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‘Why?’
    ‘They grow them for the bulbs, you see, and part of making the bulbs mature is to remove just the heads so that a lot of the goodness from the plant goes back into the bulb and makes it
grow bigger.’
    ‘It’s a shame, though,’ Maddie said, understanding the need but bemoaning the destruction of the pretty flowers.
    Reluctantly, she turned to follow him back down the field, dragging her gaze away from the multicoloured carpet of flowers that stretched into the distance as far as she could see.
    Then she skipped after the farmer, filled with a sudden happiness such as she had never felt before.

Five
    ‘Now, you’ll have to sit close up, ’cos you’re only little.’ Michael was laughing down at her but his teasing was not cruel. ‘We’ll
start you on Betsy. She’s a soft old thing and she’ll stand good as gold whilst you milk her, won’t you, old girl?’
    The cow, tethered to the wall, flicked her tail but munched contentedly on the hay in the heck level with her nose.
    ‘Sit on this little stool, put your head against her belly and reach underneath. Then, very gently, squeeze her teats. Like this, see.’ The young man squatted down and Maddie watched
as he squeezed and pulled and the milk squirted into the bucket beneath.
    He stood up again. ‘Right, now you have a go.’
    A shadow appeared in the doorway and Maddie looked up to see Nick carrying two empty buckets and moving towards the next stall. ‘She’ll never manage it,’ he said.
‘She’ll have to kneel underneath Betsy to reach her udders.’
    ‘Tek no notice of him,’ Michael grinned good-naturedly. ‘He’s only jealous ’cos he’d like to be the one teaching you, ’stead of me.’
    Nick gave a wry snort and then nodded towards Maddie. ‘You want to watch him. He’s a bugger with the girls.’
    Now Michael frowned. ‘Less of that sort of language in front of her.’
    Nick smirked and tugged his forelock in mock obedience. ‘Right you are, sir. Sorry, I’m sure, sir.’
    Maddie sat down on the low, three-legged stool and rested her forehead against the cow.
    ‘I think you’d do better if you rest your cheek against her with your shoulder sort of almost underneath,’ Michael advised. ‘You might be able to reach a bit further that
way.’
    ‘But I can’t see what I’m doing then.’
    Michael chuckled and winked. ‘You’ll have to feel your way, love.’
    As Maddie giggled at his cheeky remark, she heard Nick clash the buckets together and Betsy moved restlessly at the sudden noise, jerking her back leg sideways and pushing Maddie off the stool
so that she fell backwards onto the cobbled floor of the cowshed.
    ‘Now look what you’ve done,’ Michael shouted at Nick as he stooped to offer a helping hand to her.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Frank stood in the doorway and then, as he glanced from his son towards the figure of Nick making his way along the line of tethered cows to the far end of
the cowshed, he gave a quick, irritated shake of his head. ‘Oh, you two at it again, are you? Give it a rest, Michael, and show this lass what to do.’
    ‘I was doing,’ Michael muttered. ‘If others’d leave us alone.’
    But Maddie noticed that he kept his voice so low that his father could not hear his words. Only she, close to him, heard.
    ‘Now the milking’s done, Nick,’ Frank said, ‘we’ll show Maddie around. Where we’re standing, lass, is the crew-yard and besides the cowshed
. . .’ Frank gestured towards the buildings on two sides of the yard, ‘there’s Rajah’s stable in the corner and then pigsties down that side. We’ve only two pigs just
now. Then, in that far corner, is the boiler house. We use it in winter to heat the hen-house. That’s that long building over yonder.’ He pointed beyond the yard. ‘Come on,
I’ll show you my battery house, but you must never . . .’ for a moment his expression was stern, ‘go inside it. I’m only just teaching Michael how it all