Tangled Threads by Margaret Dickinson Read Free Book Online

left the barn, Eveleen could not stop the words escaping her lips as she called after him. ‘And what would Mam do then, without her precious baby boy?’
    At once she was ashamed of her own resentment of the closeness between her mother and brother. ‘I’m as bad as he is,’ she told herself sharply.
    Then she hauled herself up and went to start the evening milking.
    Later, with their day’s work finished and about to go into the house for supper, Eveleen put her hand on her father’s arm.
    ‘Dad,’ she asked quietly. ‘Why is Mam so upset about me and Stephen?’
    In the dim interior of the cowshed, she could not see Walter’s features clearly enough to read their expression.
    ‘Eveleen, there are things I cannot tell you – it would be breaking a confidence if I did. But you must believe me if I tell you that your mother has good reason to want to –
to protect you. She doesn’t want to see you hurt.’
    Eveleen’s sharp mind was running riot and then, with sudden clarity, she began to understand. ‘She was hurt like that, wasn’t she? Was it before she met you? Was it?’
    ‘Don’t ask me, love. And please . . .’ He took her hand and gripped it now. ‘Please – never, ever, ask your mother.’
    ‘Is that why she’s estranged from her family? Did they throw her out?’’
    ‘Eveleen,’ her father’s voice was firm now. ‘I’ve told you – don’t ask me, because I’m not going to tell you. I’ve said too much
already.’
    But Eveleen could guess enough to understand now. He had not denied her speculation, and if she had been far from the truth, he would have done so.
    In a small voice she asked, ‘Dad, what do you say about me meeting Stephen?’
    ‘Oh, love, I don’t know. I really don’t. He seems a nice enough young man, but I can understand your mother’s fears. She’s afraid, him being our employer – or
at least the son of our employer – that he’s only – what is it they say?’ Despite the gravity of their conversation, there was suddenly a hint of mirth in his tone.
‘He’s only trifling with your affections.’
    Eveleen laughed. ‘That’s rather a grand expression for the likes of us, Dad.’
    ‘Well, that’s the trouble, lass. It is the “likes of us” and the “likes of him” that’s the problem. The two don’t mix.’ His voice was
wistful for a moment as he added, ‘Not now.’
    ‘Are you forbidding me to see him too?’
    ‘I can’t exactly do that, can I? You’re bound to run into him and he’s every right to come here whenever he wants.’
    ‘That’s the bit that really worries me, Dad. They could turn us all out of our home if – if . . .’ She hesitated to tell him what had happened earlier in the woods when
Stephen’s threat had sounded so real.
    ‘Don’t you worry your head about that,’ Walter was saying. ‘His father’s not likely to give me the sack just because my daughter won’t let herself be seduced
by his son.’ Then his tone was completely serious as he added, ‘You won’t, will you?’
    ‘No,’ Eveleen said firmly. ‘Oh no, I won’t let that happen.’ But she could say no more. She could not give her father the promise he really wanted to hear.
    She would not promise to stop seeing Stephen.

 
Seven
    As the spring began to give way to early summer, the two young lovers continued to meet in secrecy, snatching brief moments together whenever and wherever they could.
    Taking the cows back to the meadow behind the house after milking one evening, Eveleen heard, through the dusk, the call of an owl from Bernby Covert. It was his signal. He was there, waiting
for her.
    She took off her boots and stockings and paddled through the beck to race across the next field, up the hill towards the trees and into his arms.
    ‘I can’t stay long,’ she said breathlessly while he rained kisses on her upturned face. ‘It’ll soon be our suppertime. They’ll miss me. Or worse still, come
looking for me.’
    ‘How I