The Tenants Of Fell End Farm Part Six

'Because of his small stature, Lynn christened the horse Lofty. She was working with him one day with the mechanical rake.  It was precise work She bounced along on the metal seat driving the horse but also looking behind her.  At the right moment she pulled the lever that lifted the tines of the rake clear of the ground and deposited the hay in a neat line.  It was a fine July morning.  A sky lark sang above her.  The sweet smell of hay was in her nostrils.  There was row of three elm trees on the edge of the field so that as the horse plodded along she was carried out of the hot sun and under the delicious shade of the trees, then seconds later, back out into the blinding sunlight.  She was so absorbed in her work that she failed to see that Sandy Renton had stopped his car and was leant over the wall watching her, His trilby hat pushed to the back of his head.  She was making her final sweep down the wall side when she became aware of him.  She reigned in the horse, 'Good morning Mr. Renton.'

Renton smiled, 'You handle your little horse very well.'

'Thank you.' Lynn replied coolly.

'Renton said, 'We've had our differences me and you but it might surprise you to know that we have more in common than you think.'

'Have we?'  Lynn was puzzled.

Renton explained, 'My father was a trade union man too.  He was a coal miner.  He was the trade unionist who beat up the scabs during the general strike and sometimes he beat me and my mother as well.  He was poorly paid for what he did, I will grant you that but he didn't help the situation by spending Friday nights on the dog track and Saturday and Sunday in the pub.  Not all union men are as saintly as your Daddy was.  Now, can I call you Lynn?'

Lynn nodded. The horse went to move off but she reigned him in.

Renton went on, 'You are a fine lassie Lynn, we can all see that now.  I said things in the heat of the moment that I am sorry for.'  He spread his hands.  'It's time for me and you to work together.'

'Lynn was guarded, 'How?'

'There's going to be a war.  We have got to make sure that Andrew doesn't get any daft ideas about joining up.  With his father dead and nobody to work the farm he will be in a reserved occupation.  He won't be called up but with all his friends talking of war and adventure and going off to fight, he just might do something stupid and if he did he would lose the tenancy I can assure you of that.  You would be homeless again and if I can't find a suitable tenant the government would put a manager in to run the place for the duration.'  Renton watched Lynn's face keenly.  He saw it cloud with concern, 'But Andy must know that.  He wouldn't run off and join the army.  Surely he would be glad that he's in a reserved occupation.'

Renton stroked his chin, 'Aye you would think so wouldn't you but you never know with an Emmott.  They all have a screw lose and with friends joining up and going off to fight, you just don't know but I know I can rely on you Lynn.  You can handle him if he does get any daft ideas.  He will listen to you.  Don't stand for any nonsense.  Tell him straight.'  Lynn said, 'Don't worry, I will.'  She went on, 'Does there have to be a war?'

'There will be a war alright,' Renton assured her.

'But it's so daft.' Lynn protested.

'You are right,' Renton agreed ‘but we are just ordinary folk.  All we can do is our duty and our duty is to feed the people of this country.  Now you are turning this into the best little farm on the estate.  I've never seen the land in better heart.  I let you young folk get away with murder.  Andrew has hauled enough logs out of the wood this year to keep your fire going until the end of the decade.’ He smiled at Lynn's obvious discomfort.  Renton went on reassuringly, 'That's alright.  Just you work along with me Lynn and I will take good care of you both and keep Andy out of the army.'  The truth was that that Renton had grown fond of Lynn. He winked at her, turned and left.  She heard his car start up and pull away.  Lynn sat for a while the sun beating down on her shoulders.  In the virgin grass along the wall side that the mowing machine blade had not reached, harebells and buttercups grew.  Her nostrils were filled with their mild scent mingled with the tang of heather and the newly emerging bracken blown down from the moor on the gentle summer breeze.  It was a heady mix added to by the smell of horse and harness and the now hot oil used to lubricate the moving parts of the rake.  The increasing heat of midday had silenced the birds.  The only sounds were the drone of bees and the occasional sigh of wind.  Everything was so beautiful.  She was happily pregnant.  What was it about men and wars.  Eventually she turned for home.  That night she asked Andrew, 'Do you think there's going to be a war Andy?  I was talking to Sandy Renton today and he thinks there is.'

Andy groaned, 'Oh don't you start.  I'm fed with hearing about it.  Sid blames the Germans, Renton's always moidering on about Bolsheviks' whoever they are and Alf Holdsworth says its a war against Fascism.'

'But what do you think?'

Andrew hated politics.  He was embarrassed by his lack of interest in the subject. His father had tried to explain his socialist philosophy but Andrew had lost interest in his father's lengthy discourses and had turned instead to David Nicholson who told him, 'It's simple, you vote Tory with the Estate and the vicar.  That way we get continuity.'

'Right...and that's what we want is it....Continuity?'

Nicholson nodded,  'That's what we want Andy lad.  Remember, change is good but no change is better.'

Andrew had been happy to accept the simple Nicholson doctrine but unfolding events had brought politics into his life.  Lynn, Sid and Alf Holdsworth argued incessantly about nothing else.

In response to Lynn's question he said peevishly, 'I don't know if there's going to be a war with the German's or not but if they start something we will finish it.  I can tell you that.'

'But you can't go, you will be in a reserved occupation,' Lynn said.

'I'll have to go.  I'm not staying here while all my mates are away fighting.'

'But you can't go.  We would lose the farm.  Sandy says they would put somebody in to run it.  It's stupid to be wanting to play at soldiers without thinking about me and the child.'  She went on angrily, I bet other men aren't in such a rush to join up.  I bet Alan wouldn't mind being in a reserved occupation.'

Andrew laughed bitterly,  'Alan's not waiting to be called up, He's joining the Royal Air Force.  He's always wanted to do it.  He was mad about planes as a kid.'

Lynn's hands flew to her face in shock, 'Oh my God he'll break Daisy's heart,' she agonised.

'Oh don't worry,' Andrew spoke reassuringly, 'he wants to marry her and all that.  He just knows all hell will break loose when he tells everybody.'  Andrew grinned, 'and anyhow you are always teasing her because her name will be Daisy Seed when she's married.'

'It's not funny,  Lynn said angrily.  'Men are like children.  I bet you really envy him don't you, getting away, seeing a bit of the world.  Would you like that?'

Andrew considered it, 'Well...in a way yes.'

Lynn was furious now, 'Well why were you in such a rush to get married and get me pregnant then.  Why let me think this was going to be our marital home, a place that I could grow to love?

'Well,' Andrew said, 'nobody was talking about war when we got married.  It all seems to have boiled up over the summer.'

Lynn was crying now, 'Oh dear, you must really regret getting married and tying yourself down.'

Seeing how upset she was Andrew tried to take her in his arms, 'I regret nothing, you know that.'

Lynn pushed him away, 'Leave me alone please Andrew.'

They stood in silence for a while then Andrew said, 'Hey Lynn, do you realise what's just happened.  We've had our first row.'

Lynn glanced up.  Andrew was smiling.  She gave up, went to him and put her arms around him.  'Promise me you won't go Andy.  There will be thousands of men in reserved occupations, not just farmers.'

After a while Andrew said resignedly, 'Yeah, I suppose you are right at the end of the day.'  They went to bed and Andrew fell asleep but Lynn lay awake thinking.  For the first time she realised how young Andrew was, how young they both were.  She was determined to keep him at home.  She decided to get pregnant again as soon as possible.

 By August the hay was all in.  What couldn't be got into the barn was hay stacked.  When the last load was in Andrew led the horse into a field and turned him away for a weeks rest  before they started on the corn.  They watched him take a drink from the trough, stroll out into the field, lay down and roll luxuriously in the grass.  Sid said, 'He's earned that.  Come on, let's go down to the Laycock to celebrate  with a few drinks.'

In the pub, Andrew found himself alone with his mother, Sid and Alf were at the bar and Lynn was talking to friends.

'It's been wonderful Andy,' Jean said.  'We have really enjoyed helping out.  It's done Sid a power of good and seeing you and Lynn so happy. 

'I couldn't live without her,' Andrew replied.  'She's just great.  Everything she does just makes me happy.  I can't wait for the baby to be born.  The only thing is, he paused and then said, 'I just wish Dad was here.'

Jean lowered her eyes.

At the vicarage, Neil was home from university.  He tried to smooth over his parents disagreements about the looming risk of war.

Neil said, 'The thing is, ‘We can’t bury out heads in the sand about what's going on in Germany.'

'And what is going on?' Gwen asked.

Neil took a drink of brandy and said, 'Democracy is dead in Germany.  The Nazi's have total compliance now.  Any opposition is rounded up and imprisoned or killed.  I have every sympathy for the German people.  They were betrayed at Versailles, cruelly treated by reparations and impoverished by hyper-inflation but in supporting  Hitler, the German people have unleashed a unspeakable evil on the world that must be stopped.   Germany's territorial demands will only grow.  Neil took another sip of brandy, placed his hand over his mother's and said, 'I think we will have to fight them Mum and if we do' I would want to be part of that fight.'  He stood up, 'I'll go and help Daisy with the washing up.'  Neil was fond of Daisy, she had come to work at the vicarage when she was fourteen years old and he a year older.  The second half of his teenage years had been punctuated by the sound of Daisy dropping things but now she was an integral part of vicarage family.  When the washing up was done they sat in the kitchen with cups of cocoa reminiscing and chatting about village affairs. Neil enjoyed listening to Daisy's artless conversation.  After a frenetic term at Cambridge it relaxed him.  Such evenings would become treasured memories in the years to come.  In the drawing room Gwen and Clarence sat in the firelight, each lost in their own thoughts.

 

The good weather held and in September, Jean and Sid returned to help with the corn harvest.  Jean insisted that Lynn took no part in the work as she was too near her time.  Both women worked cooking for the men threshing and stacking the corn.'  The harvest was home and the baby a boy was born in October.  They had decided to call him Mark.  Everybody was delighted, non more so than Jean and Sid.  Lynn was churched and the christening took place in mid November.  There was a joyous celebration at the Laycock Inn.  Sid and Alf Holdsworth, now familiar double act and official God Parents, got the party rollicking along.  Clarence Gerard attending the festivities in his role as vicar, studied the scene.  An odd friendship he thought, A business man and a renegade Marxist trade unionist with a chequered career.  Holdsworth had won the church jumble sale raffle two years on the run  and some suspected  skulduggery and he was an inveterate boozer but the pair seemed to hit it off.  Gerard mused, that such relationships was probably the reason why fascism had never caught on in England.  He frowned; with Alf Holdsworth on the piano, Daisy had got up to sing.  Because she was nervous, Daisy always sang with her back to the audience.  She stood looking over Alf's shoulder as she sang Abe My Boy with everybody singing along.  The vicar's frown deepened.  The women made too much use of their bodies these days.  He looked for Gwen and spotted her sat on a bench with a group of women.  Gwen was holding the baby and rocking from side with the other women as they sang, 'You promised to marry me one day in June.

It's never too late and it's never too soon.'

Every body was laughing and pointing at Alan who sat grinning apprehensively.

'All the family, keep on asking me

Which day, what day,

I don't know what to say.

Abe, Abe, Abe my boy,

What are we waiting for now.

The song ended to rousing cheers.

The festivities continued.  At a suitable time Gerard proffered his well wishes to Andrew and Lynn and left.  It was an overcast late Autumn afternoon with a mist rolling down from the moor.  He went through the lych gate into the church grounds and as he walked up the path He saw a hunched figure stood amongst the grave stones.  He changed direction and went to investigate.  It was a woman.  Her head was covered and she stood with her coat thrown round her shoulders  'Excuse me, may I be of assistance?'

The woman turned, it was Jean. 

To be continued...