Free Return to Hendre Ddu by Sian James

an effort to bring up the subject again, I really will. I’m determined to do everything I can to help her.’
    The three of them sat without the energy to talk further. ‘We seem to have had so much happening to us in such a short space of time,’ Lowri said at last. ‘I’d like a few quiet weeks now, with nothing to disturb us but the gradual unfolding of the seasons.’
    Josi came in from the milking seeming as tired as the others. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘Prosser asked me to tell you all that everyone he spoke to had appreciated the funeral dinner yesterday. But he wanted to remind me, very respectfully, that one thing had been overlooked. The young master’s mother – it took me a few moments to work out he meant Rachel – would have been distributing whatever change, the copper and the small silver Miss Rees had left behind her, between the children and the young people.’
    ‘Good Lord,’ Tom said, ‘I was sure there’d be something we’d forget. I remember now, that was the custom in Hendre Ddu when one of the older servants died without kith or kin. We’ll have to remedy that. Tell Prosser that the youngsters must call here next Sunday after chapel.’
    ‘But what about that first cousin from Tregaron?’ Lowri said. ‘Anyway, I wonder what money she will have left. She was very generous, you know, nobody from chapel ever got married or had a baby without her giving them a brand new crown, they could depend on that. And Christmas-time too, she used to get half a dozen pairs of woollen socks for all the men and stockings for the maids and always the best quality. Dear old Miss Rees. I really miss her. I don’t think I ever realised how much I loved her.’
    Tom admitted that he felt exactly the same. ‘In a way we made fun of her loyalty to the family, but in fact we appreciated it and loved her for it.’
    ‘Where’s May?’ Josi suddenly asked.
    ‘She’s up with Catrin and the baby. Catrin has been showing her all the old photographs. She’s seen photos of you since you were a few days old,’ she told Tom. ‘Little Rachel May is going to be christened in her grandmother’s old christening gown and bonnet and Catrin’s asked May and me to be her godmothers.’
    ‘I only hope the baby will put on a bit of weight before that,’ Graham said, sighing like an old man, ‘or she’ll look like a little shrimp in all that magnificence of lace and tulle.’
    ‘She’ll be fine,’ Josi said with more assurance than he really felt. ‘What, lad, do you doubt that this thriving farming family with its history of breeding prize-winning stock is going to fail with one of their own? Not likely. I remember Tom here giving his mother a very anxious few weeks but look at him now.’
    They all turned towards Tom who looked as strong and handsome as if he’d been on the continent doing the grand tour, not fighting in the mud and stinking slime of the trenches for two and a half years.
    Three days later, May went back to London. On her last day at Hendre Ddu she seemed strangely dispirited and distant. Tom was worried, but comforted himself with the thought that she was dreading the time they would spend apart. Perhaps she expected her father to object to her sudden decision to get married and live so far away. He would quite understand it; if she were his daughter he’d feel exactly the same.

Chapter seven
    It was Lowri who made the discovery. In the old press in Miss Rees’ bedroom, under a pile of linen, was a brown canvas bag containing a great weight of gold sovereigns.
    ‘Great Heavens,’ Tom said when she took them to him. ‘However did she manage to save this much money? Her wages were ridiculously small for all the work she did here. She always said that her status in the family was sufficient reward, but I was never convinced of that.’
    ‘Shall I count it, Tom?’ Lowri asked. ‘I didn’t want to touch it until I’d handed it over to you.’
    ‘Let’s do it together and try to decide