Josephine Cox Sunday Times Bestsellers Collection. Josephine Cox

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СКАЧАТЬ funny!’ Adam was sure he’d seen someone up there. Cupping his mouth, he called against the wind. ‘BARNEY! Where the devil are you!’ but there was no answer.

      Puzzled, he made his way back to Casey’s Farm. ‘I could have sworn …’ He shook his head. ‘Adam Chives, you must be losing your marbles.’ But then, he chided himself, was it surprising he’d begun to imagine things, when his best and only real friend in the world had told him he would probably not live to see another Christmas?

       Further down the hill, the figure remained hidden until Adam had gone on his way, then furtively it emerged, to continue along the path in the direction of Overhill Farm.

      The two Davidson boys were in the barn and had been for the past hour. ‘No, no!’ Barney rushed forward, just in time to stop Ronnie from laying the section too close to the corner. ‘You need to leave room for the dancing,’ he said. ‘If you take it too far into the corner, there’ll be no space for folks to swing about.’

      Ronnie laughed at that. ‘Oh, so you do intend we’ll all be swinging about, do you?’

      ‘I hope so!’ Thomas brought forward another two sections. ‘I’m bringing the prettiest girl ever, and I’d be real disappointed if we weren’t able to dance!’ He winked at Ronnie who told him he was fortunate, because so far, he himself didn’t have a partner.

      ‘You’ve got Lucy,’ Barney reminded him. ‘And if you think she can’t dance then you’d best think again, because from what me and your mammy have seen, she can cut a rug along wi’ the best of ’em!’

      In fact, he had often caught Lucy when she was playing the gramophone and dancing on her own across the parlour. ‘What’s more,’ he added, ‘she’s a fine-looking young woman. You should be proud she’s agreed to dance the evening away with you, my lad.’

      ‘How many more sections do you think I need to make?’ Thomas had been making wooden-slatted squares all morning, and now it seemed his father was right and there wouldn’t be enough of a dance-floor to cope with all the folks that were invited.

      Barney walked the area with him. ‘We’ll need it right up to there,’ he said, pointing to the barn wall. ‘That’s where the food will be. Then it needs taking to within three feet of the far end. That’s where the benches will be set out, and folks can sit if they’re not dancing.’ He scratched his chin and mentally calculated. ‘I reckon if you could make another two, that should do it.’

      As Thomas went back outside, Barney informed Ronnie, ‘That’s your job when once you’ve finished laying the floor. We’ll need at least four long benches for folks to sit on.’

      ‘I like the way you say “we”,’ Ronnie quipped. ‘I haven’t seen you lift a single thing yet, Dad!’

      ‘Cheeky young divil!’ Barney wagged a friendly finger. ‘Some of us have more to do than prepare for a barn-dance. There’s plenty of other work wants seeing to.’

      Just lately, Barney had found it increasingly necessary to delegate the work he was physically incapable of doing. Thankfully, so far he had managed to hoodwink everybody. ‘Stop your moaning and get on with it, you young scoundrel. And be quick about it. Afore we know where we are, tomorrow will be here and so will all the folks.’

      By the time evening came the barn was ready, with colourful trimmings hanging from the rafters, a long table set up to hold the food and a whole wall of benches to accommodate weary bottoms. Much to Barney’s delight, the makeshift dance-floor was not only a job to be proud of, but large enough for the dancing of many partygoers. ‘You’ve done a grand job,’ he told his sons. ‘I couldn’t have done better myself.’

      Ronnie reminded him that the tables for the guests to eat at were not yet put up. ‘There’ll be time enough to root them out tomorrow,’ his father said. ‘If I remember rightly, the fold-up tables are buried under all kinds of rubbish at the back end of the wood-shed.’

      It was gone nine by the time Barney and his sons returned to the house. ‘That’s us done for the night,’ he told Vicky who, together with Lucy, was still taking trays of pork pies out of the oven. ‘It’s over to you now, girls.’ He was concerned at the late hour. ‘It might be best if Lucy and the child stayed the night,’ he suggested to Vicky. ‘She looks fair worn out – you both do. Leave it all now, and get up early in the morning. The party doesn’t start till evening. There’ll be plenty of time to finish off whatever needs doing.’

      ‘I’ve already asked Lucy to stay.’ With the back of her flour-speckled hand, Vicky wiped away a wisp of hair. ‘Bless him, little Jamie’s fell asleep hours ago … Lucy’s just about to go up.’

      Bone-tired and ready for her bed, Lucy washed her hands at the pot sink, said her good nights and climbed the stairs to be with her child.

      After checking little Jamie she stood for a while at the window, looking at the night sky and thinking how strange life could be. One minute she was footloose and fancy free; then along came Edward Trent, who promised her the world, made her with child then cleared off; then back he strolled into her life, fooled her into thinking he’d mended his ways and was ready to make her his wife and give his son a name, when he ran away again – in the most cowardly fashion yet.

      Somewhere along the way, her life had gone very wrong, and now here she was, without a husband and Jamie without a daddy, and in a couple of weeks’ time, her dear friends would sail away and she would be left here alone.

      She worried about Barney. No matter how hard he tried to reassure her that things were fine with him, Lucy could not rid herself of a niggling doubt. Was he ill? Or was it, as he said, ‘summat and nowt’?

      Too weary and weighed down with regrets to make sense of it all, she undressed and, climbing into bed, drew the child to her. It was only a matter of minutes before she, too, fell asleep.

       Chapter 16

      WHEN, AFTER A fitful few hours Lucy woke, it was to hear the stairs creak as someone crept down them. Darting to the door, she inched it open and saw Vicky on her way down to the kitchen. She turned to see Lucy and hissed, ‘Go back to bed! It’s only half past five. I’ll call you in an hour.’ With that she continued on tiptoe down the stairs.

      Lucy went into the bathroom, had a wash at the basin and quickly got herself dressed. A look to make sure that Jamie was still deep asleep, and then she was down the stairs and after Vicky.

      ‘I thought I told you to go back to bed?’ Vicky already had the mixing bowl out and the flour jar in her hand. ‘You could have had another hour’s sleep.’

      Grabbing a pinafore, Lucy wrapped it round her. ‘While you’re doing the scones, I’ll make the apple-pies,’ she said, and before Vicky could answer, she was inside the pantry, collecting together all the ingredients.

      Over an hour later the men came downstairs, followed by a very sleepy Susie; the pleasant aroma of baking filled the air and Barney commented on the array of goodies covering the dresser. ‘By! There’s a table fit for a king,’ he said, licking his lips at the pies, cakes, scones and joints of meat ready for the slicing.

      Vicky scrutinised him. ‘Are you all right, love?’

      ‘’Course I’m all right.’ СКАЧАТЬ