she said.
While Joe was watching the two women, Tom noticed how Joe’s gaze was instinctively drawn to Alice. Just before, when Alice thanked Joe with that innocent little kiss on the cheek, Tom sensed it had unsettled him.
It was nothing glaringly obvious, and it didn’t seem to have attracted anyone’s notice as such. Even Alice herself had not realised the effects of that grateful little kiss.
Tom had felt it though; just like before when Joe was first introduced to Alice. There was a kind of undercurrent; a strong, palpable presence that wrapped the two of them together and excluded everyone else from the room.
It was a dangerous thing, and one that deeply worried him.
It was painfully obvious to Tom that his youngest son still harboured strong feelings for his brother’s woman. If anything, his absence had only fuelled the need in him.
He was grateful that for the moment at least, both Alice and Nancy had failed to sense anything untoward.
The truth was, he didn’t really know how to deal with it, other than sending his son away; right now, with the wedding so near and everyone excitedly looking forward to it, that was no easy option. Besides, he didn’t have the heart to do such a thing.
All he could do was keep a close eye on things, because one thing was certain. Here was a worrying situation, which could easily escalate out of hand.
Emotions were powerful things. They could cripple a man.
And sometimes, however hard that man might try, it was hard to keep control.
CALLING AS SHE ran, Alice went like the wind over the rise and on down to the brook. ‘Frank!’ She could see him in the distance, but he was too far away to hear her.
Quickly she ran towards him, her feet hardly touching the ground as she sped along. ‘Frank! Joe’s here!’ Her cries were lost to the elements.
Reaching the brook, she tore off her shoes and, holding them one in each hand, splashed her way through the cool water. When the water deepened, she climbed out to run the rest of the way, quickly closing the distance between her and Frank.
‘Frank!’ Unaware of her approach, he was intent on trying to start the tractor.
‘Frank, Joe’s here!’ She continued to shout his name.
Suddenly Frank turned and saw her. He saw how the wind had whipped up the red in her cheeks and he saw how anxious she seemed. ‘Alice!’ He went at the run towards her. ‘Why are you here? What’s happened?’ When, breathless and soaked to the waist, she ran into his arms, he feared the worst. ‘Alice! What’s wrong?’ His concern heightened when she was unable to catch her breath and speak.
‘He’s here!’ Gasping, she laughed up at him. ‘I’ve been sent to fetch you!’
Holding her at arm’s length, Frank demanded, ‘Who’s here? Who sent you to fetch me?’
‘Nancy! Your mother!!’ Having taken a long, deep breath she laughed out loud. ‘Joe’s here! He arrived just now; Nancy said I was to come and get you.’
When Frank didn’t respond, Alice asked worriedly, ‘Aren’t you pleased? I though you wanted Joe for your best man. Wasn’t that why you tracked him down, so you could ask him?’
‘Well o’course!’ Reassuring her, Frank drew Alice to him. ‘There’s nobody more thrilled than me to have him home for the wedding.’ Though now he was actually here, Frank was not so sure.
Pushing Alice away he took note of her flushed face, and the manner in which her wet dress clung to every curve. He felt a surge of anger. ‘For God’s sake…look at you! You’re soaked to the skin!’ For some inexplicable reason he resented her excitement at Joe’s arrival.
Grabbing his coat from the tractor, he threw it roughly round her shoulders. ‘What’s the matter with you?’ he demanded. ‘What have I told you about going in the brook? Why didn’t you send Jimmy down to find me?’
‘I didn’t know where Jimmy was.’ Her spirit deflated by his surly attitude, Alice spoke quietly. ‘I haven’t seen him.’
Seeing how her smile had fallen away, Frank was quick to apologise. ‘Sorry, Alice…it’s just that I hoped to get this work finished, and now I’ve got trouble with the damned tractor.’
Alice shrugged. ‘It’s all right, I understand.’ All the same, she was surprised at his sudden mood change.
‘I sent Jimmy to the barn to see if he could start the old tractor and fetch it down,’ he explained. ‘Oh, I know the old banger’s about had its day, but if he can start it, we might just manage to get this job done.’ His voice hardened. ‘That was over an hour ago, and he’s still not back!’
He glanced about. ‘Where the hell is he? You know what? I’m beginning to think he’s not up to farm work. I swear if he doesn’t soon buck up his ideas, I’ll kick his lazy arse out of it! I gave him a warning a couple of days ago, when I found him asleep in the hedgerow, and now you say he can’t be found, eh? Well, this is the last straw!’
‘I didn’t say he can’t be found,’ Alice corrected him, ‘I said I hadn’t seen him.’
‘Same thing!’
Just then, from somewhere in the distance, they heard the sound of an engine spluttering and coughing. ‘Would you believe it!’ Frank stretched his neck to see. Pointing to the plume of dark smoke rising through the air, he laughed out loud. ‘Well, I’m damned! He managed to get her going!’
Alice wasn’t sure if the time was right to remind him, but she did anyway. ‘What about Joe? He’s come back like you asked him, and Nancy said for you to come home, because she’s making us all a bite to eat.’
‘I can’t leave now!’ He scowled. ‘Surely you can see that?’
‘So, what will I tell her?’
Frank grew impatient. ‘Tell her whatever you like.’ He started running towards the tractor. ‘Joe won’t mind,’ he shouted. ‘He’ll not be going anywhere.’
Throwing off his jacket, Alice ran after him, but having just dashed all the way there and with a wet skirt lapping round her legs, she could hardly keep up. ‘Can’t you get Jimmy to hold the fort for an hour?’ she called back.
Coming to a halt, Frank waited for her to catch up. ‘Get Jimmy to hold the fort…that idiot?’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘Use your common sense! Just tell them I can’t come back right now. If we don’t get on, the tractor might stop and if that happens, we’re buggered!’
He gave her a dismissive kiss on the mouth, before running on up the hill. ‘Don’t push her too hard, you damned fool!’ she heard him yelling at Jimmy. ‘It’s been a while since she were started up!’
He waited for Jimmy to get alongside. ‘Took you long enough, didn’t it?’ Frank grumbled. ‘Get down from there!’
Jimmy climbed down. It was not a graceful thing to see, for Jimmy Slater was a man of slow habit. Thick-built, he was not the most intelligent man on earth, nor the prettiest.
With his hair receding from a high forehead, he had a long, thick pony-tail which hung partway down his back. His bottom lip was wet and drooping and his big lolloping eyes were unnerving if they caught you in their sights.
‘I never thought I’d get it started.’ Covered from head to toe in patches of grease and oil, Jimmy Slater looked a comical figure.
After saying hello to Jimmy, Alice took her leave. ‘I’m sure I don’t know what’s