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he bowed his head over her hand she touched his face. ‘You mustn’t hope for too much. The doctor said he didn’t think there’d be another. My age … I’m not a young girl any more.’
    He groaned. ‘Oh God, why did I bring you to this Godforsaken place?’
    ‘Hush, you mustn’t say that. God forsakes no one. Come now, you brought in the hay today, and we’ve more money than we hoped for, and soon you’ll be able to stock the farm and we’ll have a good turnover before the winter. That’s good fortune.’
    ‘And you?’
    ‘I’ll survive.’
    ‘If only … oh, if only the child … it was a boy, you know, the doctor told me.’
    ‘I see.’ Mary sighed. ‘He shouldn’t have told you that.’
    ‘You knew, then?’
    ‘Oh yes. What was the point of telling you?’
    Gerald sat up straight on the bed. ‘Well,’ he said finally. ‘We’ll just have to make the best of what we’ve got, I suppose.’ He got to his feet. Harriet froze against the wall.
    Gerald emerged from the bedroom, and he and his daughter stood looking at each other. ‘How long have you been there?’ he demanded.
    ‘I’ve just walked in this moment.’
    ‘Oh, taken your time, haven’t you,’ he said gruffly, but with obvious relief.
    ‘It was nice at the river bank.’ The whole day swam before her eyes. She felt as if she were going to faint and for a moment the world shifted out of focus. She heard his voice again, saying, ‘We’ll just have to make the best of what we’ve got then, won’t we?’
    ‘I’ll get the meal. I expect you’ll be hungry,’ she said, turning away.
    ‘Don’t you want to know how your mother is?’ he asked.
    ‘How is she?’ she asked indifferently. Gerald looked at her with hatred.
    ‘It was something to do with having a baby, wasn’t it?’ she added, as she began to peel potatoes.
    ‘You have been listening round corners, you sly little bitch.’
    ‘The men at the paddock all knew, didn’t they?’
    Gerald went very red. ‘I had to tell them,’ he muttered. ‘I had to get an advance on the hay … for the doctor.’
    ‘Couldn’t you have told me before you told the men? They’ve been talking in front of me all day.’ The lie was deliciously powerful.
    ‘I’m sorry, Harriet,’ said her father uneasily.
    For the first time in her life, she felt in command of a situation withhim. There was an enormous temptation to press her advantage but instinct warned her that it was only a slight one.
    ‘Would you go and see your mother, please.’
    ‘Oh, certainly,’ said Harriet magnanimously, wiping her hand on her teatowel.
    ‘It might be as well to say I told you she has the flu.’
    ‘I’ll watch out for infection.’
    Another look of pure dislike passed over his face. Throwing discretion to the winds, she added, ‘By the way, if you want me to skivvy for you, you’d better find a few bob towards clothing me properly before long. I don’t like being looked at by some of the men round here.’
    ‘Yes Harriet.’ His shoulders slumped. For the moment she had him beaten, and that suited her.
    In the night she lay awake again. Sand seemed to have gathered under her lids. She realised she had hardly slept for two nights now, and it was hot again, she was aching and dry, parched and stiff from her labours. But so much seemed to have happened to her that sleep was still impossible. She thought of the experience by the river over and over again, with God and Jim all mixed up. She didn’t even like Jim very much. One thing she reckoned on, and that was that she was a woman. The mechanics of the business were still to be worked out, but she was a woman all right, just like her mother was. Whatever strange act had brought her mother to this condition she was in now, she was capable of too.
    She thought of her mother with pity and love. She was a wounded starfish cast up on an alien shore. She would never re-enter the sea, she was forever stranded on a barren, dusty beach where she had