Free The Miller's Dance by Winston Graham Page A

her head ... 'it is not .something that can be contained so long as that!'
    Demelza eyed her tall blonde daughter, and it was in her mind to tell her that she was so ineffably young she might well wait two years and come to no hurt, leave alone a mere eight or nine months. But the memory of her own early life with Ross was still too sharp in her mind, too vivid to ignore. How could she reprimand or lecture from such a base?
    Ross said: 'Let us just go through it again. Tom Jonas . having just died, Wilf is looking for an assistant at the mill. This will be hard, heavy work, but it will be local and outdoors, and as Wilf is childless it may lead to better things. At least it is the most suitable employment I can suggest at the moment. I am, as you know, against the idea of a son-in-law taking work with his wife's father: it leads to friction.. .even if I had anything to offer. The one thing I can offer is the Gatehouse. Where Dwight Enys once lived before he married Caroline. That is a pleasant small house and will do very well for you both -'
    ‘I know, Papa, and thank you -'
    'But if Stephen begins with Wilf J onas next month - and I think th at can be arranged - he can go into the Gatehouse on his own and see how he fares as a miller. By November he will have had a chance of getting the house in order-for it is in poor shape at present. Milling is a profitable busines s , and even one who is merely employed there - to begin - will not be badly paid. By November Stephen will have been earning seven or eight months. He will have a h ome ready for you to go to, and at least just enough money to maintain you. If need be, I can then add something to it to help you set up a home of your own ...'
    Clowance stood there, firmly planted between them, young, graceful, vulnerable, supremely honest.
    'I do not know what Stephen will say...'
    'What can he say? ’
    She did not answer her father's question, though she knew the answer. If Stephen chose not to see the reason of her parents' conditions and made it a condition of his own that he could not wait that long, then she would give herself to him - not in holy wedlock but in the mildewed dusty grimness of Geoffrey Charles's old bedroom, with the spiders and the wood fire and the damp sheets warmed by their nakedness. That was what she knew would happen, but she ' " could not explain this to them, either as a reason or as a threat. Whatever had happened to them when they were young, it was too far away to have any relevance to the present.
    She said: 'Could it be midsummer instead?' 'Why midsummer?'
    'That would be a year since he returned. It would still give him time to establish himself in the Gatehouse, to have been working with Wilf Jonas for several months. It is not so-so horribly far away as November.'
    Ross looked at Demelza. Demelza said: 'Why do we not see how Stephen feels about working for Jonas? The rest of the suggestions too. If he agrees, let us see how long it will take him to get settled. In the end we might all be agreeable to some compromise - say late August ? Or perhaps after the harvest? I was at the Gatehouse last November, took the key, looked around. It is in very poor shape. There is rot in the floors, and many slates have gone. All this would have to be done before you could go to live there. Even Stephen might prefer to continue to live with the Nanfans for a while. But it would give him an incentive, both of you an incentive, to repair and prepare. September, I think, would be a good time.'
    Clowance picked at the skin in the palm of her hand. There had been a thorn there yesterday. Stephen had taken it out. She had enjoyed being hurt by him.
    I know you are trying to be kind - both of you ... and thank you for being so thoughtful. Would I be - could I be officially affianced to Stephen then? Soon. It might help. He would feel he was not being just put off, delayed. A promise would mean there would not be more delay.'
    There was a pause. 'At Easter?'