A Dinner of Herbs (The Bannaman Legacy) by Catherine Cookson

Author:Catherine Cookson [Cookson, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780360379
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It was almost an hour and a half later when Hal and the two young men entered the mud yard of the Bakers’ small farm. There was no-one to be seen. But when Hal thumped on the low back door it was opened by a woman in her fifties. Her face was red and her lids were blinking. She did not address Hal, but turned her head, saying to someone in the room, ‘They’ve come.’ The next minute a man with stooped shoulders and grizzled hair stood by her side, and he looked defiantly up at Hal saying, ‘We expected you. Aye, aye, we expected you. And ’tis no good puttin’ the blame on us. ’Tisn’t our fault.’

Hal stared from one to the other of them, then said slowly, ‘Where is he?’

‘How do I know?’ The man’s head bobbed. ‘Left on the doorstep last night as drunk as a noodle. But at six this mornin’ he was off bag and baggage.’

‘Where’s he gone?’ This was a demand from Hugh, and the man replied in a similar tone, ‘How do I know! I only know he’s left me in a bloody mess. How am I gona manage here on me own with me back the way it is, and the missis here not worth two penn’orth of copper.’ He nudged his wife with his elbow. ‘Anyway, you’ve got yourself to blame’—he nodded at Hal—‘you gave him a few bob yesterday. He could never rest when he had a penny in his hand.’

‘A few bob? A penny?’ Hal’s voice was grim. ‘I gave him a hundred pounds.’

He watched both the man and woman now turn and stare at each other in amazement, and it was the woman who muttered, ‘What did you say? A hundred pounds?’

‘That’s what I said.’

‘Huh!’ The man laughed now but mirthlessly. ‘And you expected him to stay put with a hundred pounds in his pocket? God Almighty! He’s always wanted to see the world an’ now you’ve made it possible for him.’

‘We’ll find him. Sometime or other, we’ll find him.’

‘I doubt it. But good luck to you, an’ if I had him here meself this minute God knows what I’d do to him, leavin’ me in a hole like this.’

Hal stared at the man and woman. These were the people whom Kate would have had to live with. He had only met them three times before and he had judged them to be a pleasant couple: not very intelligent but homely and pleasant; and he could see Kate getting on with them and altering the little farmhouse, because she had a way with furniture and such like. She was like her mother. But now he wondered if his judgement of human nature was slipping, for why hadn’t he gauged the type of man he’d been dealing with. For a moment he was thanking God what had happened had happened; then he was thinking of Kate and the effect this business was going to have on her for the rest of her life.

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