43

A lice stands at the door of the smithy, her arm round Sam while they watch Daniel shape a horseshoe. Black metal hammers on red. Turn, hammer, turn, hammer, check, hammer.

‘I was right after all, then,’ Daniel says.

‘About what?’

‘I said good begets good, and it did,’ he tells her.

Puzzled, Alice asks, ‘What maggot have you got in your head?’

He hammers some more; metal rings on metal. ‘Wat would be dead now without you.’

‘That? I enjoyed every minute, if you want to know, Daniel.’ Well, almost every minute. The sickness has been, still is, an unwelcome start to the day, but it is part of a larger gift I am so happy to have been given.

‘So?’ He hammers again. ‘It’s only puritans think you should be miserable helping others. Rejoice, Alice. Wat and Luella are happy, thanks to you.’

‘Definitely a maggot in your head,’ she says.

‘Huh! Must have caught it from you, then.’ He turns to grin at Sam. ‘What do you think, Sam?’

But Sam has no interest in maggots. ‘Can I have a go, Daniel?’ As ever, he wants to try something new.

‘If you like,’ Daniel says, and Alice thinks, I shall miss him. He always has time for others. She watches him give the hammer to Sam, who promptly drops it.

‘Oof! It’s heavy!’

‘Pick it up, then,’ Daniel encourages. ‘Now, see this red bit here? Just hammer straight onto that.’ With the tongs, he holds the horseshoe ready. Sam heaves, swings and hits the anvil. ‘Well, not far off. Let’s try again, eh?’ And at Sam’s next try, ‘That’s it, dead on! Now it’s ready for me to do some fancy stuff, so if you’ll give me back the hammer…’ Daniel pushes the shoe back into the coals and wipes his forehead on his sleeve. ‘Sam,’ he says, ‘that wooden horse of yours needs a rider, I’d say. Maybe you’ll find something on the table indoors.’ Sam needs no second bidding. He rushes into the cottage. Daniel glances at Alice. ‘Replacements for Samuel and Zachariah.’

‘He will be delighted. He’s missed those toys,’ she says. After a moment, ‘So you would like to start reducing your time at the farm fairly soon now?’

‘If that’s all right with you, Alice. I’m getting that busy here, I never thought the business would pick up the way it has. Sir Thomas has been very kind, getting several neighbours up Woodley way and beyond to come here for odd jobs.’

‘I guessed as much,’ she says. All part of the Harcourt grand plan, she thinks.

‘Result is, I can’t keep the best eye on the men up at your place.’

Sam bursts from the cottage. ‘Alice! Alice, look!’ He holds up two whittled figures.

‘Samuel and Zachariah!’ she says.

‘No, this one is Nebuchadnezzar…’

‘Nebuchadnezzar?’ Alice recognises Ursula’s teaching influence during her absence in Bristol. ‘Didn’t he build the hanging gardens of Babylon? A noble name, indeed.’

‘… and this one is… Ruth. They’re going to fight the pirates.’ And Sam proceeds to set them at some ends of wood Daniel has discarded.

Daniel smiles his slow smile. ‘Well, you’ve surely made him your son, indeed. Placing a woman on warrior duty. What is the world coming to?’

‘Ruth comes of fighting stock,’ she says. ‘At least, the Ruth I know does. Now, tell me about the hay cut, it seems to have gone very well.’

‘It certainly looked good. There should be feed a-plenty for the winter. The wheat cut is the next thing to be concerned about, it must be done properly.’ He withdraws the yellow-red shoe from the fire and proceeds to hammer it some more. It halts their conversation for a few seconds and she turns away for relief from the searing heat, almost bumping into Sir Thomas Harcourt.

‘Ah, Alice. I seem to meet you just at times when I need to talk with you.’ His arm is no longer in a sling and he has a healthier colour in his face. They move together across the yard to the shade of a hawthorn tree.

‘I wanted to consult you as well, Sir Thomas,’ she tells him. ‘The last time we spoke, you were questioning Bart Johnson and Dick Winter. I’ve seen Dick around the village since then, so he is no longer suspect, I take it?’

‘No one at the inn would agree the young man in that hat was Dick Winter. We kept Bart Johnson a bit longer and he finally confessed to finding the hat in the bushes behind the brew house.’

‘That fits with my own thoughts,’ she tells him, without elaborating further.

‘Also he confessed to having misled us into looking for a large black horse. For that he’ll be fined two pence and go in the stocks for an hour, which will amuse Hillbury and keep Johnson on the straight and narrow for a while. So, yes, it was the same hat you saw, and no, we don’t have our suspect. We’re back to looking for the business rival in a maroon hat with unknown horse.’

With no horse at all, Alice reflects; she will have walked the mile from Westover, and probably hid in the stables, waiting while the light faded before going into the inn. But Alice will not be passing that on to Sir Thomas. She changes the subject. ‘Ursula tells me she reported Keeper Sparrow to you. But he did at least lead us by the correct route to the coast.’

‘If it hadn’t been for that, he would have lost his position straightway. We’ve just spent a lot of money on that prison and I don’t want behaviour like his marring its reputation. We’ll be making regular checks. Anyway, Alice, my dear, I wanted to speak to you on another matter.’

Hill House Farm, she thinks, but he says, ‘Lady Harcourt is thinking of another small supper. The last one was so pleasant, we should all like to repeat it.’

‘Have you spoken with Ursula yet, Sir Thomas?’

‘Not as yet, but I quite understand that Ursula is always busy and may be unable to accompany you. Tom can come and collect you.’

‘Your son is back from his visit to friends in Winchester, then?’

‘Can’t keep him away from your farm, would you believe! You know, it’s like a second home to Tom, if I may put it like that; he’s been over that often for the hay cut. You’ll be wanting him and Harold again when the wheat is harvested, no doubt?’

‘If your sons can be spared from your own fields, that would be most generous, Sir Thomas. As ever, we shall need all the men and women we can get when the time comes.’

‘Tom’s experienced, he’ll keep Harold up to the mark and will steward the whole for you, now that Daniel’s spending more time here at the forge.’

‘I was just talking with Daniel about that, Sir Thomas. He needs to reduce his time at the farm quite rapidly now, he tells me.’

‘There we are then,’ Sir Thomas beams at her. ‘A solution ready and waiting. Tom will be delighted to step in, Alice.’

‘I’ll welcome his help, but will he mind working for someone other than Daniel?’

‘But I assume you’ll be back in Surrey, won’t you?’

‘I shall, I leave within days.’

‘So it won’t feel like he’s working under another person at all. He’ll manage everyone here, you don’t have to worry your pretty head about it.’

‘No, I mean, Sir Thomas, will Tom be happy to work for my new tenant?’

The smile is obliterated in a moment. ‘Tenant? I’ve heard nothing about a tenant.’

‘I’ve only just told Daniel, so you would not have heard it yet, sir. I have engaged Wat Meredith and Luella Goldwoode when they are married to be my new tenants.’