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right?’
    Eddie looked mesmerized. To him hedge-laying was a skilled art and one, he had to admit, that he had never been able to master properly.
    Whilst he fetched the tools, Anna chose one of the smaller holes and began to clear the hedgerow of weeds and long, dead grass. By the time Eddie brought back the items she had asked for, Anna
was ready to position two stakes in the gap. Then, taking up the billhook, she chose the thickest stem she could find in the existing hedge to the right of the hole and began to chip off all its
side shoots.
    ‘I’ll – er – leave you to it, lass. I’ll – um – come back later and see how you’re getting on. Only don’t tire ya’sen, will
you?’
    ‘I’ll be fine, Mr Appleyard. It’s nice to have something to do.’
    Concern was still plainly written on the man’s face, though whether it was for the pale waif who had come into his life or for his hedge, even Eddie could not have said. He glanced at her
again and now his anxiety was wholly for her, but he was gratified to see a healthy pink tinge to her cheeks this morning. And the way she was wielding the billhook showed no sign of any ill
effects from the cold night she must have spent in the cottage.
    ‘I’ll be off then,’ he said again, still reluctant to leave his hedge. He sighed as he turned away.
Oh well
, he was thinking,
I don’t suppose she can make a
much worse mess of it than I would.
    A surprise awaited Eddie on his return to the field with Rip trotting beside him, pink tongue lolling, eyes ever watchful and alert. They stopped before the hole in the hedge
– or at least where the hole had been. The thickest stems from the existing growth had been cut diagonally a few inches from the ground to a depth of about three-quarters of the thickness and
bent carefully over so that the stem did not break. The branches then lay one above the other at angles of about thirty degrees across the gap in the hedge and were neatly woven in and out between
the stakes. In time, new shoots from the old wood would form a thick hedge once more. Even the top had been neatly finished off.
    Eddie stood gaping. He took off his cap, scratched his head and then pulled it on again, whilst Anna stood by, smiling quietly. ‘By heck, lass, it’s as good as I could do. No, if
I’m honest, it’s better. Where on earth did you learn to lay a hedge like that?’
    Anna’s smile faded and she turned away, but not before Eddie had seen tears fill her eyes.
    ‘I had a good teacher, Mister,’ she said huskily. ‘A very good teacher.’ Then she took a deep breath and called to the dog. ‘Come on, boy.’
    As she bent to pick up her tools and move on to the next gap, Rip bounded alongside, leaving Eddie staring after her and then, glancing back to his newly repaired hedge, marvelling again at the
young girl’s workmanship.
    Tony came each night after school to see her, always managing to bring something useful for her. And every night he ordered his dog to ‘stay’ with her.
    ‘We’ve broke up from school today,’ he told her near the end of the week following her arrival. ‘It’s Christmas next week.’
    ‘Is it?’ Anna said, surprise in her tone.
    The boy stared at her. ‘You hadn’t forgotten?’ he asked. To the boy, who had been counting the days, it was incredible that anyone could not know it was almost Christmas. Even
his mam, who usually scorned merrymaking at other times, always loved Christmas. She had been mixing the puddings and baking mince pies all this last week. And last night she had helped him put up
paper chains, looping them along the picture rail around the best parlour, which they would use on Christmas Day.
    In answer to Tony’s question, Anna shrugged. ‘I’ve been travelling. I’d forgotten what date it is.’
    ‘How long have you been travelling?’ he asked with a boy’s natural curiosity. ‘Where d’you come from?’
    Even the ten-year-old boy could not fail to notice the fear