Josephine Cox Sunday Times Bestsellers Collection. Josephine Cox

explained, ‘My sons have gone to meet friends in Liverpool and Susie is taking extra tuition on the hat-making. There is no need for them to be here. If you’re bringing bad news, it’s best that me and Vicky know first. That way we can talk to the young ’uns ourselves.’

      ‘I understand.’ Leonard had no way of knowing how all this might affect Barney’s children. Even if Barney accepted his offer, the children might not.

      ‘You’d best sit down.’ Barney gestured to the armchair, while he and Vicky sat side-by-side on the sofa. ‘I might tell you, I’ve been on pins since Vicky told me.’

      Leonard sat down. He looked at the pair of them seated there, fine, kind-hearted people, hardworking as the day was long, and his heart sank within him. ‘I have to tell you both …’ he began. Then: ‘This has not been the easiest day of my life.’

      Barney looked him in the eye. ‘So, it is bad news then?’

      ‘I suppose it all depends on how you see it.’ Leonard chose his words carefully as he went on, ‘I’ve come here tonight, firstly to explain the outcome of my trip to Boston, and secondly, to ask something of you both.’

      He took a deep invigorating breath. ‘What I have to tell you has been playing on my mind these past weeks. It will be a relief to have it out in the open. I’m not like you, Barney,’ he said kindly. ‘I’ve always struggled to make friends.’ He smiled shyly. ‘In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you two are the nearest to friends that I’ve got. I have no family – no wife or children to talk things over with, so when I have problems, they often weigh heavy on my mind.’

      When Barney seemed about to speak, he gestured for him to stop. ‘I don’t want you to say anything just yet, Barney. As you already know, I was summoned to Boston in order to learn the terms and conditions of my grandfather’s Will, and to tie up any loose ends out there.’

      He looked away momentarily as though in shame, and went on in a low voice: ‘It was a great shock for me to learn that my grandfather had taken up gambling and was up to his neck in debt when he died, with all his land and properties on the point of being sold from under him.’

      At the gasp of disbelief from Barney and Vicky, he got swiftly to the point. ‘It means two things,’ he said, ‘and each of them will affect you and your family, in at least one way that I can see.’

      He went on in great detail, telling them how it had all come about, how he had worked every waking moment to save what he could. There had been sacrifices made, and his own future, as well as theirs, was now hanging in the balance. ‘I’m sorry to tell you that I have no option but to sell both The Manse and Overhill Farm.’ There was no other way to say it but straight out.

      Rendered speechless by the news, Barney stood up and with haggard eyes, he looked first at Leonard, and then at Vicky. His face white as chalk, he reached out for his wife’s hand. Deeply concerned, she could only leave it to the men and hope they might salvage something worthwhile from this nightmare.

      Leonard would have given almost anything to remove the look of devastation on Barney’s face. ‘If there had been any other way, you know I would have taken it,’ he said helplessly, and wondered if there had been any kinder way he could have broken the news.

      He plunged on. ‘I have many business contacts in the farming world, and I’m sure I can get you a place locally, if it’s what you want. Oh, I know it will never be the same because you’ve been here all these years, but you only have to say the word and I’ll find something – you know I will.’

      Barney nodded. ‘Thank you for that,’ he said quietly, ‘but you’re right – it’s small compensation. I’ve been here so long, it’s as if I’ve lived here all my life. My children have never known anything else.’

      Leonard had one more thing to say before he left. ‘There is one other option …’

      Pre-empting his words, Barney interrupted, ‘If you’re offering me first refusal of the farm, there is no way on God’s earth I could ever buy it. I’m not a man of money, I never have been. I’ve lived content year to year, raising my family and tending the land—’

      Leonard stopped him. ‘It’s not that, Barney. I know you haven’t the means to buy this farm, otherwise it would be yours. What I’m asking of you now needs even more commitment from you, and your family.’

      ‘What do you mean?’ Barney was puzzled. ‘What is it you’re asking?’

      Leonard glanced at Vicky; sad-faced and twining her fingers together in her lap, she was obviously deeply disturbed by events.

      ‘I’ve managed to save my grandfather’s estate,’ he began. ‘It took some doing and I’ve never been in so much debt in my entire life, but I couldn’t let it go without doing my damnedest to keep it.’

      ‘I’m pleased for you, Mr Maitland.’ Barney was magnanimous in his own disappointment. ‘I know how much you loved that place. You’ve talked about it that many times, I almost feel I know it myself.’

      ‘That’s excellent!’ Barney’s remarks took Leonard naturally into his proposition. ‘How would you like to see it, Barney – you and your family?’ He looked again at Vicky, who was intent on his every word.

      While Barney was momentarily taken aback, it was she who replied. ‘What exactly do you mean?’

      In tender, persuasive tones he told her what he had in mind. ‘It’s my dearest wish for all of you to come with me. I would like Barney and your sons to help me run the farm, and for yourself to take charge of the house. As for young Susie, there are any number of milliners in Boston – it’s a very smart place – who will teach her the trade, if that’s what she really wants.’

      With the two of them shocked into silence, he leaned forward, hands on his knees and his eyes pleading with them each in turn. ‘Barney … Vicky, please think about it. It would mean so much to me, if you would agree.’

      When Barney spoke now, it was with a surge of emotion that trembled in his voice. ‘But why?’ he asked. ‘Why would you want me and my family, when you could employ the best that money could buy?’

      In Barney’s face, Leonard could see the tiniest glimmer of hope. ‘Oh Barney, don’t you know that you’re the best there is! That’s why I want you – because I know the calibre of you, and I know that the homestead would be in good hands.’

      He grew tremendously excited. ‘Not only would I be taking the very best, but I’d be taking with me people I consider to be my friends … good people whom I’ve known for many a year.’ He actually laughed out loud. ‘Oh, you can’t imagine what it’s like over there. In Massachusetts, there’s so much sky, you think it goes on forever! And the land … You could ride for half a day before you reach its borders. Boston itself is the capital – three hundred years old and full of history. Not everything in America is like Charlie Chaplin, you know!’ He chuckled merrily.

      By now he was on his feet. ‘Say you’ll come. Please, talk to your family. Tell them how it will be. You’ll have a house twice the size of this one, and a garden to lose yourself in. There’s an orchard – yes, it’s overgrown now, but we’ll soon get it round. Please! Say you’ll accept this challenge. I won’t let you down, and if after a while you’re not happy there, I’ll pay for you to come back, and I’ll find you a house and work into the bargain. What d’you say? Barney … Vicky? Will you come?’

      Suddenly Barney was laughing; the look of joy on Vicky’s face urged him on. A moment later he was shaking Leonard by the hand. ‘If the family are all in agreement, then our answer is yes, oh YES!’ In the space of a moment his despair was replaced by a sense of joy.

      In the excitement that followed, Vicky kissed Barney and then she kissed Leonard, and he was overjoyed.

      ‘Talk to your sons and Susie,’ he said. ‘Tell them how wonderful a life it will be.’

      Barney