The Windfell Family Secrets

by Diane Allen

  ‘I suppose you are right. There is nowt I can do until it stops snowing and folk get stirring.’ Archie blew out the flame on his lamp and climbed back into bed, lying still beside Charlotte, who had turned her back on him. ‘Arthur’s lost a bit of interest in farming Crummock, now he’s coming out of it. You can’t blame him, they are never going to be his stock,’ he muttered as he lay looking up at the ceiling.

  ‘For heaven’s sake, will you be quiet? You’ve tossed and turned all night and kept me awake. There is nothing you can do until it’s light. Now go to sleep. Eve will be here soon enough to relight the fire, and Lily to dress me. Just try and get forty winks. Arthur will have done all that he can, but like you, he isn’t God, and he can’t stop the snow.’ Charlotte pulled the bedclothes over her, listening for Archie to continue his worrying as her eyes grew heavy with sleep.

  ‘Morning, sir.’ Jethro shovelled the snow to clear a path from the back door of the manor to the stable. ‘It’s put a good bit down, sir, and looks like we are in for more.’

  ‘Aye, there’s at least nine inches, and that’s just down here. Can you get our horses ready for Danny and me, Jethro? We’ll have to get up to Crummock and see what’s afoot up there. We will try and get there between showers.’ Archie looked up at the heavy grey skies. ‘You are right: the clouds are still full of snow, there’s a lot more to come. I’ll get my breakfast and then we will be away.’ He watched as Jethro put down his shovel and walked back into the stable. The sooner he and Danny got to Crummock, the better.

  ‘It’s bloody cold, Father.’ Danny sat on his horse and looked around him. The journey up to Crummock was taking an age, as the horses picked their way carefully through the snow, struggling with the height of the drifts. The wind bit into every bone and the horses faltered with every step, as they tried to pick the best way through the foot-high snow. The heavy grey clouds folded around them both as they started up the solitary farm track, which was hidden to the eye, with a silence around them that was eerie.

  ‘Look, you can just see Crummock, so we are winning.’ A snowflake fluttered down onto Archie’s face. ‘Here we go again: the weather’s closing in once more. I think we’d probably be better getting off our horses now, lad. They are exhausted, and we’ll walk the last half-mile. My old Sheba isn’t as young as she used to be and I can feel her struggling. The walking should warm us up, if nothing else.’ Archie climbed down from his beloved horse and patted her on her neck. ‘I’ll make your load lighter, old lass. We can manage the last uphill stretch.’ Archie dismounted, grabbed the reins and started walking through the snow, slipping and sliding with every step he took as the flakes started falling down, gently at first and then turning into a full-scale blizzard.

  ‘We’ll never make it.’ Danny pulled on his horse’s reins and shouted to his father, as he kept his head down, out of the path of the stinging snow. The drifts were getting deeper with every step they took.

  ‘Yes, we will. Look, we are nearly at the corner of the wood that shelters the house. Another few yards and we turn the bend into the farmyard, and then we will be out of this wind.’ Archie looked back at his son. ‘Think of the warm fire that awaits us, and of Mary’s dinner. We’ll soon be in the kitchen and nice and warm.’

  Archie had lost all feeling in his hands now, and his face was blue with the biting wind that ripped at his cheeks. He couldn’t stop thinking about his sheep out in fields around him, covered in snow. He raised his head and looked around at the limestone walls, which the sheep would have stood against for protection. The snowdrifts were nearly four to five feet high now, whipped up against the walls, which acted as a barrier for the high winds to build the drifts onto. It would be a matter of finding the sheep, once the blizzards had stopped. The air that filtered through the limestone walls would keep them alive for a while, and the grass below their feet would keep them fed, but digging them out would be his own and Danny’s priority.

  ‘Come on, lad. We are nearly there, and Arthur will be glad to see us.’ Archie turned around and looked at his son, struggling with the ice and snow, as they rounded the corner into the farmyard of Crummock. ‘Look: the house is there and they’ve a good fire going. I can smell the wood smoke in the wind.’

  Arthur turned around from his seat in front of the kitchen fire and looked at two snow-clad bodies that had just entered the house.

  ‘You must be frozen! Here, sit up next to the fire. Mary, take their coats and make a brew. Get some warmth back into these bodies.’ Arthur made way for his master and son, as Mary quickly put the kettle on the hob and took their snow-laden clothes.

  ‘We’ve put our horses in the stable. That lad of yours will make sure they are looked after, won’t he? Sheba is feeling the toll on her old bones, for she’s not as young as she used to be.’ Archie shivered and stood up, with Danny, next to the fire and breathed in deeply, grateful they had both made the warmth of the kitchen.

  ‘Aye, he’s a good hand with horses. She’ll be looked after, don’t worry. Whatever possessed you to come up here in weather like this? It’s a wonder you’ve made it. I’ve never known weather as bad as this, all the time I’ve farmed up here.’ Arthur sat himself down at the kitchen table, as Mary brought out a newly baked loaf from the pantry and stirred the stew that was simmering on the hearth.

  ‘Sorry, Mary, we are dripping all over your clean floor.’ Danny apologized and moved to allow Mary to get to the stew.

  ‘Don’t worry, sir. At least you are getting warm, and you are safe now.’

  ‘I was worried about my sheep. I didn’t know if you’d brought them down from the fell yet. Not that it’s going to matter, as the snow’s that deep, but at least we will have some idea where they are at, if they are in the home fields.’ Archie lifted his placket and warmed his backside, the steam rising from his damp trousers as he waited for a reply.

  ‘Well, you needn’t have worried. They are all down in these front fields, including the tup from Ragged Hall; and your Herefords are in the Knot paddock, with the barn to run into, and everything else is bedded and dry and fed.’ Arthur looked at his master and sensed that there had been some doubt about him undertaking his job. ‘I’m glad you’ve come, though, as it will be a devil of a job digging for them under these snowdrifts. The farm dogs, Jip and Floss, have good noses when it comes to finding sheep, so they will soon root them out.’

  ‘Thank the Lord for that. I thought they might still be up on the fell, and I didn’t fancy their chances.’ Archie relaxed and patted Arthur on the shoulder.

  ‘Nay, just because I’m leaving this place doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be right with you. I could feel the snow coming in the air, and we had a few flakes before you in the valley, so I gathered the fell sheep a few days ago and brought them all down. You’ll be glad to know the tup you borrowed seems to be doing his job and keeping his ladies happy. You should have some good lambs in the spring.’ Arthur sat back and knew that he’d done right by his master.

  ‘That’s good to know, as long as we can find them. I’m grateful to you, Arthur. I thought—’ Archie stopped.

  ‘You thought that I’d lost interest, just because I’m moving out of Crummock. No disrespect, sir, but you should have known I’m not like that. Until April I will do my job here, and then hand it over to Mr Danny.’ Arthur smiled at the young lad who sat across the table from him. ‘Both Mary and I are grateful for all that you’ve done for us, and that you gave us first option on Butterfield Gap. It’ll be our first real home, and it’ll be something grand to look out of my door in a morning and say: This is my land and nobody can take it away from me.’ Arthur smiled at Mary as she placed bowls of stew on the table for her guests to eat. ‘Now, you enjoy my Mary’s stew and warm yourselves up. I take it you’ll be staying with us for a few nights? Mary will see to the spare rooms after we’ve eaten. She’ll make sure you’ve a fire lit and that the beds are aired.’ Arthur picked up his spoon and smiled at his wife.

  ‘Anything you nee
d, sir, please ask. I’m afraid I’ve no maid, but I’ll try and do everything you need.’ Mary curtsied.

  ‘Thank you both, I appreciate your loyalty. And I hope you are both happy in my old family home. This stew looks delicious, Mary. I hope we haven’t caused you too much disruption?’ Archie picked up his knife and fork and started to eat the welcome stew.

  ‘Not at all, sir. It will be good to have some extra company, especially if this weather is to be with us for a while.’ Mary smiled as she sat down at the table and watched her visitors enjoy her straightforward stew.

  ‘If it carries on like this, we may be with you for some time, as the path up here was barely passable.’ Archie enjoyed a mouthful of stew and looked out of the small-paned windows of the kitchen across Crummockdale, which was obliterated by the blizzard’s grip.

  ‘It’s a bad day for a wedding. I feel sorry for the lass from Ragged Hall.’ Mary innocently made conversation as she looked out of the window.

  ‘Amy’s getting married today?’ Danny pushed his plate away and looked at Mary and then at his father.

  ‘Aye, to a lad from over at Slaidburn. I think her father will have made sure it’ll go ahead today, as she’s carrying his child. She’s broken her father’s heart, so I understand. He had high hopes for her, and little knowing that she was a bit wild.’ Mary stood up and started to clear the empty plates, not noticing that Danny looked upset.

  ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just check the horses.’ Danny pushed back his chair, giving his father a quick glance before heading for the door.

  ‘They’ll be fine, lad. Bob will have seen to them, stop in here,’ Archie shouted after him, but got no response as he heard the back door slam.

  ‘I take it that Danny knew Amy Brown, like many of the lads in the district?’ Arthur looked across at Archie, who appeared worried.

  ‘Aye, he did. I’m thankful there’s a blizzard, else I could see him riding over to stop the wedding, because when it comes to her, he sees no sense,’ Archie growled.

  ‘I’m sorry I mentioned her. I was just making conversation.’ Mary stopped for a moment from her chores and sat down next to her employer. ‘I don’t think Amy knows who the real father to her bairn is. The lad from Slaidburn was the one her father caught her with, so he’s got the blame.’

  ‘Well, I’m damn sure it’s not Danny’s, so I’m not even thinking about it. And he’s to marry Harriet this Easter, so he needs to forget Amy bloody Brown.’ Archie got up from the table and looked out at the snow-filled sky and the white landscape outside, regretting yet again the day he’d sent his lad to Ragged Hall and Danny had set eyes on Amy Brown.

  Outside in the stable, Danny stood in the doorway and watched as the snow fell, obscuring his view of the valley below. He knew he was doing the right thing by marrying Harriet, but the shock news that Amy was marrying, and was with child, had hurt him. She still captivated him, tugged on his heartstrings and made him smile, when he thought of her wild ways. ‘God bless you, Amy Brown, may you and your child be happy in your new life,’ he whispered, as he looked across at the white wilderness of the winter’s day. ‘You’ll always be special to me, and I’ll never forget you.’

  The three men walked out through the virginal whiteness of the snowy field, armed with long shepherd crooks and shovels, and with the two sheepdogs struggling to follow them. The sun shone in triumph over the battle between the winter’s elements in the vividly clear blue sky, catching every crystallized snowflake and making them shine like diamonds across the crisp landscape.

  ‘If we hadn’t such a hard task in front of us, I’d say this was a grand day,’ Archie said to Arthur as they reached the bottom wall of the first field, looking around at the perfect white of the snow-covered Dales and the trees glistening in the winter’s sun. ‘There’s going to be hardship all round, if we don’t find them. No spring lambs for us to sell in the autumn and no wool payment. How would Crummock survive without sheep?’

  ‘Aye, we are going to be sweating a bit by the time we’ve dug out a few score. But we’ve got to find those poor creatures,’ Arthur agreed. ‘I saw some of them making for this bottom corner. Where there’s one, there will be a few, as they tend to stand all together.’ Arthur prodded his crook into the snow as far as he could and pulled it out again unsuccessfully, without reaching the hard body of a sheep in his probing.

  ‘Here – there’s some here!’ Danny pulled out his stick and started shovelling quickly as he found a buried sheep. The snow quickly piled up and the dogs yapped excitedly at the sight of the buried body.

  ‘Here, Jip.’ Danny held the dog to smell the sheep and then pulled it out of the dug hole and said, ‘Find, Jip. Go. Go find, Jip.’ The dog looked confused and then, as if by magic, registered what Danny was asking of it, slowly sniffing its way along the side of the wall until it came across another group of hidden sheep in their snowy enclosure. It pawed and scratched at the frozen snow in excitement, at the thought of the sheep underneath. Danny pulled at the back legs of the emerging sheep, as his father and Arthur went to uncover the other sheep that Jip had found, nearly falling backwards as a disorientated Swaledale ewe saw her first sight of the sun for more than three days. ‘There you go, old lass. How many of you are there in here with you?’ Danny looked down into the snow cavern made by the sheep’s warm breath and quickly uncovered another six. All of them bleated as they were dug from their snowy graves and ran to stand together and watch as the rest of the flock was rescued. ‘Seven down – how many more to go?’ Danny shouted, as his father and Arthur dug out another grateful victim.

  ‘Just another two hundred or so. But look on the bright side: the sun is helping our job,’ Arthur shouted across as a group of five sheep made their way through the gateway and towards the watching flock. ‘They’ve made it on their own.’

  ‘No worries then, hopefully we’ll not lose many.’ Danny moved on, with Jip barking excitedly around his legs, as Floss pawed frantically further down the field. ‘Then it’s just a matter of foddering them and keeping the water trough free of ice. Remind me: why did I say I wanted to be a farmer?’ he shouted at his father, as he prodded with his stick to find the sheep that both dogs were telling him were buried under his feet.

  ‘Because it’s in your blood, lad, and always will be.’ Archie pulled at the hardened horns of a tup that he’d just located, and stood back as Moses – the tup from Ragged Hall – was freed. ‘Well, that’s one less worry. Bill Brown will be getting his tup back.’ Archie watched as Moses shook himself free of the clinging snow and then went to stand with his ladies, stamping his foot in defiance as the dogs sniffed around the freed flock.

  Danny put his head down and said nothing as his father watched him cursing, as his latest hole bore no fruit. That bloody tup; he wished he’d never set eyes on it – or its owner. Amy had broken his heart, and now he had to live with the consequences.

  14

  Charlotte was in the kitchen of Windfell Manor, looking at the dinner menus for the week. She sat at the scrubbed-spotless, long pine table and was bathed in the kitchen’s warmth, as the Yorkshire range was throwing out heat from the coal that had just been added. The smell of home-made mincemeat pervaded the room, as Nancy filled jam jars to the brim, in preparation for the many pies to be made for Christmas.

  ‘Do you think Mr Atkinson will be back with us shortly?’ Ruby asked as she sat across from her mistress, twiddling her thumbs. She hated waiting for her mistress’s acceptance of her menu; it was rare that Mrs Atkinson did not like anything on it, but she always felt like a small child, waiting to be told that her work was full of mistakes and she must redo it, as her teacher used to.

  ‘I don’t know, Ruby. I’ve had no word from either Mr Atkinson or Danny since they went there. I presume they are still busy finding sheep and making sure they are cared for. The road was still blocked yesterday, but I noticed it had started to rain, so that should begin to clear some of the snow. I hope so. Another fortnight and i
t is nearly Christmas, and I’d like all my family to be with me by then.’ Charlotte looked up from her menu and sighed.

  ‘Are we not holding a ball, this year, ma’am? It’s just if we are, both Thomson and me are beginning to need to know. There’s quite a bit to organize and I’ll have to order some provisions in. I asked Mazy, but she seemed to know nothing. And what would you like for Christmas dinner this year – have I to put an order in with the gamekeeper for a few brace of pheasants, or is it to be goose this time?’ Ruby hadn’t seen her mistress down in the kitchen for a while, for she had seemed to be preoccupied with the mill while the menfolk were up at Crummock, and Miss Isabelle had been similarly occupied with her new dress shop.

  ‘The menu’s fine, Ruby. I’m sorry, I can’t say how many you are cooking for, as I don’t know myself who will be sitting down to dinner with me, so if you can bear with us and play it by ear.’ Charlotte brooded. ‘Tom Beresford from the Craven Lime Company will be joining us, along with his wife, on Tuesday evening – or should I say joining me, if Archie is not back in time. He’s invited me to look around the Hoffmann kiln to see how the lime is made that day, too. It’s to be hoped that the snow has cleared by then. I personally think I would be better looking around in spring, but Mr Beresford was quite insistent on me visiting next Tuesday, so the least I could do to thank him for his hospitality was invite him back for dinner. It’s best I keep him sweet, as he’s on Settle town council and has a lot of sway on planning, and he’s such an insistent little man. He’s made – or broken – many a firm in the district, but I hear that his own management skills are not to be recommended.’

  ‘Aye, he’s not a good man, I don’t think. I wouldn’t worry about the snow being around the Hoffmann kiln, ma’am. I’ve heard them say that the ground around the kiln is so warm that it melts any snow or ice for a good distance around it. The fires inside the kiln are never left to go out totally.’ Ruby took her menu from Charlotte and put it in her apron pocket for safety.