Jake again. ‘What’s brought you here at a time of day when most men are doing an honest day’s work?’
Staring unblinking into his half-brother’s full-lipped handsome face, Jake’s eyes narrowed. Adam’s tone had done away with any desire for appeasement. Taking in a slow, long breath, he delivered what he knew would be a crushing blow to the younger man. ‘I’m here to see my mother and I come and go when I see fit after giving my manager his instructions for the day.’
It was as though Adam had become transfixed, every feature of his face stiffening as he visibly struggled to take in the significance of what he’d heard.
Knowing he was turning the knife but unable to help himself, Jake said,‘Daniel’s turned out to be a good manager. He’s come on in leaps and bounds in the last months, as his wage reflects. I wouldn’t want to lose him.’
When at last Adam spoke, his voice betrayed his fervent hope that what he suspected was not true. ‘
Your
manager? Huh! Take a sight too much on yourself, don’t you?’
‘Daniel is my manager, Adam. Same as the farm is mine, lock, stock and barrel.’
‘It . . . it can’t be. You were no relation - I mean there must be others standing in line . . .’
‘If you’re asking if Farmer Shawe had family eager to take over, then the answer is yes. A nephew was always sniffing around which is why Seamus made it crystal clear in his will what he wanted. And what he wanted is for me to inherit in place of his son who was killed in the war.’
There was silence in the kitchen.Then Rose bustled forward, saying, ‘Take your coat off then and sit down. I’ll get a sup of tea—’
‘I don’t want tea.’ Such was Adam’s fury that he pushed his mother from him when she went to help him off with his coat.
‘Don’t manhandle her.’ Jake stood up as he spoke.
‘Says who? You’re nowt here whatever you are at that farm.’
‘You treat her with respect or so help me I’ll make you.’
‘Oh, we’re really into playing the big man now, aren’t we? Well, let me tell you, you don’t impress no one here. Licking the farmer’s boots to worm your way in. You’re scum, toadying scum.’
‘No, please, Jake.’ Rose was between them, holding Jake back. ‘I can’t stand any more, I’m at the end of my tether. Please, lad.’
Looking down into her drawn face, Jake slowly relaxed his taut muscles and took a step backwards. He gathered up his coat from the back of the kitchen chair. Adam said not a word but as Jake left the kitchen by way of the hall, the two men exchanged a glance of pure hatred. Whether it was this that drew Adam into the hall as Rose was saying goodbye to her son on the doorstep or the fact that Jake inheriting the farm was a bridge too far wasn’t clear. But as Jake turned to untie the horse, Adam came up behind Rose, his voice sneering as he said, ‘That’s it, go like the whipped dog you are.’
Jake covered the distance in one stride, grabbed Adam by the front of his shirt and yanked him down the step into the street. It was Adam who got the first punch in but then Jake hit him with enough force to take him off his feet and into the running gutter. Adam scrambled to his feet and came back at the bigger man with fists and feet but Jake’s superior height and breadth gave him an advantage, only matched by Adam’s talent for dirty fighting.
The rain continued to pour down as the two men fought, deaf to Rose’s entreaties which brought neighbours from several houses either side out onto their doorsteps. It ended as it had been bound to, with Adam on the ground once more but this time unable to rise. He lay writhing, his face covered with blood, as Jake stood over him. Rose pulled at Jake’s arm. ‘He’s had enough, lad, leave him be,’ she cried. ‘Please, Jake, no more.’
Jake’s face was bereft of colour but for the bright red of blood from a cut to his mouth and another above one eye, and his eyes were like black granite. After a moment he straightened, flexing his bruised hands.‘You talk to me like that again and I’ll kill you, you hear me, Adam?’
Adam had ceased moving, lying with his arms over his face as though he feared Jake was going to kick him, but as Jake shrugged off Rose’s hand and untied the reins, he sat up, nursing his stitched hand which was now bleeding heavily. As the trap began to draw away, Adam shouted, ‘That’s it, go back to your farm.’ Taking in the watching neighbours with a sweep of his head, he said, ‘He came to tell us he’s the master of a big farm now, bragging how well he was set up, and to prove the point he goes for me when I won’t kowtow to him. Nice, eh?’
Jake didn’t hear any more, he had jerked the reins and the horse was trotting down the street away from the knot of people. When he reached the corner he looked back for one brief moment and saw that it was not his mother who was bending over Adam, another couple of women were doing that. Rose was standing watching him leave, one hand grasping her middle and the other pressed over her mouth.
‘I was a fool. I knew he was trying to provoke me and I should have just come away, damn it.’
Jake was sitting at the kitchen table and Hannah was busy bathing the cuts to his mouth and eye with a mild solution of salty water. Her voice held a touch of exasperation as she said, ‘Why didn’t you then?’
‘For the same reason I rubbed his nose in it about me getting the farm I suppose.’
‘You did that? Rubbed his nose in it?’
He looked up at her. ‘Aye, I did, and don’t look at me like that. I’ve never pretended to be perfect.’
‘You’re certainly not perfect.’ She stood back a pace. ‘And did it make you feel good after?’
He glared at her. ‘No. It should have because to my mind I’ve every right to get under his skin the way he’s been, but no, it didn’t. Satisfied?’
She did not answer this directly. Instead she took the bowl and cloth through to the scullery and it was from there she said, ‘Your mother would have been upset.’
‘Thank you for pointing that out.’
When she reappeared in the kitchen, her face was tight. ‘I’ll make a cup of tea.’