‘No, sir, nothing happened. I just made that excuse so that I could walk home with Archie. Like you say, I shouldn’t be such a flirt. I’ll tell Archie the next time I see him that I was having him on and was only flirting. Now, that cow will be wanting my attention, and we could do with some fresh milk to start the day off.’ Lucy put her head down and didn’t dare look at Adam. He might no longer be a policeman, but he’d definitely not lost a peeler’s instincts. She only hoped that her cover of flirting would be accepted, and that the whole thing would never be mentioned again.
15
The month of April was a fine one, and Archie and Adam were busy every day repairing and restoring the drystone walls that formed the boundaries to Black Moss Farm. It had been hard work, but finally, just in time for the May sheep sale down in Keighley, their job was done.
‘I’ll have to see to that piece of bog next to the boundary wall. It’d pull a sheep down into it with ease, if it got stuck in it.’ Adam stood next to Archie and looked around him at his now-secure kingdom.
‘They’ve more sense than to go anywhere near it, but I can put a fence around it, if you want, to be sure.’ Archie looked at his master, whom he enjoyed working for, and he didn’t want to run out of work with him.
‘I’ve never known my father lose any of his flock due to the bog, but there’s always a first time. It must be what the farm’s called after, because the darkness of the moss there warns you that there’s something that will suck you down into its depths. Perhaps I’ll leave it for now, but I wouldn’t want a lamb to get stuck in it. They’ve no sense and, with a bit of luck, I’ll have a flock of sheep and their followers up here in another week or two.’ Adam leaned against the newly repaired wall. ‘It’s beginning to take shape now. My father would be happy to see it back to what it was. I should never have turned my back on it and let it get into such a state.’
‘Aye, it’s a grand farm. I could do with something like this, instead of working down in the flay-pits. It’s not a job for any self-respecting man – it’s that mucky. There’s nothing better than working on the land.’ Archie sighed and looked down over the adjoining land. He spotted the figure of the youngest of the Baxter family walking up the moorside in their direction. ‘Bugger, here comes trouble – it’s Jacob Baxter, he’s the youngest and wildest. I wondered how long it would be before one of them showed their faces,’ Archie muttered and walked away from the wall. He didn’t want to have to communicate with Jacob, if he didn’t have to.
‘Morning. Now is this not a grand spring day?’ Adam shouted to the young lad with vibrant ginger hair and a beard to match, who walked up and stood at the other side of the wall from him.
‘It’s alright. You’ve finally got around to mending your boundaries, then. My father’s been swearing about them for years. We couldn’t stop our sheep from straying, because of the state of your walls. We can happen turn our newly lambed ewes onto the moor again now.’ Jacob scowled and stared at Archie. He didn’t know the new owner, but he did know Archie Robinson and he didn’t like him.
Archie shook his head, but said nothing.
‘Yes, we are all in order now. I’m sorry if it’s caused your father concern, in my absence. I’ve only just come back into the country and decided to return home and farm what’s always been our land. I’m Adam Brooksbank. I hope to be a good neighbour.’ Adam held out his hand to be shaken by the lad, who looked angrily at him and his friendly gesture was ignored.
‘Aye, well, we are the Baxters. We bother no one, if no one bothers us. We keep ourselves to ourselves and would expect folk to respect our ways. I’ll tell my father that the boundary is back up, and that you are farming here. Now I’ll be on my way. There’s plenty to be done at this time of year. We’ve more sheep and their followers than we know what to do with, and we haven’t time for idle gossip.’ Jacob glanced at both men, then left as fast as he’d appeared, and Archie came back to Adam’s side.
‘He’s a man of few words,’ Adam said to Archie.
‘He’ll be mad that you are back. I bet half his flock has been making use of the gaps in your walls and grazing your land. I’ve kept coming across signs of sheep being on the moor, even though nothing should have been on it since your father’s death.’ Archie watched as Jacob Baxter disappeared over the moorside.
‘Aye, well, there’s nothing that can get through them now, and nothing can get out, so he can go and tell his father that. I’ll not have him making me out to be a bad farmer, when my family has been here for centuries. I’m back in charge now, whether he likes it or not.’ Adam looked around him, then smiled at Archie. ‘I may be a quiet man, but they’ll find that I stand my ground, if pushed. So don’t you fret, Archie.’
Adam stood in the doorway of his farmhouse and watched as the first swallow of the year circled and twittered over his head. Its chatter was a welcome sound, heralding summer to the farm. Soon the swallows would be nesting under the eaves, swooping back and forth all summer, feeding and rearing their young,
