The Girl from the Tanner's Yard

take it in the past, after giving birth. She says it helps dull her pain and her low mood, as sometimes life can be too painful to bear. Now, you just rest and keep quiet, and I’ll go and get you some broth. You’ve not eaten for the last few days, so we need to build your strength up.’ She stood up and looked down at Adam, feeling that a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. He was alive, and now she would nurse him back to strength. She smiled and nearly burst into song at the thought of her Adam being back in the land of the living.

Adam sipped the broth being fed to him and looked at Lucy. ‘What would I have done without you? I take it that it was you who undressed me and put me into bed? I’m sorry that I can only just remember. I must have been frozen to the bone when you got me home.’ He sipped slowly at the spoonfuls of beef broth that Lucy gave him gently, then started putting together the past few days, from what he could remember.

‘I did, sir. There was no one else to do it.’ Lucy blushed as she placed the spoon in the bowl and tried not to make eye contact with him.

‘I hope I covered my modesty. I thank you, Lucy. You’ve done more than I could have asked of you, these last few days. Please stop calling me “sir”. From now on, I’m “Adam”. After all, you know more about me than any friend.’

‘You don’t have to worry, sir. You’ve been the perfect gentleman while you’ve been ill. You rambled a lot in your thoughts, and mentioned your late wife’s name more than once, but whatever you said is already forgotten.’ Lucy smiled and stood up as he looked at her.

‘It’s “Adam”! And thank you again, Lucy, I’ll not forget your help. The sooner I’m back on my feet, the better. My flock will need attention, not to mention the rest of the farm. I’ve also the little matter of sorting out Jacob Baxter. It is his fault that I’m in this state. I caught him stealing a lamb, or at least I chased him to our dividing wall, but I’d forgotten about the mire and waded into it in the mist.’ Adam scowled and swore under his breath.

‘There’s no need to rush getting better, for the sake of the farm. Archie has it all in hand, as my father’s let him work here instead of at the flay-pits. He knew you needed Archie more. I’ll ask him to check your flock. He lambed the last two sheep yesterday, and I think he said you had a pair of twins and triplets born. He was here early each morning and hasn’t been going home until dusk. He’s been worried about you, just like me.’ Lucy shook her head. ‘Those bloody Baxters are a bad lot, especially Jacob. I’ll ask Archie to check the number of sheep, and then he can go down to the peelers in Denholme and tell them about your mishap, and that you saw Jacob with one of your lambs. It’s time they were brought to justice, if you are up to it.’ Lucy frowned.

‘Aye, if he could do that, I’d appreciate it. Ask Archie to tell the sergeant there to come and see me. I might be in my bed for now, but I’ll soon be up and about, and those bastards are not getting away with it.’ Adam slumped back down into his pillows. He was tired, so very tired, but he’d see justice done to the Baxters, if it was the last thing he did.

Archie stood on the moor top. He’d counted and counted again, but he was still two sheep short. There should have been forty – forty sheep and their followers – so that meant two were missing; and if the lambs had been taken with them, it could be as many as six, if they both had twins.

He looked around him and spat out the grass that he had been chewing on. It was time to go down into Denholme and talk to the peelers. This time the Baxters would be caught, if they still were holding the sheep they had stolen. The speck of red paint, and the sheep’s breed, would catch them good and proper. They’d swindled and stolen their way in the world for long enough, and hopefully now they’d get their comeuppance.

‘Now then, Adam. You’ve been in the wars, I hear, and had a run-in with the tough boys of our patch. They’ve got a lot to answer for, have the Baxters. I wish they’d bugger off to where they came from. Since they appeared in the area there’s been nowt but trouble: stock going missing, fences being broken down, not to mention folk being bullied into selling their homes to them. And I’m sure that they are up to no good, making counterfeit money, but I haven’t been able to prove it as yet.’

The sergeant looked at Adam. It had been a long time since he’d talked to Adam Brooksbank, and memories of them both joining the constabulary in Keighley together came flooding back. They’d been close friends then; both of them young and full of hope for the future, ready to take on the world and change it.

‘Aye, it’s good to see you, Fred. We go back a long way, do you and me. So I’m glad that you are still a sergeant in these parts, because these buggers – as you say – need stopping. Archie will have told you what happened. They’ve taken two of my sheep, not to mention Jacob leaving me in the mire to die, without a second’s glance. If it hadn’t have been for Lucy, I’d have been a goner. Thank God she saved me.’

‘You always do manage to get yourself into bother, one way or another, Adam. When