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.Well, an uncle in Australia died an’ left him a fortune.’‘Go on.’‘He did, it’s a fact.Ten thousand pounds they say.’‘Whew!’ As Davie shook his head his father put in quietly, ‘He cast his bread an’ got a bakehouse back, full o’ dough.’Davie had never heard his father crack a joke in his life, and this was a real good one.He lay against the door, his head back, his mouth wide, and bellowed, and they joined him.It was good to be back.After he had wiped his eyes he said to his father, ‘Don’t think I’ve heard better, Da, since I’ve been away,’ which compliment brought a slight flush to Ned’s face.He now opened the door and stood looking out on to the roadway.The twilight was deepening rapidly, and a missel thrush, making a late journey up the road towards the copse, shrilled petulantly as it passed him.There came the sound of a single moo from the direction of the farm, and somewhere in the near hills a fox barked.For five years he had dreamed of these sights and sounds, now they were his again, but for only three days.If things had been different and he had left this place in ordinary circumstances he would have gone this very minute to the master and said, ‘Have you a place for me, it doesn’t matter what?’The feeling in him to remain was like pain, he longed to rest in the folds of the fells and to be invigorated in turn by climbing the hills; he wanted to struggle against the keen winds, and breathe in the same air that he had taken with his first breath, to come back in fact to where he belonged.But this he knew was an utter impossibility, so he would make the best of the time he had.He would put a face on things; he would preen himself in his new position, which wasn’t so bad after all was said and done for a raw farm lad to have achieved.As he stood he saw a figure coming out of the farmyard gateway and into the road.He did not recognise it until it reached the bend of Will Curran’s cottage, and then it slowed and he saw the mass of auburn hair topping the woman now, not the girl.He watched her walk slowly towards her own door.Her eyes were on him, and his on her, but neither of them smiled at the other, and neither of them spoke.But she paused a moment before she disappeared from his sight, and in that moment he thought he saw what his grandfather meant by the change in her.But ah! he told himself, she’d still be the same Molly underneath, as he was still the same Davie.Leopards didn’t change their spots, and human beings didn’t change their natures, only their coverings.He walked out of the door, crossed the road and jumped up on to the high grass verge, and so on to the fells, with the wish strong in him now that he had resisted the urge to come back.It had been a mistake, and one he would likely pay for in the months ahead.Four‘You must keep it out of my way, Jane.’‘But, Father, that is impossible.And.and he isn’t an IT, Father, he’s a child.And.and don’t you realise, won’t you realise, he’s a very intelligent child.Parson Hed.’‘JANE!’ He turned from her, his hand on his brow, his eyes closed, ‘I’m not going to go through this again.Do you want to make me angry, really angry?’ He swung around and faced her.There were two high spots of colour on his thin cheekbones and his grey eyes held a light that glowed under their dullness, like the setting sun reflecting on ice on a dirty pond, and he growled at her under his breath, ‘If you persist in letting him get under my feet’ – the anomaly didn’t apparently strike him – ‘I will have him sent away; yes, yes, I warn you.’Jane stared up into the distressed face.She understood his attitude, she was full of pity for him, but nevertheless his words had made her turn pale, and as she often did when afraid she now showed courage, for she said, ‘Father, if you were to do that I would leave with him.I would take up a position of some sort as near to him as possible, and not even mother’s predicament would keep me here, nor the fact that I’m still under your jurisdiction.Only by force, Father, would you keep me if you sent him away.’She did not know what reaction her words would evoke but she did not expect him to sit down suddenly in his chair and drop his head into his hands.His acceptance of defeat brought the tears to her eyes and she went swiftly to him and put her hand gently on his shoulder, saying softly, ‘I, I will do my best to curb him, I promise you.But.but if only you could bear to tolerate him, just speak a word to him now and again, you would, I am sure, get to.’He raised his head and looked into her face and said quietly, ‘Too late, Jane, five years too late.I grant you he’s intelligent, intelligent enough to know that I have rejected him, and still reject him, for I cannot do otherwise, so put out of your mind any idea of a reconciliation.’Her heart was sore for him.Slowly she bent her head and kissed his cheek.It was the first time she had done this since she was a small child; and she was saddened further when the close proximity to him brought to her the strong smell of whisky.It was but eleven o’clock in the morning and he had begun already.She had thought he kept his drinking solely for the late hours.She went out and up the stairs to her room.It wasn’t often she could sit alone, but now she gave herself a few minutes’ respite.Amos was in good hands at the moment; Winnie had taken him across to the cottage to see Davie.Davie had come home.She had never seen Winnie so happy for years.She must go across and give him a welcome, but for the moment she would just sit here; she felt tired, weary, not only in her mind but in her body.She’d already had a tussle with Amos before eight o’clock this morning.She had overslept and had woken to see him going through the door dressed for outside.When she tried to prevent him from going down the stairs he had fought her like a young wild animal.But though she managed to keep him quiet until she was dressed, once outside he had raced about the yard like a dog off a chain.When he would not return upstairs to have his meal but wanted it in the kitchen, it was then she made the mistake of saying, ‘We don’t eat in the kitchen, we eat in the dining room.’Oh! then he would have his meal in the dining room.There had been more explaining, more argument.His powers of reasoning were, in a way, beginning to frighten her.He could detect subterfuge better than an adult; moreover, she had known long before yesterday, when he had nipped Parson Hedley’s ear, that he could be loving one moment and vicious the next.The latter trait she put down to frustration, for, with his temperament, restriction must be a form of torment.Sadly, wistfully, she thought again that if only her father would countenance the child’s presence in the house, life would be so much simpler, in fact it would be wonderful.It did not matter so much her mother ignoring his presence for they need never meet.The thought of her mother reminded her that she had been without Winnie for the past half-hour, so she must go and visit her.She rose slowly and went out and across the wide landing to her mother’s door and knocked, as always, before she entered the room [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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