Amy an only child grew up in what was on first appearances a very religious community. Married to Noah, her youngest and fourth child was a trans girl, originally Isaac who subsequently went by the name of Bethan. Luke Farrier Amy’s widowed dad was okay about that, for Bethan was his grandchild whom he loved unconditionally just like Abby, Jack and Willi, but when Amy’s husband Noah Smith discovered the situation he beat Amy brutally for covering for Bethan and Bethan as badly to force the evil out of his son. Luke was upset by that and he beat Noah even more brutally in retaliation and threw him out of the family home. Noah wasn’t well liked and was considered to drink over much, but he was local born, so the neighbours disapproved of Luke’s actions mostly because Luke only came to the area twenty-odd years ago and was still considered to be an incomer. Luke left town after selling what stock he could from the gun shop and only paying rent on the premises till the day he moved. He went to live with Amy and his grandchildren on the farm that he had started with his late wife and of which he was still the legal owner. Luke went back to the farm to help run it and to protect his family from Noah should he return. It was as well he did for Noah did return, twice, but each time Luke beat him as badly as before. As a result the family was shunned by most of their their neighbours.

Helmson McQueen’s wife had left him for another man and drained their bank, so in his grief and despair he’d burnt down his house in the city and left. Just to get away, to anywhere, he’d been illegally travelling on a train, but the guards had discovered him, beaten him badly and threwn him off the train whilst it had been moving at full speed near Luke’s farm. Luke had been repairing fences when he’d found Helmson and taken him home in the waggon he used to carry the fencing equipment and spares in. Amy’s care nursed Helmson’s broken body back to health, and her love healed his tortured soul. Helmson was liked by Luke because he worked hard on the farm clearly for no thought of reward, but mostly because he cared for Amy’s children as his own, had no problems about a trans girl and couldn’t see why any else were bothered since it didn’t affect them. The children had been calling Helmson Dad for months and had been a little worried that he didn’t sleep with their mother, for that indicated to them a possible lack of permanence which made them feel insecure. When Helmson moved into Amy’s bed they were relieved that all was now as it should be.

That Helmson shared a bed with Amy was Luke considered none of his business, for she was a woman grown with a family to protect and the best way any woman could do that was to provide her children with a decent father, and in his opinion fathers didn’t come any better than Helmson. There were not many men as tough as Helmson, yet at the same time as gentle with their woman and children. Helmson had no problem being seen to kiss Bethan and telling her, “You’re a good girl, Bethan, I reckon your mother could use some help in the kitchen. If you and Abby bake some cookies I reckon Grandpa and I will give you a double helping of kisses and Jack and Willi will willingly fetch water from the well for you.” Helmson was a good mentor to the boys. He didn’t lose his temper with them when they found a task difficult, he was patient and explained and demonstrated how to do the task again, and he did it as often as was necessary. He enjoyed playing with the children, and for them Noah’s shouting and punishments with his belt when they failed to learn as quickly as he demanded were a fading bad memory.

Noah laid claim to the farm, but all the neighbours knew that Luke’s title to the land and all on it were registered with the government authorities at County House a long time ago and thus unassailable, and Noah’s claim was baseless. None would lend him drinking money based on what they knew was a worthless expectation. After being threwn off the farm by Luke, Noah had been drinking even more heavily, but he maintained he still desired Amy and said as his wife she had to submit to his authority. Luke told Paster Fearon that if Noah did anything more to hurt any of his family he would kill him and take his chances on going to heaven. After her body had healed, Amy wasn’t particularly bothered by what Noah had done to her, but she didn’t want anything to do with him any more because he had hurt Bethan and no matter what he said to the contrary she didn’t believe he would stop doing so, but she did want Helmson in her life who treated all her children as a good father would. He also treated her with respect both in private and in public and as a treasure in the sanctity of their bed, which was very different from Noah’s treatment of her which had been casually and callously abusive. Luke had never been never particularly religious, and events had made Amy consider the church to be so lacking in humanity that she told Pastor Fearon that she was no longer a member of his church and that he had lost her and her children from his congregation was his fault because he had not condemned Noah for beating a child so harshly and he’d allowed her neighbours to treat her badly for protecting her children, which was definitely contrary to her interpretation of the scriptures.

The entire family took a trip into town to collect mail and buy supplies from the one store whose proprietor would still serve them. Coming upon them by surprise Noah hit Bethan who was dressed like a girl of her age sufficiently hard to knock her to the ground with a bruised face and a black eye. In the subsequent fight Helmson beat Noah so badly he was in hospital for three days and returned with a broken arm in a cast which Luke said was poetic justice since Noah had broken Amy’s arm when he’d beaten her and Bethan.

As a result of all this the community refused to help Amy and Helmson at their proposed barn raising. Helmson said, “Damnation to you all. God will help us and shew you all to be the conscienceless, callous sinners that you are.” At a family meeting Luke decided it would be best that they abandon the plans for the new barn and auction the farm, for land was in demand and prices were high. He reckoned the townsfolk would be glad to pay just to get rid of them. He told them that a hundred and fifty miles away there was a range of small hills, none higher than sixteen hundred feet. The area just the other side of the hills was sparsely settled by decent law abiding folk with a secular way of life, and they would welcome more folk into the area, and since unused land was plentiful it was relatively cheap, about a tenth of what they would be selling for. The only town was small, but the dozen or so traders there supplied all the goods the local farmers needed.

Helmson asked, “What seems too good to be true probably is, so what’s the down side?”

“Water,” Luke replied. “There’s plenty of rainfall, but most falls on this side of the hills where there is nothing but rock and sand. There’s virtually no fertile land this side of the hills for fifty miles or more, and what little there is is farmed by folks no different from the folks here. We’d need to build a dam or maybe several to keep water for when it doesn’t rain, for the streams coming off the far side of the hills dry up for four months a year. Too, we’d need to have a few wells bored if we wanted to farm, and dams and bore holes are expensive to have made.”

Helmson took a few seconds to respond. “I was involved in plant hire and engineering before I came here. I don’t know how to drill a bore hole, but I do know where to buy a second hand boring rig I could fix and how to find someone who would explain how to use it. I do know how to operate a track laying dozer and where to get one cheap, though a cheap one would certainly need a fair bit of work doing to it. If I called in a few favours it wouldn’t cost too much to have both trucked to our new place after I’d got them working. If I went back to the city and worked I reckon I could have what we need on their way here in four months and after doing ours we could always drill bore holes and make dams for others to help earn a bit. There’re myself, you, and the boys, Luke, and it’s always a good thing for a boy to be able to turn his hand to as many things as possible. The only thing that bothers me is leaving the family with only you to protect them. Noah’s bad, and next time he returns he may bring others with him.”

Luke replied, “I’ve got enough set by to move the family first while I sell up here. I doubt if Noah could get any to help him do anything illegal, for he isn’t well liked, and in any case if he tries to force entry here that gives me the right to shoot, though I’d resent expending the effort digging a grave for him would cost me. I’ve five shotguns and a dozen or more rifles plus the hand guns left over from the shop. I’ll stock up on ammunition and buy a few boxes of dynamite and have them all ready positioned at appropriate places. I doubt Noah has the courage to face determined opposition. More to the point, if we find somewhere to rent with a barn for all the tools and implements and some grazing we can hire a truck to move the lot including the livestock, for I’d rather not sell the horses and cattle for next to nothing and have to start from scratch. Besides, if we don’t sell anything none will realise what we’re planning on doing till I put the farm up for sale by which time it’ll be too late for Noah to do anything about it, since we’ll have taken everything except the shells of the buildings. You never know folk may think we’re just leaving everything behind us and that may get a better price if we sell at the auction in town as ‘sold as is’. If Amy and the kids pack up everything in advance we can move the family and as much else as we can first. The two of us and the boys can return and load up again whilst Amy and the girls get the new place organised. It’s a four hour drive at most, so we could do a round trip every day. We’d clear the place including horses, cattle, hogs and poultry in a week or maybe ten days. If we take half the hay, straw and feed with some of the livestock in one run we could take the other half the day after. Once we’ve cleared the place you stay with the family over there till I’ve sold the farm. Then I’ll join you and you can head for the city. You going to need any money when you get there, Son?”

“No. I’ll be fine, Luke. I’ve got more than enough to get there. I’ll leave virtually everything with Amy to cover any emergencies and I’ll earn what I need when I get there.”

“You’re a good man, Son. It’s Dad from now on, okay?”

Amy asked, “What about my vegetables, Dad? I don’t want to leave them or it’ll cost us a lot to eat. Money that could be used far more sensibly on things we’ll really need.”

“What is there that can be harvested in say six or eight weeks, Amy?”

“Enough to keep us going, but if you can hold off on the sale till just before the first overnight frosts you could bring us all back to harvest what was left the day before the sale is finalised. I’ve enough seed to start again as long as there is some reasonable soil to plant in. I’ve not planted a lot of the vegetables out into the ground yet. I could put them in bigger containers for a while, but they need planting out soon. If we want bread, I need to sow wheat and barley and oats for the horses and us too. The rye isn’t that important but if I’m sowing the other grains I might as well sow that too. It’s too late in the year to sow corn for the hogs’ feed at the new place which is why I said hold off the sale till we can harvest the corn growing here. Best thing to do would be to harvest the corn at ground level and take the entire plants to deal with at the new place. If the harvest is a bit scant if you kill a few hogs early to reduce the need for feed the girls and I’ll make more than the usual amount of salt pork which will minimise our losses. We’ll manage, but time is getting short before the cold weather, and I don’t like the idea of spending money on food that we should be spending on fences for example. As soon as we have a place for them I want the bees moving to protect the hives from any who realise it’s only you keeping an eye of the place.”

“I can prepare a plot for you easily enough with the horses this year even if it’s virgin sod. The ground will be soft enough to plough, harrow and roll for months. All you need to do is figure what is most important to get in the ground first. How much prepared land do you need, Amy?”

“A quarter acre of good land immediately for the vegetables and five acres for the grains, Dad, and I’ll need some water too for them. It’ll be hard work, especially for the girls, but we’ll manage.”

“The vegetable plot I can have ready in four or five days, the rest in a week for the tilth won’t need to be as fine. The problem will be keeping the livestock off it, so maybe fencing will be required. Is that as much as we can decide on now?”

Jack the elder of the boys said, “We can keep the livestock away if we have to, but it will mean taking turns, for it will be twenty-four hours a day till fences are up.”

That was where they left it. All were nervous and excited too at the prospect of such a change, but happy to be moving to a better place. The children were even happier to be moving away from Noah who they did not regard as their father.

All went according to plan, but it took a little longer than anticipated which worked in the family’s favour. Amy managed to find a huge farm whose elderly owners were seeking to retire and move into town with their eldest daughter and her husband and children. They agreed to rent the place to the family till Luke had found a buyer for his place and would be able to buy it. There was just about enough water behind the small dam to see them and their stock through the dry season. There was a twelve acre fenced paddock close to the house suitable for Amy’s purposes and enough out buildings for the equipment and livestock. Amy was six months pregnant when she transplanted her vegetables and knew that although they would be a little set back by their enforced wait in containers they would produce a worthwhile harvest. Her grains were sown a little late but not so much as to cause significant problems. Because the sale of Luke’s old property took longer than expected, though the price was higher than anticipated, Amy’s last harvest was little short of what she would have expected in a normal year.

John Avery the buyer of Luke’s farm was a widely disliked and loudly outspoken man who’d made his hatred for Luke and his family known at every opportunity, mostly he claimed because of their acceptance of evil and obscenity, which he said was demonstrated by their acceptance of the boy child who went by the name of Bethan and wore female clothing, a child he’d loudly proclaimed he would have beaten to death before accepting under his roof. Avery had expected to get far more for his money than he did, for like every one else from the town he’d assumed the family were leaving everything behind them and just moving on having given up due to being driven out of the area by their god fearing neighbours’ refusal to accept their ungodly ways. That was why the auction price had been so high, for six men had bid each other up in their greed to get a bargain that they’d considered was almost theft. However, Avery had bid for the land and the buildings and all that was on and in them, which was what Luke had told the auctioneer was what he was selling and hence had been what the auctioneers had advertised as for sale on their hand bills, and that was exactly what Avery had bought, but there was nothing in the buildings and on the land, and as Luke subsequently told his family, “Avery sought to rob us, but in his greed he robbed himself, and I refuse to accept responsibility for his loss, so I suggest we consider how best we can spend the money he so graciously gave us.” Even the children understood their grandfather, and it was long before any of the family entirely stopped smiling at Luke’s cunning result which had enabled them to make their transition to a new home and a new life that was infinitely better in not just their hearts but in their standard of living too. Before the move they have lived well, now they were wealthy.

Helmson had insisted as part of the terms of his employment that his employer must allow him to use the workshop after work to pursue his own interests. Three potential employers had said no, and Helmson to their consternation had walked away. The fourth, Keysmith a man in his seventies, asked, “What you planning on doing after work, Son?” Helmson had explained his entire circumstances and Keysmith said, “Seems reasonable enough. I like to see a youngster with ambition. Go ahead, Son. Just lock up after you’ve done. And if’n one of those boys of yours wants an apprenticeship with the possibility of being my heir send him down for me to have a look at. I’ve got no sons and two daughters. Got no grandsons neither. Four granddaughters, all good girls, but they can’t run an engineering shop, so maybe I need a grandson in law to take it over when I can’t do it no more. No promises, Helmson, but you seem to me to be a man that would rear boys to be good men. I’d have had you, but you have your life already planned out, so if one of those boys of yours, or any other boy you consider to be worth my while are interested send him down here for me to look over. Only thing I ask is don’t tell him why, Okay?” Helmson agreed readily enough. He knew neither of his boys would be interested for both had already found girls at school. That they were not aware they had met the women they would eventually marry was a source of amusement to Helmson, Amy and Luke, but their amusement was to prove to be correct.

Helmson found a dozer easily enough and what little there was wrong with it was all hydraulic in nature which he was familiar with. He had it fully operational in a matter of a few weeks. The old drilling rig had a lot wrong with it and Helmson had to make several parts for it because spares were no longer available due to its age. Keysmith had helped him and it was with a profound sense of gratitude that Helmson eventually left the old man, for it was the machining of the new parts that meant he was six months in the city not four. Helmson had underestimated the cost of transporting the dozer and rig, but eventually whilst he was earning the extra money required he found an owner operator of an eighteen wheeler who required some work doing to his tractor unit. A deal was struck and Helmson paid part of the price in work. Eventually, with a sizeable sum of money still in his pocket, the dozer and the rig were loaded on a low loader and Helmson returned to his family with the eighteen wheeler to meet his daughter Julia for the first time. Before he left Helmson said to Keysmith, “I doubt that one of my boys will be interested, for they have both met their future wives at school, even if they are not aware of that yet. However, I owe you greatly, Keysmith, and I know I shall be able to find a number of decent boys for you. Any I send will be worth your attention, but the least I can do is provide your granddaughters with some choice, so I’ll send as many as I can find till you tell me to stop. Okay?”

“I knew you were a good man, Son, and I’ll be grateful if you can keep my business in the family. Travel safe and I wish you well. It was good working with you.”

Helmson put five small dams in place inside of two months ready for the rain, but the first three boreholes yielded nothing. After that the next half dozen yielded water after not having had to go down too far to find it.

The family were prospering and well thought of in the area. Luke was seeing Jane, a widow fifteen years younger than himself with two daughters in their early teens, and all knew it was only a matter of time before the wedding. The family had decided that a new barn was required in addition to the existing out buildings and Helmson remembering the past decided to put it up with no help from other than family, even though his neighbours would have gladly helped. A clever man he planned it all meticulously with Luke’s aid so as to maximise what the dozer could assist with. He sided all four walls prior to erection and had all ready for assembly by a hoist powered by the dozer suspended from the top of the drilling rig. The roof was put on in large preprepared sections which were hoisted up from vertical spars attached to the ridge beams. The barn was raised within the day as required by custom.

The community the family came from heard about it and considered Helmson was in league with dark powers. His neighbours considered he was a capable and clever man and consulted him whenever it was planned to raise a barn.

Helmson sent over a dozen and a half ambitious and clever boys from his neighbourhood to Keysmith for apprenticeship and three had married one of his granddaughters. Keysmith’s fourth granddaughter married the son of a local preacher who was clearly destined for the pulpit. Keysmith’s four son in laws took over from him when he finally retired aged eighty-two. The three son in laws sent by Helmson managed the day to day business and the fourth, now a fully fledged preacher with considerable education, managed the business and took care of the books as well as his kindly and well thought of pulpit. Six months before he died, Keysmith visited Helmson. “I don’t know why I took a chance on you, Son, but I did know at the time I had to. I believe I was divinely inspired to make that decision. It’s my belief that you are special, touched by the Lord, for you kept my business alive, brought loving happiness to my four girls and their children, and yes I do mean four not three, for there would have been no business to keep alive for my fourth son in law had you not kept your promise. As a result the entire community including the farms as far afield as eighty miles has prospered.

“I feel I have been favoured by God to have had the opportunity to help you, and in return I have received blessings many millions of times more than I deserve for doing so. You are a good man, Helmson, and I feel privileged to have known you and even more so that I was granted the privilege to have been able to help you. It is my belief that there are some few who have some of the son of God in them. They are inevitably unfortunate, but placed on this Earth to enable folk to help them and prove their worthiness. I believe you are one of the chosen few. I truly hope that I have helped you, for you have helped our community beyond any’s reasonable expectations. May God bless you, Helmson. In the box outside are all the tools I made as an apprentice. Many are not particularly well made, and I have not used them since I made or bought better, but they are beyond value to me and I would like you to have them as a permanent reminder of the time we spent working together. In that sense you are the heir I never had. God bless you, Son.” At that Keysmith turned and walked away without turning round. There were tears in the eyes of both men.

The family had been prospering at the new farm for about eight years and Luke had been married for six and had three children with Jane who was expecting another. Luke and Helmson bored wells from time to time for their neighbours and they and the boys were in demand for dam making. Amy now had eight children and another on the way and was glad her dad had married Jane for two women in the house made both their lives much more pleasant, and they were able to help the children, especially the boys, regarding their choice of future love. Bethan, now a pretty girl of fifteen, had been looked after by Doc Vitlow who’d prescribed the necessary medications, and they were talking about her surgeries which were planned for the medium term future at the city hospital under the care of Mistress Gardener the gender consultant. Abby was planning her wedding, but more importantly to Bethan she’d recently become on kissing terms with Joey Fairbarnes who was eighteen and the son of a nearby farming neighbour who was understanding of her situation. The family were well thought of and held in high regard by their neighbours, for not only did Luke and Helmson’s activities contribute to the area’s standard of living Jane and Amy were regarded as a model mothers and wives with well brought up children who did well at school and were finding their places as desirable potential husbands and wives. Their sons were good and diligent workers whom a number of younger girls had their eye on, and their daughters were so skilled at what women needed to be able to do and so knowledgable concerning women’s crafts that they never had to sit a dance out for lack of a partner at any local celebration. The family were no longer newcomers but a well established feature of the neighbourhood. Jane and Luke were regarded as the heads of an expanding family that others were eager to call kin when the children married.

It was early summer when at the local market Helmson was squared up to by Noah who was now no more than a drunk and not even tolerated by his own community. Outraged at the sight of Amy who was seven months pregnant, Noah spewed accusations and filth at Helmson and Amy concerning them both and the abomination that Isaac had become for ten minutes in front of a considerable, yet condemning, crowd. He was shouting that Amy was his wife not Helmson’s and she should be in his bed not Helmson’s. The entire community knew about Bethan and considered Joey to be a lucky young man to have caught her fancy. It was known that Bethan had discussed future adoption of children from the city with her mum, and all considered her to be a pleasant and talented young woman with a minor medical problem that the city hospital would deal with in the near future. They were embarrassed by Noah’s lack of manners and respect for one of the most well thought of families in the area.

Luke held Joey back and said, “Let Helmson deal with it, Son. I understand how you feel, and it does you credit that you want to protect Bethan. You’ll make her a good husband, but let Helmson deal with it. There’s a lot of history behind what you are looking at that you ain’t aware of.” Joey was a big and strong young man, far more than the ageing Luke could force to do anything, but approval of his courtship of Bethan from her grandpa was enough to hold Joey back, so he went over to Bethan and for the first time in public put his arm protectively around her.

Bethan pressed herself into his side and said quietly, though she was heard by a few standing nearby, “Thank you, Joey. I do love you you know. Mum has said that if you ask to marry me I can say yes. I probably shouldn’t have told you that, but I don’t want you to be nervous about asking my dad and granddad for permission. They both approve of you, but you will have to at least ask Dad for permission. That you have Mum’s approval means she and Dad have already discussed the matter and are in agreement, but you’ll still have to ask him.” She kissed Joey’s cheek and arm in arm she walked them over to Jane.

Meanwhile Amy had calmly replied, “No, Noah, I used to be your wife. No good man, no man any woman would wish to remain married to would have beaten Bethan nearly to death when she was scarcely six years old and broken his wife’s arm in his rage for protecting her child. It was Dad who protected us from you. From you! The man who had taken vows in church in front of God to be our protector. Suffer the little children to come unto me does not mean to make the little children who are near to you suffer. Helmson is a good man, a man who treats me with not just love, but respect too. He’s a hard worker and a better provider for me and a better father to the children than you ever were. He has never made a distinction between his children and yours, the children you never loved, looked after, nor provided for even when I shared your bed. To him, because they’re all my children, they’re all his children too to be treated with love and care. You’re not my husband. You’re not even a man. Look at yourself. You’re reeling with drink, you stink, I can smell you from here, and you look like you haven’t had a wash in months if not years. What decent woman would want to share a bed with you? In any case what bed? You look like you’ve been sleeping with the hogs for months. You’re not even a beast, for at least they look after their own till they no longer need looking after. No, Noah, Helmson has been my man for years, and as such I belong in his bed. He’s a man any woman would be proud to call hers, and as such I’m his woman. You only ever lusted after me and abused me. Helmson has always loved me and treated me with the utmost of respect.”

The men watching appreciated the distinctions Amy was making, and being good men it made them appreciate their wives the more. However, the women there were ready to beat Noah to death with whatever came to hand, secure in the knowledge there were enough of them to do it. That some of them would inevitably be hurt mattered not at all to any of them.

Helmson added, “I neither know nor care why you came here, Noah, but I suggest you leave. You are not welcome here, and if you cause any trouble Constable Winters will put you in front of Judge Ayers immediately. Take heed of my warning, Noah, the last time you hurt one of my children I put you in hospital, but the next time you hurt a hair on the head of any of my family I’ll kill you for it, and my neighbours will regard that as the action of a proper family man.” That the crowd was clearly with Helmson and approved of him protecting his family enraged Noah. He turned and picked up a felling axe from amongst the tools on the nearby hardware stall before attacking Helmson with it. Helmson easily stepped aside to avoid the axe and only punched him once.

Doc Vitlow said, “He was probably dead before he hit the ground because from the look of him Noah was nearly dead from the drink anyway. His skin and the whites of his eyes are yellow which is a classic symptom of advanced cirrhosis of the liver and he looks to be covered in bruises, another classic symptom.”

None were willing to dig a grave for the stranger who’d attacked one of their own, and there was an up swelling of feeling against him being buried in the graveyard, which was for their neighbours whom they grieved for. Recognising the immediate reactions, Helmson said, “I’ll bury the bastard, right here in the street and I’ll dig the hole with my machine. Is fifteen feet deep acceptable? Because that’s as deep as I can go.” None were bothered as it dealt with the problem with minimal effort. Doc Vitlow said to get on with it and he’d find the constable and Judge Ayers and deal with the legalities. Constable Winter said threwing Noah in a deep hole without any ceremony was an easy solution to what would otherwise have been an attempted murder case and Judge Ayers thought an unmarked, unrecorded grave was an entirely appropriate end for a criminal who would clearly have been found guilty. Most of the local folk thought any kind of burial was over good for a criminal who would otherwise have been dragged out of town for the carrion eaters to dispose of, and in the end that was what was done.

“We need to take a trip to the city, Amy,” Helmson told her.

“Why?”

“Well, I’ve been divorced for a good while, and now you are a widow we can legally get married without any pretences. Yes, you wear a wedding ring, and you and the children all carry my name and that’s officially recorded at the school, but you would be placed in a difficult position if anything happened to me without possession of a set of marriage lines. Most of our neighbours know you were married before, and they all will soon, but they believe you were a divorcee who married me years ago before we moved here because after Doc Vitlow delivered Julia he put me down on her birth certificate as your husband and recorded your name as Amy McQueen. I suspect Doc and the judge both know the truth of it, but they are good men and will have seen no reason to make life difficult for any. Doc did the same with all of the children born here. Despite occasionally using your maiden name Farrier by mistake which I believe all women do from time to time, no matter how long they’ve been married, you’ve never once used the name Smith by accident here, and every one has always referred to you as Mrs. McQueen, so let’s just tidy it all up. I suggest we buy you a new wedding ring and get married quietly in the city. I’ve never liked you wearing Noah’s ring, but I accepted your justification because you were right. We couldn’t afford a new ring back then, but we can now. I don’t care what you decide to do with Noah’s ring, but I want you to be wearing mine.”

“I doubt any of the girls will ever want it, Helmson, so I suggest selling it to the jeweller, for with your ring on my finger I’ll never want to wear it again.” Helmson nodded in agreement, for he really didn’t care what Amy did with Noah’s ring.

As Amy told her dad, “I love Helmson just because he is a good man. He’s been my true husband from long before the day I first kissed him. He’s always been the children’s father, both the ones fathered by him and the ones fathered by Noah. I truly believe he doesn’t know the difference. Mostly I love him because Bethan has always been loved by him as his daughter, and he’s always been a perfect gentleman in our bed. He cares that such matters are as enjoyable for me as they are for him. I love all my children, but the children Helmson fathered, unlike those fathered by Noah, were all conceived out of an act of love that I enjoyed. I can see that hearing that embarrasses you, Dad, and I am not going to say any more, but that is a matter that is of great significance to women.” Luke was aware of exactly what his daughter was referring to, for to his joy it was precisely what Jane had told him about himself, but it was naytheless embarrassing hearing his daughter say it. However, regardless of his embarrassment Luke knew he had to reply, and address the issues Amy had raised.

“I do understand what you mean, Love, for Jane has said something similar about me. I’m glad you have that kind of relationship with Helmson. I always considered him to be a good father and man and knowing he is a good husband too, even, or perhaps I mean especially, in your bed, is something few fathers are fortunate enough to be made aware of by their daughters. That does embarrass me, but naytheless I am glad to hear it. However, moving on to equally embarrassing things, Love. One day, Amy, I shall no longer be here. I know, or at least I hope, that will not come to pass for many years to come, but as your father, the father of my other children, and the grandfather of many children, I have to think regarding events when that will happen, and I have to make provision for Jane too. I admit with embarrassment she is a wonderful wife in all ways including in our bed. I only admitted that because you had said similar. For many years I was bothered about you being left on your own and being propositioned by men who were only were interested in what you were worth. Now I am not. I love you, your children and Helmson, too. I am a man and could never tell him that, and as a man I doubt he could ever accept being told that, but you my daughter need to know the truth.”

“Dad loves you as much as the children, Helmsom. He’s reluctant to admit it, but he does, and I want it to be all in the open now. He regards you as his son in the same way that I am his daughter. You are a man and I accept that you can not understand what it is for a woman to have no mother. I had trouble coping with my mother’s death, but for a long time now my relationship with Jane has been that of a mother and daughter. All I wish is the equivalent for you and Dad.”

“I told you years ago that I have no family that I know about, for I have no memory of my parents, and my first wife just disappeared along with all my money. We had no children. All I have is here. I don’t have a problem with this sort of thing, but I know Dad does, and I am not prepared to upset him regarding it. If you want it to be openly acknowledged it needs to come to him from Jane. I have been in this situation before. Keysmith left me his apprentice made tools which is perhaps not understandable by a woman, but it was a great act of love that he could not put into words and was not able to accept an acknowledgement of. That chest of tools are a family heirloom that the boys understand the significance of. They are documented and have been added to by myself and the older boys too. All apprentice made tools, and all fully documented. Doubtless the women of the family have similar?”

“Indeed. Mostly clothing and the like. We probably don’t have as much as you but our family chest starts with some few things made by my mother and Jane’s mother. Many are connected with women’s monthly issues and pregnancy, and all are documented and their significance is understood by all the older girls. Unlike men, we have no problems acknowledging issues of love, for that is what women are. It is perhaps difficult for a man to understand, but from being a very young girl we know we shall grow breasts, which we are aware are there to nurture babies, and we have monthlies in order to beget babies. Our entire existence revolves around sex and pregnancy to bear the next generation. Most of the garments in our chest are for the pregnant and the newborn. There is a lot of written material concerning sex whilst pregnant and matters concerning women’s health. There is material that advises concerning menopause which prepares us for the rôle of being a grandmother. I know it may be difficult for men to accept, but as I said women’s lives are all about sex and more particularly its consequences.” What Amy did not refer to was that much of the written material concerned ways of dealing with men. “Somehow you need to resolve this matter for Dad. You are both men and that means there are things I can’t understand, nor advise you about.”

“You’re right, Love. I’ll speak to Jane regards the matter. She is a wonderful family woman who has suffered in the past from no fault of hers. I was really glad that Dad met her and I came to realise it improved her life as much as Dad’s. I know she will wish it to be an open matter for it will make Dad’s life even better, and I know she loves him as much as I love you.