Read Online Luckpenny Land by Freda Lightfoot - Free Book Online Page A

his advantage one day. When the time was right. Joe was so pleased with his discovery he almost sang as he walked home, but remembered in time to keep his usual taciturn expression. Always the safest.
     
    Visitors to Ashlea were rare. Farmers, not having much time for socialising at home, tended to confine their gossiping, which they loved, to their gatherings, meets and markets. The womenfolk had their own list of busy chores which kept them at home just as firmly. So Meg was surprised to have a visitor one day in early summer. She was alone in the house, her father having gone to make arrangements with Lanky for the coming clipping. Dan and Charlie were out in the fields.
    The day was sunny, ideal for a bit of gardening, washing curtains and baking a fresh batch of scones. Feeling well pleased with her efforts Meg quickly fed the new growing calves then awarded herself a well earned rest in the sun. She was sitting with her feet propped on an upturned bucket when Sally Ann Gilpin, the seventeen-year-old eldest daughter of the Gilpin family of Quarry Row came knocking at the farmhouse door.
    She was a plump girl with a round smiling face. Meg remembered her from school as always wearing hand-me-down clothes a size too small, and she had changed little over the years, as untidy now as she had been at twelve. Kath, who of course had gone to a private girls’ school in Carlisle, had never been a particular friend of Sally Ann’s but Meg liked her. Sally Ann had a good warm heart.
    ‘Is your pa in?’ she asked now, hugging a buttonless cardigan about an ample bosom.
    Meg explained that he was away and she wasn’t sure when he’d be back. ‘Dan’s in the top field. I could call him for you.’
    ‘No, it’s all right,’ said Sally Ann, too quickly. ‘I can call again.’
    Meg smiled encouragingly at her. ‘He’ll be in shortly, for his tea. Stay and have a cuppa with me and a bit of a crack. It’s not often I get a chance for a gossip with another female. Surrounded by great clods of menfolk I am, and I haven’t been out for days.’ Meg laughed and Sally Ann, eyeing the scones on the kitchen table, quickly agreed.
    ‘That’d be grand, ta.’
    They went inside while Meg brewed a fresh pot of tea and buttered several scones. She carried the tray out so they could sit in the sun, Sally Ann trailing silently behind her. But the small tea party proved to be a disappointing failure. Her one-time friend, perched uncomfortably on the edge of her chair, seemed lost in thoughts of her own and all Meg’s efforts at cheerful conversation fell flat. Finally she recalled how Jack had told her that Mr Gilpin had been unwell.
    ‘How’s your dad? I hope your ma’s managing all right.’
    The girl swallowed a mouthful of tea, seemed to choke upon it and quickly set the mug down as she broke into a fit of coughing. Meg waited patiently for the spasm to pass.
    ‘Dad isn’t too good as a matter of fact. His leg was smashed by a boulder that ran loose in the blasting and he’s had to give up quarrying. He gets a bit of labouring here and there. Doctor doesn’t think it’ll ever properly mend, not that we’ve had him up recently. Doctors cost money.’
    Meg looked shocked. ‘But surely your dad was insured, with the quarry?’
    ‘Oh, aye, at least he paid his penny a week for a while, only it don’t last for ever.’ Again she swallowed a mouthful of scalding tea as if wanting to soothe away unpleasant memories. ‘And there’s not been much spare cash about with Dad off sick for so long.’
    ‘No, there wouldn’t be.’
    ‘That’s why I’m here, if I’m honest,’ Sally Ann admitted, her voice so low Meg could scarcely hear her.
    ‘You’re wanting to borrow some money off my father, is that it?’
    Sally Ann looked up at her with haunted eyes. ‘Well, your pa’s already helped us out a time or two. I was wondering if he’d give us more time to pay.’
    Meg regarded the girl for a moment in compassionate