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greatest worry: that it was too late for him to go to a proper school. That he’d be too far behind the other boys. The nickname ‘Simpleton’ suited Miss Simpson rather too well. She wasn’t the finest teacher in the world, not by a long chalk, but she had brought joy and enthusiasm to her lessons. Perhaps the new schoolmasters wouldn’t. He almost hated his father for leaving it till the last minute like this. Rob struggled to recapture his earlier pleasure as the worries rushed in. ‘Age doesn’t matter. Being a boarder is different.’
    ‘I hate you,’ said Alena. ‘I hope it’s a stinking school and you’re miserable as hell in it.’ Then she turned and ran through the woods as fast as she could.

 
    Chapter Three
    Alena stormed angrily back and forth in the small overcrowded kitchen. A clothes maiden of steaming damp laundry stood in her way and, half blinded with tears, she pushed against it, sending it toppling. ‘He can’t do it!’ she cried. ‘He can’t send Rob away. I won’t let him.’
    ‘I doubt you’ll have any say in the matter.’
    Having righted the laundry and rescued a bowl of starch which looked like going the same way, Lizzie attempted to calm her irate daughter. The chances of her survival had once been so poor they’d had her christened within days of her birth. Jaundiced and unable to suckle properly, it had seemed a miracle when against all the odds the weakly infant had thrived. Lizzie had marvelled at the time on the mysterious workings of God and nature, and still did so today as she looked on the girl with wonder.
    No tears brimmed in the sparkling blue eyes, only a hot dry anger. Not naturally uncaring, this recklessness was born from very real misery. Bright hair flung back, face pinched with a resolute fury, she’d been a difficult baby, a wilful child, and had now grown into this strong-minded, beautiful young woman who would prove a formidable adversary for anyone. Even James Hollinthwaite. ‘Have you no thought for Rob?’ Lizzie gently chided. ‘Did it not occur to you that he might enjoy it, that it might do him some good?’
    ‘I suppose you’re going to say it’ll make a man of him?’ Alena s voice was hard with desperation.
    ‘Happen it will.’
    ‘It won’t. He’ll hate it at that awful school. Rob is sensitive. Quiet and shy.’
    ‘Happen it’s time he learned not to be.’
    ‘He’ll hate being away from Ellersgarth.’ Alena wanted to say that most of all he would hate being away from her, but that sounded rather over-dramatic so instead she struggled to express her thoughts fairly and calmly. ‘He’s used to being on his own. He isn’t made to cope with the rough and tumble of a load of uncaring toffs. I just know he’ll hate it.’ She’d forgotten about meaning to keep calm.
    Such vehemence, Lizzie thought. Had it not been so sincerely felt, she might have laughed. But she could remember her own youthful passions and knew that for some reason Alena felt things more keenly than most, certainly more than any other member of this all male household; more than was good for her at times. Lizzie turned away to stir some life into the glowing coals, trying to summon up sufficient heat to dry her washing on this dismal November day.
    ‘He’ll be with right-thinking people. I’m sure it will be a good school, and you’ll see plenty of him in the holidays.’ But the girl did have a point, no doubt about that. Robert was a shy boy, a loner, happy to follow where Alena’s more vigorous enthusiasms and imagination led him. ‘Happen it’s time you made other friends too, young lady,’ Lizzie said with feeling. ‘You’ll be a woman soon.’
    ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, now you sound like his father.’
    Lizzie pursed her lips. ‘Maybe he has a point. It don’t do to be too narrow-minded where friends are concerned. The more the merrier, that’s what I say. Now set that table and stop fretting. The subject is closed.’
    When her mother