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 got into him,’ she muttered as she went. ‘I’ve never seen him in such a bad mood.’ But knowing how important it was to get the ploughing done, she put it out of her mind.
All the same, by the time she arrived at the farmhouse, Alice was unusually low in spirit. ‘He’s right about Jimmy though,’ she admitted as she came up the path. ‘He is a bit of a daydream at times. I don’t suppose you can blame Frank for not trusting him with the ploughing.’
She said the very same when Nancy asked where Frank was. ‘Frank will be along soon as he can.’ She relayed Frank’s message word for word.
Nancy was more concerned about Alice. ‘I don’t need to ask how you got soaked,’ she tutted. ‘Away upstairs and into some of my old dry clothes before you catch your death o’ cold!’
Alice apologised. ‘I got soaked because I went the quickest way, and I went the quickest way because I needed to find Frank,’ Alice explained.
‘You should never wade through the brook,’ Nancy warned. ‘There are sharp stones and bits of debris lying at the bottom. You could have hurt yourself.’
‘Leave the girl be!’ Tom chipped in. He thought there were times when Nancy could be a bit too sharp. ‘Alice is a grown woman, about to be wed for goodness’ sake. Don’t treat her like a naughty child.’
Having only Alice’s welfare at heart, Nancy was mortified. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Alice. Sometimes I let my tongue run away with me.’
Alice gave her a hug, ‘It’s really nice that you worry about me,’ she said gently. ‘I’ll go and get changed.’
