“God, this is relentless,” Mark muttered half an hour later when the last of the hay had been delivered to the cows, the horses, and the dog had been fed. What alarmed Mark was how pale Tuppence was in the moonlight. Amidst her wan complexion was a red nose and dark eyes above lips that were pinched from the cold. “Why don’t you tell me what to do and go inside and get warm?” he suggested. “I can close up here.”
“I have to do this, Mark. While your offer of help sounds wonderful, you won’t be here in the morning when the animals need to be fed again, will you?” Tuppence smiled and shook her head. “I am used to it. It’s faster if I just get on with it.” She hoped he took the hint and left her alone. Strangely, his presence made her feel even more isolated because he made her pointedly aware that she was alone in her situation. Mark couldn’t help her because he wasn’t a farmer and had no idea what to do. Besides, he had a family waiting at home for him.
“We both know that your brother used to do most of the work.”
“Peter is no longer here to do it, though, is he? Besides, I used to help him. I know what I am doing.” Tuppence was aware that her voice betrayed how awkward she felt discussing her brother.
“I am sorry.”
Tuppence offered him a brisk smile. “I will get by.” She wished he would just get to the reason of his visit and go so she could get on with her chores.
Then I can have a little cry before the fire before I go to bed.
“It must be worth a fortune,” Mark muttered without thinking. He hadn’t realised he had spoken aloud until Tuppence whirled to face him.
“I am not selling it,” she snapped, outraged that he would suggest she sell the very roof over her head.
“But you could buy yourself somewhere smaller for just you,” Mark argued, more shaken by what he had seen than he had expected to be.
“To do what?” Tuppence demanded, folding her arms in a defiant pose that was accompanied by a lifted brow and belligerent stare.
“Well, whatever you want to do,” Mark edged. He mentally winced because he was annoying her before he had managed to broach the real reason why he was there.
“This is what I do,” Tuppence bit out, waving a hand to the barns full of sheep and cows. “My father was a farmer, my brother after that. I have been born and raised on a farm. There is nothing wrong with what I do.”
“I never said there was,” Mark countered. “I just think this is a heck of a lot of work for one young woman to do by herself. Could you not find someone to help you?”
Tuppence, who was uncomfortably aware of how little money was in the box in her father’s old study, shook her head. Until she could sell some of the cattle, the money she had at her disposal had to be kept to buy hay and feed for the cattle and pay for food and essentials for herself. There wasn’t money spare to pay for someone else to do the work she was physically capable of doing herself.
“It is very nice to see you and all that, but why did Harriett send you?” Tuppence asked, suddenly eager to change the subject before they had an argument about it. The tension hovering between them was stark, and so unfriendly that Tuppence began to wonder if there was any friendship left between them at all.
Mark mentally sighed because he could sense hostility from Tuppence now and that was the very last thing he wanted to build because he knew that she wasn’t going to be amenable to what he was there to suggest. Taking a deep breath, he broached the subject anyway and said: “Harriett has sent me to remind you that the late harvest ball is to be held on Saturday. You need to attend.”
“I am not going,” Tuppence announced bluntly, without providing him with any reason why.
Mark mentally cursed. “I understand that Lord Aldridge is expecting you.”
Tuppence’s heart began to pound. She shrugged and tried to pretend that the mere mention of Isaac Chester’s name didn’t turn her entire being inside out. “Why should he expect me?” Despite the casual tone of her voice, her gaze was sharp as she waited for Mark’s answer.
Mark forced himself to remember that he was a Detective Inspector at Great Tipton Police Station. He had arrested murderers, muggers, and fought drunkards. There was no reason why he should be so worried about upsetting one slightly stubborn female, even if she was his wife’s best friend.
Harriett is never going to speak to me again if Tuppence goes back on her word and refuses to attend the ball.
“He spoke to Harriett this afternoon.” Mark mentally crossed his fingers and hoped that God would forgive him for lying. “Apparently, Lord Aldridge is concerned that you are here by yourself and told her that it would ease his mind if he saw you at the ball. I think he intends to call upon you himself, just to offer you his help if you ever need it.”
“Why should I not be all right?” Tuppence demanded. Deep inside she knew she was being snippy with Mark, and the current uncomfortable state of her life truly wasn’t his fault, but tension slid up her spine which began to feel so rigid she wondered if it was going to shatter as she stared intently at the man before her. She dreaded asking: “What have the gossips been saying? That because I am a woman, I am incapable of running a farm like this?”
Mark frowned. “Well, you are living in a highly unusual situation.”
“It isn’t my fault that everyone in my family has died,” Tuppence retorted. “It isn’t my fault that this farm is my only source of income, or that I have no other skills so have to farm to be able to live.”
“I don’t want to upset you, Tuppence,” Mark offered gently. He felt awful because even in the darkness he could see tears gathering on her lashes. In that moment, she looked lost and wounded, like a stranded dear caught in a hunter’s trap with no way out. He wanted to soothe her, offer her promises or hope, offer her help even, but like any wounded animal she wriggled and squirmed, fought and kicked, and did everything to force the world away. He was at a loss to know how to help her.
“So, the locals are gossiping about me, is that it? They are waiting for me to fail, for my cattle to die, for me to starve to death so they can say that they knew all along that I wasn’t going to manage to live here? That life as a farmer is too much for a you
ng woman like me?” Tuppence was outraged while also deeply hurt that the locals, who had known her all her life, had such little faith in her capabilities.
But I have little faith that I can get through this, and like Mark said, I am in an unusual situation.