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upstart’s regime, and the start of the bright new era at Stonewylde.

3
    Y ul surveyed his little girls gravely. They sat together at the large scrubbed pine table in the parlour of the cottage where he’d grown up. Maizie and Sylvie were out and he had them to himself. The girls’ pencils and paper were spread out, Maizie’s tiny jar of violets pushed to one side.
    ‘So you don’t want to come back home to the Hall?’ he asked.
    Bluebell continued to draw her picture, tongue peeping from between her lips, whilst Celandine paused to regard him. Her deep grey eyes seemed to bore into him and suddenly he felt unworthy, wrong to try to manipulate his children like this.
    ‘I’m sorry, Father,’ she replied. ‘You need to talk to Mummy about that, not us. But please don’t worry because we’re really enjoying staying here in the Village.’
    He nodded, the lump in his throat making his eyes prickle.
    ‘Are you alright, Father?’ asked Bluebell. ‘You must be a bit lonely and small in those big rooms. Are you scared?’
    ‘Scared? Why would I be scared?’
    Bluebell shrugged and continued drawing a faerie emerging from a flower.
    ‘ ’Cos I was scared there. That’s why I had my nightmares and screaming. But I don’t get it here, in Granny Maizie’s cottage. It’s safe here and nobody creeps about at night-time.’
    Yul frowned at her.
    ‘We’re very busy here,’ added Celandine. ‘We have to do lots of jobs for Granny and it’s just like when you and Auntie Rosie and Auntie Leveret and all the uncles were little.’
    Yul smiled at this, just a little bitterly. Bluebell looked up and caught his eye. She carefully put down her pencil and, climbing down from the old chair, trotted round to be pulled up onto his lap. He buried his face in her curls and fought back the tears. He missed them so very much. Having spent so little time with them over the past few months, he’d never imagined it would be as painful as this.
    ‘I miss you too, Father,’ said Bluebell. ‘Why don’t you come and stay here as well? Then we could all be together.’
    ‘I want us all to live together at the Hall in our rooms,’ said Yul. ‘That’s our home, not here.’
    Celandine looked at him steadily.
    ‘I don’t think Mummy feels that,’ she said. ‘She’s been sleeping better here, and she’s so busy and much happier. She weaves cloth every night and does knitting and quilting, and Granny’s teaching her how to cook. She really loves it.’
    ‘Yes, and we’re in charge of all the chickens!’ cried Bluebell. ‘And we have to feed them and do the water and collect the eggs and tuck them in their bed at night-time nice and safe so the foxes don’t get ’em!’
    ‘We do lots more than that,’ said Celandine. ‘I’m learning to weave at the loom too, and Granny’s teaching us all how to knit, even Blue. And we sweep the floor and bring in logs for the range and the fire.’
    ‘And make our own beds! And we have to go to the Bath House for a proper bath but not every day ‘cos we can just have a bowl of water and a cloth to wash here, Granny said. And guess what, Father – we all have to use a potty at night time if we need a wee!’
    Celandine nodded at this.
    ‘I don’t really like the baths in the Bath House,’ she said. ‘They’re not that clean and private. But if we’re going to live in the Village we need to get used to it. The toilet in the garden isn’t so bad, as it’s like the one at Nursery. I don’t mind throwing sawdust down the hole. And I don’t mind not having lights here either. It’s really cosy with the candles and oil lamps.’
    ‘And if we’re shivery cold we just put on another woolly like Granny told us to!’ said Bluebell. She turned in Yul’s arms and took his face in her chubby little hands, gazing intently into his eyes. ‘But I miss you, Father, and I wish you were here too. Then it’d all be perfect for me.’
    Clip left the tower through the door on the