‘No, no, that ye don’t laddie. It’s more important, taking out a fine young woman for the evening,’ Mr McGuire’s eyes twinkled wickedly. ‘You know Annie would have the pair of you married if she had her way?’
‘If I’d anything to offer a wife I’d agree with her,’ Steven smiled ruefully.
‘Ah well, come round tomorrow night after milking then. There’s something we’d like to talk over with ye in private.’
***
It was a long way to Dumfries on the back of Stephen’s wee motor bike but Megan didn’t mind so long as they could spend the time together, and it was a lovely autumn evening.
‘I never thought I’d have much use for a motor bike but it’s been the handiest thing ever,’ he grinned, ‘especially for visiting at Willowburn. I didn’t expect I’d be lucky enough to have such a pretty passenger though,’ he grinned and watched the colour deepen in Megan’s cheeks. He was often surprised how easily Megan blushed and how shy she still seemed with him, yet he knew she valued their friendship as much as he did. Did she ever think they could be more than friends, he wondered, enjoying the feel of her arms around him as she settled herself on the pillion.
He had saved his sweet ration for a month and he had managed to get a tiny box of Rowntrees Dairy Milk chocolates from the grocer, or rather Mrs McGuire had got them for him, no doubt with a wee bit of bribery, he thought with a smile. He gave them to Megan as they went into the cinema.
‘Oh Steven, you shouldn’t have spent your coupons on me,’ Megan said, deeply touched by his thoughtfulness.
‘There’ll only be four or five chocolates altogether,’ he smiled ruefully. ‘Remind me to buy you the biggest box available when the rationing stops. I owe you a lot more than that, Megan,’ Steven said seriously. ‘I ought to pay you and your father for all the work you’ve done during the harvest.’
‘We’ve enjoyed it so we wouldn’t have taken your money, even if you’d had any to spare. Dad was telling Mum what a lovely friendly lot the small holders are.’
‘Yes, it makes a change from having Fred’s sullen face for company,’ he agreed wryly.
Steven reached for Megan’s hand when the film started and she linked her fingers in his and seemed happy to stay that way. Each time there was an exciting bit in the film he felt her fingers tighten around his and he squeezed her hand reassuringly, earning a quick shy smile before her attention was gripped again by the story.
As they drew into Martinwold Farm yard Steven switched off the engine and cruised silently down the slight incline to the shadow of the house wall. He turned to help Megan alight but instead of letting her go he took her hands in his and drew her closer.
‘I’ve really enjoyed this evening Megan. I wish you didn’t have go so far away to attend college.’
‘So do I,’ she said fervently. ‘I wish I’d never started, but mother believes they’re giving me a great opportunity to have an easier life than they’ve had.’
‘I thought your parents enjoyed the dairy and being able to work side by side?’
‘They do. They admit they wouldn’t want things any different for themselves so I don’t know why they think I want to be different.’
Steven was silent for a moment. Then he sighed. ‘It must be wonderful to have the woman you love at your side all the time. Perhaps I should have settled for being a dairyman too.’
‘Oh no, Steven. You’ve always wanted to farm. We all know that. I’m certain you’ll make a success of your wee holding and then the Department may offer you a bigger one.’
‘Maybe, but I’m beginning to realise there are some things even more important than having a farm, Megan.’ Without waiting for a reply he held her closer and gently traced the line of her mouth with his lips. Apart from an indrawn breath Megan offered no resistance and his arms tightened, his kisses deepened and grew more urgent. Instead of pushing him away as he had half expected, Megan slipped her arms around his neck, returning his kisses making his heart race with joy. It took all his self control to draw apart. Neither of them spoke. It was as though they were afraid words might shatter something precious. He held her hand tenderly as they moved closer to the back door of the house.
‘It’s been a wonderful evening, Megan,’ he murmured gruffly. ‘Do you think we might repeat it?’ He was unconscious of the wistful pleading in his voice.
‘Dearest Steven, there’s nothing I’d like more…’ The door opened, illuminating them and the pathway.
‘Oh hello you two,’ John Oliphant said awkwardly, seeing them standing close together, noticing their clasped hands. ‘We didn’t hear the motor bike. I’m just going to take a last look round the newly calved cows before I go to bed.’
‘Yes, it’s time I was on my way too,’ Steven said. He bent his head and gave Megan a chaste kiss on her cheek. ‘I hope you’ll manage to come down to Schoirhead again soon?’ he whispered and saw her nod. ‘Not tomorrow evening but I’ll come the next if that’s all right?’
‘Anytime at all,’ he answered with a wide smile. ‘Good night, Meggie.’ He raised his voice. ‘Good night Mr Oliphant.’
‘G’night son,’ John Oliphant called cheerfully over his shoulder as he whistled merrily on his way to the byre.
***
The following evening Steven shepherded his few cows back to their pasture, wishing he had twice as many and watching each of them for any more signs of infection. He led Daisy into the paddock at the back of the house then washed and changed before he went round to the McGuires with Shandy at his heels. The dog lay down on the doorstep with his head on his paws, prepared to wait all night for him if necessary. Steven bent and patted the silky head and was rewarded by a wag of his tail. He was smiling as he tapped the door.
‘Come in, laddie, no need to stand knocking. You know us well enough by now.’
Mrs McGuire was a good cook and generous too and Steven enjoyed his meal but he sensed both the McGuires were tense and he wondered why.
‘We don’t know how to thank you for all you’ve done since you moved next door, Steven,’ Mrs McGuire began.
‘I’m sure there’s no need to thank me for anything Mrs M. You’ve almost kept me in food.’
‘No more than you deserve and it’s all I can offer. We were worried when Bob McKie became so ill. Although he was getting on a bit he was a grand neighbour. We wondered who we’d get in his place but we didn’t expect to be needing so much help ourselves. We couldn’t have got through the ploughing and sowing, nor the hay and harvest without your help.’
‘The thing is, laddie,’ Mr McGuire broke in, ‘I canna afford to employ a man all the time and I canna manage the farm any longer on my own…’
‘But he doesna want to move out.’ Mrs McGuire added hurriedly.
‘I shall wither away if I’ve to move to the town.’
‘I can understand that,’ Steven sympathised. ‘It’s all I dreamed of - getting back to the land and the animals during the war.’ He shuddered. ‘What about a bit more help from one o’ the POW’s?’ he asked, but McGuire shook his head.
‘There’s not much profit on a place this size if you can’t do the work yourself, and I should need to supervise a POW all the time. Anyway I expect they’ll be going home anytime now.’
‘I suppose most of them will,’ Steven agreed. ‘Johan plans to stay, even after he’s released, if they’ll allow him.’
‘Aye, he seemed a good laddie, but you organised them well, Steven, and we’ve noticed how you manage your own work, lad,’ McGuire said. ‘I can see why they made you a sergeant. We want to make a proposition. We’d like you to take over most of our holding…’
‘We know our tenancy rules say we can’t sublet the land,’ Mrs McGuire broke in. She looked at him anxiously. ‘But all the other holders know how much you’ve helped us this year. Surely nobody would know if you went on farming most of our land along with your own? If you paid the rent to us, we would pay it to the Department as usual.’ She looked at him ho
pefully and Steven was reminded of Shandy when he longed for a tasty titbit.
‘I don’t understand…?’
‘We’d like to stay in the house and keep the wee paddock at the back for our two sows and my hens so that we have a wee bit o’ something to sell and to keep us interested,’ Mrs McGuire went on persuasively. ‘We daren’t offer to sublet the land to anybody else because the Department are strict about maintaining the fences and the ditches. We know we could trust you to keep them in good order.’
‘I see…’ Steven said slowly, chewing his lower lip.
‘We couldn’t give you a proper lease but you’d have the use o’ the land for as long as we’re here. It would give you chance to build up your stock for when you’re ready to rent a bigger farm, and we all know you will one day, laddie,’ McGuire said. ‘Of course the rent would be a bit less than yours because we’d still be in the house and grazing the paddock. You’d have about thirty acres extra…’
‘We need to sell the cows of course,’ Annie McGuire said. ‘Maybe you could buy them from us if you’d like? At least ye’d know where they’ve come from and that they’re healthy. We reared all o’ them ourselves.’
‘That would certainly be an advantage,’ Steven said dryly, ‘if I could have afforded them.’
‘You’d have more milk to sell and you can pay us when you’re able,’ Mrs McGuire pleaded. ‘I’d like to think o’ them still here.’
‘I wouldn’t like to be in debt,’ Steven said quickly, but in spite of his habitual caution he could feel excitement rising in him. ‘One thing for sure I wouldn’t be taking sheep on for grazing again,’ he said darkly, ‘but the extra land would let me keep a wee flock of breeding ewes of my own.’
‘Aye, a lowland breed maybe. Ewes with lambs would be more content,’ McGuire nodded. ‘Yon hill sheep have certainly given ye a few headaches.’
‘I could keep a few more cows as well. It might even be worth getting a milking machine when I can afford one.’ Steven said, his eyes bright as his brain raced ahead. He sobered. ‘The buildings wouldn’t be very convenient for that though,’ he mused aloud. ‘There’s one serious drawback as well.’ He looked Mr McGuire in the eye. ‘If yon man Wilson from the Department ever found out I was renting your land he’d probably throw both of us out.’
‘He would if he knew,’ Mr McGuire nodded. ‘Annie and me, we’d be no worse off because we can’t carry on the way things are anyway, but it would be a terrible thing to happen to you, laddie when you’re starting out. Aye,’ he frowned. ‘Maybe we shouldna have asked ye.’
‘But I don’t see how he would find out,’ Annie McGuire protested. ‘It would be a private arrangement between us.’
‘Can I think about it?’ Steven said. ‘I would like to discuss it with my father.’
‘Aye, there’s no hurry now the harvest is in,’ Mr McGuire said. ‘Let us know before the end o’ November though. We shall need to give six months’ notice at the term if you don’t take it on.’
‘Give me time to do my sums and discuss it, then I’ll let you know.’ Steven said.
‘Be sure and keep it between ourselves,’ McGuire warned. ‘Or we shall all be out on our necks.’
‘Yes, of course,’ Steven nodded, though his first thought had been to tell Megan when she came to see him tomorrow evening.
Seventeen
‘I do wish the summer holidays could go on forever,’ Megan said as she strolled across the newly harvested field with Steven. ‘Did Dad mention that Mr Turner wondered whether you have any spare grass to keep ten to fifteen young heifers for him?’
‘I haven’t seen your father since we went to the pictures.’
‘I thought he might have phoned you. Mr Turner is talking about extending the byre so that he can keep twenty more cows.’
‘Twenty! My word he is expanding.’
‘Mmm, He says there’s never been a better time for farmers to expand and make progress. Dad’s not sure whether to be pleased or not. He feels he and Mum and one boy can just about manage nicely with the number they have now, with two milking and one carrying to the dairy. Mum doesn’t want two boys living in the house with extra washing and cooking.’
‘No, I can see it would mean extra work all round for your mother.’
‘I keep thinking they might take on a smaller dairy for the two of them if they had me off their hands. I wish I didn’t have another year to do at college.’
‘It will be worth it though. Just think of the money you’ll earn and the long summer holidays,’ Steven said seriously. Megan stopped walking and turned to face him.
‘You sound like Mum. She knows, and you know, that money isn’t everything in life, Steven. If it was, you would have made a career in the army and ended up with a good pension for your old age.’
‘Mmm, maybe that’s what I ought to have done,’ Steven said morosely. He almost added, “and then I could have asked you to marry me,” but he swallowed the words.
‘You don’t really mean that,’ Megan said accusingly. ‘Come on, I’ll race you to the river.’ She was off, running fast down the gentle slope but Steven had longer legs and he caught her up so that they fell together onto the grassy bank with the river flowing by a couple of feet below them.
‘I’m putting the sheep in this field next week so they’ll be in good condition for going back where they belong. I reckon I shall have earned my money for their keep. I’m not having any more like them.’
‘I suppose that’s one lesson learned. You’d be better with Mr Turner’s heifers.’
‘Probably but I don’t want him to think he’s doing me any favours. I might be a poor small farmer but I don’t like being beholden to him.’
‘Has Fred finished his harvest yet?’
‘I hardly dare ask but I did tell him how pleased I was with young Johan so if he’s too means to pay a POW to have extra labour it’s his own fault if the harvest is dragging on.’ He stood up and held out a hand to pull Megan to her feet. She was light as a feather and before he realised it he had pulled her into his arms. He held her there, close against his chest and his heart beat rapidly. It seemed the most natural thing in the world and she offered no resistance when he kissed her upturned mouth, in fact she returned his kiss with enthusiasm. He lifted his head and looked down into her face.
‘Aah Megan,’ he groaned softly, ‘at times like this I wish I was a millionaire.’ He released her but he kept hold of her hand as they walked back along a more direct path to the farm.
‘I don’t want a millionaire,’ Megan said softly.
‘Maybe not, but I don’t even have a fraction to offer, nothing like your other admirers. This is the McGuire’s field we’re walking through now,’ he said. He was tempted to confide in her about their proposition and the plans going round and round in his head.
‘I don’t suppose they’ll mind,’ Megan said flatly, knowing Steven was deliberately changing the subject. He had never once said he loved her. Maybe he was already regretting the kisses which had set her heart pounding and her lips tingling. Maybe he only wanted a little light dalliance when she was so available.
Even before they reached the house door they could hear the telephone ringing.
‘I wonder who that can be?’ Steven said as he ran to the house. ‘I spoke to Mother last night…’ He grabbed the receiver before it stopped ringing.
‘Hello?’
‘You’re through now caller,’ the operator said. Before she had finished speaking Steven heard his mother’s agitated voice.
‘Where have you been, Steven? I’ve tried three times…’
‘I’m here now, Mother. Is something wrong? Is it Dad?’
‘Oh Stevie. He - he’s had another st-stroke.’ He could hear her voice trembling and knew she was near to tears and Hannah Caraford never gave in to tears. ‘He-he…It’s bad, Steven. Can you come? Doctor Burns doesn’t think he’ll last until morning.’
‘Oh Steven, how dreadful,’ Megan said in d
istress when he relayed the news to her. ‘Shall I drive you to Willowburn? You’ve had a shock and...’
‘I’ll be all right, Meggie. I’d better go on the motorbike so I can get back here,’ he said. ‘Whatever happens I shall need to return briefly to milk the cows and feed the pigs.’
‘Go now then but please be careful, dearest Steven,’ Megan said softly. She put her arms around his middle and hugged him and for a moment he laid his cheek against her soft hair, wishing she could go with him, but his first priority now would be to comfort his mother.
‘I will. I’m sorry to leave you here like this. Will you – will you tell the McGuires?’
‘Of course. Telephone me if there’s anything I can do,’ Megan murmured. ‘I’ll fuel your Aga to keep it in for morning, and I’ll feed Shandy before I leave. He senses you’re upset.’
‘Yes,’ he bent and patted the dog’s silky head. ‘Will you ask the McGuires to keep an eye on him? I don’t know when I shall be back.’ He had a premonition his father would not recover so well this time.
***
‘Ah Steven, thank God you’ve come, laddie,’ Hannah greeted him with heartfelt relief. ‘Your father hasna regained consciousness.’
‘What happened? Was it sudden?’
‘We had a visit from Mr Griffiths, the agent for the estate.’ Hannah looked up at him. ‘If only he hadn’t got so upset.’
‘What did Mr Griffiths say to upset him, Mother?’
‘They’re terminating the tenancy at the end of November. Fred isna managing the farm to the standards they expect from their tenants.’ She quoted Mr Griffith’s words. ‘It seems he’d already given Fred a warning. It wasna Mr Griffiths fault. He has a job to do but when he realised Eddy was so upset he said we could stay on until the May term because your father had always been one if their best tenants. He even offered to let Fred stay on until the lease expires in another two years, if he would bring Willowburn back up to the standard of the other farms.’
‘Surely Fred agreed to do that?’
‘No. He swore at Mr Griffiths! He told him he could keep his farm. He stamped out of the house. That made Eddy worse…’ Her voice shook and she pressed her hand to her mouth. ‘I went with Mr Griffiths to the door to apologise. When I came back in Eddy was shaking. He asked me to help him upstairs. He collapsed before I could get him into bed. Doctor Burns doesn’t hold out much hope.’
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