Coming Home by Gwen Kirkwood Read Free Book Online

‘Drink it up laddie. I’ll make myself a fresh cup when I get back. There’s apple pie for afters. I couldn’t bring the custard.’
    ‘ Aw Ma, you’re spoiling me,’ Steven said and stretched out a strong young arm to give her a hug.
    ‘ You’re a good laddie,’ she said huskily. ‘I’m glad ye’re safely home after all that fighting. Sam was a grand laddie too. Your father and me both took it badly when we heard he’d been killed, but I thought I’d die when we got the telegram to say you were missing, presumed dead.’
    ‘ Aye well it seems none of us should presume anything,’ he muttered. Hannah Caraford heard the bitterness in his voice and knew he had good reason for it. He was the one who should have been allowed to stay at home to work the farm. Her mouth firmed but before she could speak, Steven told her his news.
    ‘ The fighting isna over for our battalion yet, Ma.’
    ‘ Where are they sending you? To India? Steven? Tell me...?’
    ‘ No, we’re to go to Palestine…’
    ‘ Oh.’ Hannah said uncertainly. ‘I’d hoped this would be the end and you’d be coming home.’
    ‘ Home?’ Steven raised an ironic eyebrow. He grimaced and wished he hadn’t spoken when he saw his mother’s eyes bright with tears and the patches of pink colour in her cheeks. She swallowed hard. He couldn’t think of anything to say that would comfort her now that Fred had knocked the bottom out of his world. One thing was certain, he’d never be able to call Willowburn his home while Fred lived there. Hannah laid her hand on his arm. His mother was always soft and smiling but now her colour had faded and her lips were set in a firm line. He’d never seen her look like that before. He didn’t realise he sometimes had that same determined expression.
    ‘ Listen Steven, I’ve suspected for a long time that Fred didn’t want you back at Willowburn. He’s always been jealous but he’s grown greedy lately. He wants everything for himself. I’ve tried to talk to your father about it but he hoped things would get back to normal once you returned home. I think that’s why he didn’t try to persuade the land agent to include Fred’s name in the tenancy. He has been pestering for it almost since the day you left. He wears your father down with his lazy ways and his constant demands. Eddy was looking forward to you coming home but he will see now that there would be nothing but quarrels, even if Fred doesn’t carry out his threat to force him to sell up and pay him his share in cash.’
    ‘ Is that what he’s planning if I return to Willowburn? That’s blackmail!
    ‘ It’s jealousy and spite.’
    ‘ But he’d have no job either if he forced father to sell out. The money wouldna last him long.’
    ‘ That’s what I said but he muttered something about going to Canada with his share. Edna, the land girl, has relatives there and she talks a lot about visiting them.’
    ‘ I’ll bet Fred wouldn’t stay long if he went,’ Steven scoffed. ‘He’d soon find he had to work for a living anywhere else.’
    ‘ It would do him good. Your father is working far too hard, trying to make up for his idleness. I fear it’s taking its toll on his health. We’ve both worked far harder than Fred to keep the farm going, and he knows it, but he doesn’t care.’
    ‘ Most of the people round about know it too, Mother.’ He patted her hand. ‘Fred is the only one who never realises how lucky he has been.’
    ‘ I know that. He says some nasty things but I’m not afraid of Fred. Although your father appears to give in to him, I trust him to do what’s right for both of you in the end. He’s a good man, Steven, but he tried too hard to make up to Fred for losing his own mother and he’s grown up expecting to get what he wants.’
    ‘ Well he certainly doesna want me back at Willowburn, that’s for sure. It’s all I’ve thought about for five years and now…’ he turned to look her in the eye. ‘When I