Adam stood at the head of Church Green, awaiting the coach-and-horses arriving from Kendal, which was carrying his precious visitor. Ivy was his last link to his previous life, when he was married and happy. He was, therefore, looking forward to her arrival with a great deal of happiness, despite some discouraging remarks from Lucy. She knew nothing about Ivy and had no need to judge her, and he wouldn’t put up with any of her skulking ways, if she was not civil to his guest.
He felt his stomach flutter and churn as he watched the coach and sweating horses arrive along the cobbled street. The coachman, looking red in the face, pulled his team of weary horses to a halt just outside the church gates, before climbing down from his perch and opening the door for his paying passengers to alight.
Adam held his breath and watched. A small, rounded gentleman with a traveller’s case of goods was the first to appear, and then an elderly woman who was in need of assistance out of the carriage. And then finally, as Adam was starting to doubt that Ivy was on board the twice-daily coach into Keighley, he noticed her. There was no mistaking it was Ivy: she had on her head a hat set at a jaunty angle, decorated with the brightest of feathers, and her dress and bodice were of vivid purple – Ivy’s favourite colour, he remembered. She looked around her, before taking the coachman’s hand to steady her step down into the cobbled street. Adam pushed his way through the busy shoppers and called out Ivy’s name, as she took a carpet bag from the hands of the coachman and tried to spot Adam.
‘Ivy, I’m here!’ He pushed past the other travellers and stopped in front of her and smiled at the face he knew so well.
‘Oh, Adam, I didn’t think I was ever going to see you again.’ Ivy dropped her carpet bag onto the street and put her arms around the man she had known nearly all her life. ‘You haven’t changed a bit.’ She stood back and looked at him. ‘How come you never age, while Mother Nature has played her tricks on me and given me a few extra lines here and there?’ She took his hands.
‘Now then, Ivy, you are still the good-looking woman you’ve always been.’ Adam bent and kissed her on the cheek, looking at the dark-haired woman with deep brown eyes and immaculate skin, who was as old as him, but still very attractive. ‘Was your journey alright? The road from Kendal to here is not a good one. I take it that you stayed somewhere, to rest the horses last night?’ Adam bent down and took Ivy’s carpet bag, noticing that it was light, and not that full of clothes for her stay with him.
‘Yes, we stayed over at Long Preston, at the Boar’s Head. I was ever so grateful for a good night’s sleep. The seats in the carriage were not that comfortable, and the road leaves a lot to be desired, it is that rutted. It was such an early start this morning – it was barely breaking light when we started out – but still, it’s worth it, to be here and see you once again.’ Ivy linked her arm through Adam’s and started to walk down the road to where Rosa and the donkey-cart stood tethered to the churchyard railings, waiting patiently. She stopped for a second and looked at Adam. ‘You’ve got a limp. How long have you had that?’
‘It’s nothing; it is nearly better now, although I think I will always have a slight limp for the rest of my life. It’s due to my falling out with a Russian’s sword. Unfortunately, it left me like this, but he came out worse.’ Adam smiled and held out his hand for Ivy to climb into the donkey-cart and sit next to him.
‘Oh, Adam, life’s not been kind to you. Perhaps now that you are home and settled, life will be better for you. I was so glad to hear from you, and to hear that you were back living at Black Moss. How are you managing on your own?’ Ivy enquired, as Adam flicked the reins over Rosa’s back and turned her and the donkey-cart in the direction of home. ‘I never thought you were a domesticated man – most men aren’t.’
‘I could just manage. But no, I have a maid, Lucy. She’s a good lass, and she looks after me really well. I couldn’t wish for anyone better. I’ve also a farm man who comes and helps me two days a week with jobs that I find hard, so I have a perfect life – or so it would seem, to those looking in and not knowing me.’ Adam sighed as they started the journey home.
‘A perfect life, except that you are still missing Mary, I’m betting. Oh, Adam, you should learn to look to the future. She’d not wish your life to have stopped still since her death. You must learn to love again – it’s what Mary would have wanted.’ Ivy patted her close friend’s hand as he held the reins and looked forward along the heavily travelled road to Halifax. ‘Don’t give up on finding a person to take her place. It’s
