by Diane Allen
‘Aye, lad, but we will be better off without the likes of him, now that I’ve seen what he’s about. I’d have killed the bastard myself, if I’d have known how his mind was working.’ Bill looked at all his workers – who had always shunned Thomas Farrington, and now he knew why – before glancing at the lime pit where his secret lay buried.
Lucy stopped halfway up the moorland path to Black Moss. She leaned over a gate at the side of the path and looked down to the valley below. She could just make out Providence Row and the flay-pits as she wiped a tear away from her eyes. ‘Please let the secret be buried along with Thomas Farrington,’ she whispered. She could never have married him and would never have agreed, if it hadn’t have been for his threat of blackmail. Yet even when he was dead, he’d brought the police to their door, and perhaps the danger of them knowing the truth.
Her heart pounded and Lucy felt sick as she started out on the latter half of her walk to work. She’d have to lie to Adam Brooksbank, if he questioned her about the so-called marriage to Thomas – something she didn’t like doing, seeing as she respected him and enjoyed his employment. Hopefully not a lot would be said about the matter, and she could make light of it. It would soon be forgotten and then life could return to normal. And although Thomas had died, she could not feel an ounce of grief; only relief at being saved from a life that would have caused her sorrow and pain.
She knew instantly, on arriving in the farmyard, that Adam was up and about, for the farmhouse door was wide open and the chickens and hen were busy eating their morning ration of meal mixed with hot water. She glanced at them before entering the house.
‘Ah, Lucy, so you are with us then, this morning. Have you heard the news?’ Adam looked suspiciously at her and noticed that she looked as if she had been crying. He started to regret his bluster over Thomas’s death. Perhaps after all there had been something in what Thomas had said.
‘I have, sir, and it’s good riddance to bad rubbish. Nobody’s going to miss Thomas, except happen my father, for his work. He was a bad lot. I’m only sorry that I heard you had to get involved in it. I suppose Thomas was the worse for drink, like he always was, and coming out with a load of rubbish about me marrying him. I hated him – that’s more like it.’ Lucy recalled Thomas’s threat to her, and how he had pushed her into the thorn hedge and felt her breasts, and knew she could never have walked out with him on Saturday.
‘And there was I, thinking you’d be heartbroken and grieving at the loss of your beau!’ Adam grinned. ‘Still, I shouldn’t make light of it. He lost his life and your name was upon his lips when he died. He must have felt something for you.’ Adam looked seriously at Lucy. ‘Perhaps you had flirted with him in the past? Alex Braithwaite thinks that you are a tease, so perhaps it would be better if you weren’t quite so open with your attentions.’ Adam put his head to one side and noticed his maid blushing.
‘I never flirted with Thomas Farrington – not once. And as for Alex Braithwaite, he thinks all the girls in the Worth valley are after him. I bet he was saying all sorts to his little crowd of followers. If his John Thomas was as big as his mouth, he’d be worth flirting with.’ Lucy’s dander rose; she knew she was a flirt, but not to that extent.
Adam laughed. ‘How do you know his John Thomas – as you call it – isn’t as big as his mouth, if he’s not had the liberty?’ He smiled at the blushes on Lucy’s cheeks.
‘I beg your pardon, sir. I don’t. Nor will I ever, but from what I’ve seen, I’m better off without any man about me. Of late they’ve only caused me trouble. Now if you don’t mind, sir, I’ll get on with your breakfast and milk the cow. I get more sense out of it than out of any man I’ve talked to.’ Lucy walked into the pantry and brought out the milk and butter.
‘Aye, well, the man’s dead now. Perhaps for the best, from what I saw of him. He’d a hell of a temper and looked bewitched.’ Adam pulled up his chair as Lucy sliced the bread.
‘That’s what he was, sir – bewitched. Evil as they come, and hopefully the devil has dragged him down to hell with him,’ Lucy said and then looked out of the window. ‘Archie is late this morning. He’s usually here by now.’
‘He’s here already. He was here at first light, and he’s on top of the moor repairing the walls. I met him when I fed the hen and her chicks. I told him the news about Thomas. Archie didn’t believe for one minute that you were about to wed him. But he did tell me that you had been especially frightened of Thomas last night, and that is why you asked him to walk home with you. Are you sure nothing had happened between the pair of you, Lucy? It seems strange that Thomas was so set on thinking he was to marry you.’ Adam looked at Lucy and noticed a slight hesitation in her answer.
‘No, sir, nothing happened. I just made that excuse so that I could walk home with Archie. Like you say, I shouldn’t be such a flirt. I’ll tell Archie the next time I see him that I was having him on and was only flirting. Now, that cow will be wanting my attention, and we could do with some fresh milk to start the day off.’ Lucy put her head down and didn’t dare look at Adam. He might no longer be a policeman, but he’d definitely not lost a peeler’s instincts. She only hoped that her cover of flirting would be accepted, and that the whole thing would never be mentioned again.
15
The month of April was a fine one, and Archie and Adam were busy every day repairing and restoring the drystone walls that formed the boundaries to Black Moss Farm. It had been hard work, but finally, just in time for the May sheep sale down in Keighley, their job was done.
‘I’ll have to see to that piece of bog next to the boundary wall. It’d pull a sheep down into it with ease, if it got stuck in it.’ Adam stood next to Archie and looked around him at his now-secure kingdom.
‘They’ve more sense than to go anywhere near it, but I can put a fence around it, if you want, to be sure.’ Archie looked at his master, whom he enjoyed working for, and he didn’t want to run out of work with him.
‘I’ve never known my father lose any of his flock due to the bog, but there’s always a first time. It must be what the farm’s called after, because the darkness of the moss there warns you that there’s something that will suck you down into its depths. Perhaps I’ll leave it for now, but I wouldn’t want a lamb to get stuck in it. They’ve no sense and, with a bit of luck, I’ll have a flock of sheep and their followers up here in another week or two.’ Adam leaned against the newly repaired wall. ‘It’s beginning to take shape now. My father would be happy to see it back to what it was. I should never have turned my back on it and let it get into such a state.’
‘Aye, it’s a grand farm. I could do with something like this, instead of working down in the flay-pits. It’s not a job for any self-respecting man – it’s that mucky. There’s nothing better than working on the land.’ Archie sighed and looked down over the adjoining land. He spotted the figure of the youngest of the Baxter family walking up the moorside in their direction. ‘Bugger, here comes trouble – it’s Jacob Baxter, he’s the youngest and wildest. I wondered how long it would be before one of them showed their faces,’ Archie muttered and walked away from the wall. He didn’t want to have to communicate with Jacob, if he didn’t have to.
‘Morning. Now is this not a grand spring day?’ Adam shouted to the young lad with vibrant ginger hair and a beard to match, who walked up and stood at the other side of the wall from him.
‘It’s alright. You’ve finally got around to mending your boundaries, then. My father’s been swearing about them for years. We couldn’t stop our sheep from straying, because of the state of your walls. We can happen turn our newly lambed ewes onto the moor again now.’ Jacob scowled and stared at Archie. He didn’t know the new owner, but he did know Archie Robinson and he didn’t like him.
Archie shook his head, but said nothing.
‘Yes, we are all in order now. I’m sorry if it’s caused your father concern, in my absence. I’ve only just come back into the country and decided to return home and fa
rm what’s always been our land. I’m Adam Brooksbank. I hope to be a good neighbour.’ Adam held out his hand to be shaken by the lad, who looked angrily at him and his friendly gesture was ignored.
‘Aye, well, we are the Baxters. We bother no one, if no one bothers us. We keep ourselves to ourselves and would expect folk to respect our ways. I’ll tell my father that the boundary is back up, and that you are farming here. Now I’ll be on my way. There’s plenty to be done at this time of year. We’ve more sheep and their followers than we know what to do with, and we haven’t time for idle gossip.’ Jacob glanced at both men, then left as fast as he’d appeared, and Archie came back to Adam’s side.
‘He’s a man of few words,’ Adam said to Archie.
‘He’ll be mad that you are back. I bet half his flock has been making use of the gaps in your walls and grazing your land. I’ve kept coming across signs of sheep being on the moor, even though nothing should have been on it since your father’s death.’ Archie watched as Jacob Baxter disappeared over the moorside.
‘Aye, well, there’s nothing that can get through them now, and nothing can get out, so he can go and tell his father that. I’ll not have him making me out to be a bad farmer, when my family has been here for centuries. I’m back in charge now, whether he likes it or not.’ Adam looked around him, then smiled at Archie. ‘I may be a quiet man, but they’ll find that I stand my ground, if pushed. So don’t you fret, Archie.’
Adam stood in the doorway of his farmhouse and watched as the first swallow of the year circled and twittered over his head. Its chatter was a welcome sound, heralding summer to the farm. Soon the swallows would be nesting under the eaves, swooping back and forth all summer, feeding and rearing their young, only to abandon all they had built in late autumn.
‘The swallows are here! I love their sound. They are so graceful and pretty, swooping around the place.’ Lucy gazed up towards the sky as she entered the farmyard for her usual day’s work, turning to look at Adam, who stood with a cup of tea in his hand. ‘Have you been waiting on me? I’ll get a move on, sir. I’m sorry if I’m late.’
‘I have been waiting for you, but not because you are late. However, Lucy, I thought you might like a change. I wondered if you would like to accompany me into Keighley. It’s the May sheep sales and I am going to buy myself the sheep I need, and I thought you might like to get provisions from various shops. I’ve also ordered a small donkey-cart from the carter. I’m sure Rosa will be able to pull it, and it will make life easier when it comes to putting purchases – and us – across her back. You may have to walk half the way there, but you’ll be returning in luxury.’ Adam looked at the surprise on Lucy’s face.
‘But the house, sir – and the cow!’ Lucy gasped.
‘The house is tidy, the cow is milked, and I think we both deserve a day in town.’ Adam grinned.
‘But I’m not dressed fine enough, and I’ve no money on me. But I would like to go.’ Lucy looked down at her skirts.
‘You look fine enough to me – better than most of the women in Keighley. And don’t you worry about money, as the treat is on me. You’ve done a lot for me of late, and have helped so much with my return home.’ Adam saw the smile that glowed on Lucy’s face and knew she couldn’t decline his invitation. She was a bonny-looking girl, and he couldn’t help but feel a swelling of pride at having such a beautiful young woman by his side as he went around to the stable where Rosa, his faithful little pony, stood, leaving Lucy standing in the yard. He put his hand through the pony’s mane and pulled its bridle on, and patted the animal as he placed the saddle on its back. ‘Now, Rosa, you’ve got a rival today – you’ve to look after Lucy as well as me. I know it’s wrong, but I think that flirting smile of hers is beginning to rob me of my senses. No wonder younger men fight over her. And she’s the bonniest lass for miles around.’
‘You ride on Rosa, sir. I’ll walk – there’s nothing wrong with my legs.’ Lucy watched as Adam brought the pony into the yard and stopped in front of her.
‘My leg, if you haven’t noticed, has got considerably stronger of late. I’m not in as much pain, and I don’t mind walking for a while. Just stand here and I’ll lift you up onto Rosa’s back. We can change around, if I get tired.’
Adam stood the pony next to Lucy and watched as she worried about lifting her skirts to mount the little horse.
‘I’ll not look at your ankles, don’t worry, although I do have a rough idea what goes on underneath a woman’s skirts.’ Adam grinned. ‘Here, put your foot into my cupped hands and then I’ll hoist you up. Pull on Rosa’s mane to hang on, and to help you balance.’
He watched as Lucy blushed and lifted her foot into his cupped hands, then quickly slung her skirts and leg over the back of the horse and sat up straight in the saddle.
‘Alright? Are you comfortable?’ Adam held the pony’s reins and checked that she was alright before they set off out of the yard.
‘Yes, I’ve ridden before. But I shouldn’t be sitting on her back; she’s your horse. I’m the maid, and it should be me who’s walking.’ Lucy looked down at Adam and felt awkward at seeing her master take the reins while she rode on the horse’s back.
‘If she had been a little bigger, I would have climbed up with you, but that would be asking too much of Rosa. And besides, I’d be no gentleman if you were walking while I rode. Never mind that you are my maid, I don’t believe in keeping people in their place. We are all the same when we come into the world, and we will all be the same when we depart it. It’s right that I walk. And besides, look at the day – it’s a good day for a stroll down into the town to do business and then return in style.’ Adam pulled on the reins and urged Rosa to walk on and leave the farmyard, and to walk the five miles into Keighley steadily.
The road that led from Halifax to Keighley was busy with travellers, packhorses laden with various goods, and people going about their everyday business. Nobody gave the couple making their way into Keighley a second glance, or worried for one moment that it was strange to see a woman on horseback while the man walked by her side. That didn’t stop Lucy from feeling that it was wrong, though.
‘I’d rather you were up here. Your leg must be hurting by now,’ Lucy said to Adam as they stopped for a breather and took in the view of the industrial town of Keighley, which they would soon be reaching.
‘Will you stop worrying? I’m not too bad. Besides, we are nearly there. This is Ingrow – it’s all downhill from now on.’ Adam looked up at Lucy and tried to smile and not show any pain.
‘You men are all the same: you never let on when you are beat. Here, pass me your hand and I’ll climb down, for you to get on Rosa. As you say, we are nearly there now – another mile and we will be in the centre.’ Lucy held her hand out for Adam to help her dismount, but he wouldn’t take it.
‘Move up nearer Rosa’s neck, and I’ll get in the saddle behind you. It’s downhill for her now, and she won’t mind taking us both the last mile. I must admit, the pain is beginning to tell slightly.’ Adam led Rosa, with Lucy still astride her, to some mounting steps next to a working worsted mill. The noise of the weaving machines from within the tall four-storey mill was deafening, as Adam made his way up the steps and eased himself snuggly into the saddle behind Lucy.
Lucy breathed in and felt her heart flutter, as Adam placed his arms around her to take the reins. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck, and could smell the soap that he had used to wash and shave in that morning. It was a comforting smell, and a million miles away from the smell of the flay-pits men. His strong arms wrapped themselves around her, and she felt his knees squeeze the side of Rosa, to make her walk on.
‘We should be thankful we are not at work, like the poor buggers in that mill. Just look at the dust flying out of the windows. God knows what it would be like in there, working on those looms all day. There’s something to be said for being your own man,’ Adam said, trying to make Lucy feel more comfortable with being so close to him,
as she sat rigidly in front of him.
Lucy looked up at the blue sky, at the mill windows that were open above them, and at the fluff flying up into the air like fairy wishes. She bent her head backwards and nearly put her head on Adam’s shoulder in doing so. She’d never been so close to a man before, and she quickly sat forward after looking into his deep-brown eyes and seeing mischief in them, at the thought of her being so familiar with her master.
‘I don’t bite, you know,’ Adam said as she quickly apologized. ‘Don’t worry, we will soon be in Keighley and then the journey back will be more acceptable to you. Perhaps you’d have been happier staying at home?’
‘Oh no, I’m enjoying my day away. I just didn’t want you to think I was flirting. After all, you did lecture me about it the other day,’ Lucy said quickly.
‘I think you know better than to flirt with me, Lucy, so don’t you worry about that,’ Adam whispered in her ear. It had been a long time since he’d been so close to a woman himself, and he’d forgotten how good it felt and secretly wished she would flirt with him.
Lucy smiled to herself and enjoyed the rest of the ride into Keighley. She knew she shouldn’t even think about flirting with Adam, but her feelings were beginning to get the better of her, when it came to the perfect gentleman seated next to her. Although she knew that Adam being a gentleman was something she should be grateful for, many gentlemen still took advantage of their maids, but Adam was different and had never looked and treated her in that way. All too soon, in Lucy’s eyes, the small horse took them onto the bustling streets of Keighley and Adam pulled on the reins to stop Rosa in her tracks at the head of Church Green. The tall tower of the parish church stood at one end of the street, while down its cobbled streets were various traders and shops, selling whatever goods were required.
Adam slid down off the horse and offered Lucy his arms to help her dismount. She looked down at him and put her hands on his shoulders, as he held her by her waist just for the briefest of seconds, before quickly gathering his senses and noticing her blush.