The room had the glorious, overcrowded look resulting from an exodus from a larger country house. Jake’s hands rested on the rough carved mane of a lion. The carpet was the blurred pink and green of an Impressionist painting.

As Tory went out, Granny Maxwell studied Jake, who was surreptitiously looking at the horses circling at the start. At least he didn’t fidget.

“Epsom,” she said, handing him the paper, “I’ve had a bet in this race. Any tips for the three-thirty?”

Jake glanced at the runners.

“I’d have a fiver on Mal le Maison.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t chosen Marriage of Convenience. Or how about Fortune Hunter?” she added maliciously. “He’s a hundred to one.”

Jake looked at her steadily.

“I’ll stick with Mal le Maison,” he said flatly. “And if I wanted to pick an outsider, I’d choose Whirlwind Courtship.”

“You haven’t known Tory long, have you?”

“Not very long, but I like outsiders.”

At least he’s not frightened of me, thought Granny Maxwell; that in itself is a novelty. Old and bored and waiting for death, she was aware that her family only came to see her when they were in financial trouble. She sometimes felt she was only kept alive by feuds and tyranny.

Tory came back with the cans of beer and a glass, and was immediately sent up to talk to Mrs. Maggs, who was sorting out the hot cupboard.

“She’s made you lardy cake and gingerbread men for tea. She thinks you’re still eight. You look very tired, child,” she added in a gentler voice, “and you’ve lost a lot of weight.”

She turned to Jake. “Bring your glass of beer and let’s walk round the garden,” she said, struggling to her feet. She walked very stiffly and had to be helped over the step. One hip was obviously very painful.

“Rheumatism,” she explained. “It’s difficult to be a very nice old woman when everything hurts.”

Having picked several heads off a coral pink geranium, she set off along the herbaceous border. It was the most glorious, over-packed garden; peonies jostled with huge Oriental poppies, lupins, and irises. Catmint, not yet out, stroked their legs as they passed.

The pack of dogs, some on three legs, panted after them grumbling and yapping.

“This is what I call a beautiful garden,” said Jake.

“As opposed to what?”

“To Tory’s mother’s. All the flowers seem to stand in their own patch of earth there, in serried ranks. Thou shalt not touch.”

“Like a park,” said Granny Maxwell.

A bird flashed by, yellow as laburnum.

“Yellowhammer,” said Granny Maxwell.

“Golden oriole, I think,” said Jake. “Very rare in these parts; it must be the heat.”

Suddenly a jaunty mongrel with a tight brindle coat came bounding across the lawn and was greeted by much yapping and every sign of delight by the pack, particularly a little blond peke, who wagged her tail and kissed him. Granny Maxwell turned to Jake.

“We used to call them ‘butcher’s dogs’ in my day, because they followed the butcher’s van. Owners get very fussed when mongrels try to mate with their pedigree dogs. I imagine that’s why my daughter-in-law is making such a fuss about you. I made a fuss when my son threw himself away on Molly. Her father was a hairdresser. Remember that, if you ever think about her.”

“I try not to,” said Jake.

“She never got over being the toast of Hong Kong.”

“Now she’s the sliced bread of Bilborough.”

Mrs. Maxwell gave a cackle of laughter.

“Tell me about yourself. You had polio as a child?”

He nodded. “When I was six I was in the hospital for eighteen months, learning to walk again. It left me with a wasted leg.”

“And a raging desire to prove yourself, presumably,” said Granny Maxwell dryly. “And your father was a gypsy?”

Juke nodded.

“My mother’s family tried to resettle him, but he missed the wandering life and the horses. He was a genius with horses. So he pushed off soon after I came out of the hospital.”

“And your mother committed suicide. You blamed yourself for that, I suppose?”

“I think she was let down by some chap who she took up with after my father left, but I didn’t know that at the time.”

“What happened after she died?”

“The school where I went free as a day boy made me board. I hated it, so I ran away and joined a group of gypsies. They taught me all I know, to poach and to look after horses and train dogs. There was an old grandmother there; she taught me about all the medicines she’d learnt from her great-grandmother.”

He took Granny Maxwell’s arm and guided her down some stone steps to a pond filled with irises and marsh marigolds. She caught her breath at the pain.

“An infusion of the leaves of Traveler’s Joy works wonders for rheumatism,” he said. “I’ll make you some up to try, or if you prefer, you can carry the skin of a dead frog against your skin.”

Granny Maxwell watched the dogs lapping out of the pond. The mongrel got into the water, drinking, paddling, and making a lot of splashing.

“I always feel very badly about the gypsies,” she sighed. “It’s one of the great unnecessary tragedies of progress. They should never have been forced into compounds to settle and sell scrap metal. But it’s always the same story today of harassment from the police and from farmers. Before the war they always used to park in our fields for the seasonal piecework. My father often kept them employed from March until Christmas.

“I miss the sight of their fires at twilight, with that marvelous smell of rabbit stew, and the gaudy washing on the line, and the shaggy horses and silent, lean dogs. They knew a thing or two, those dogs.”

Jake didn’t say anything, but felt an emotion, almost love, stronger than he had ever felt for another human being.

“How long were you with the gypsies?”

“Three years. Then I was picked up by the police and put in an orphanage.”

“Can’t have been much fun.”

“It was better than prep school. The kids were less vicious. They even accused me of having a posh accent.”

They walked back across the burnt lawn.

“We need rain badly. And what about this horse Tory appears to have bought?”

When he spoke about Africa, his face took on a tinge of color.

“She’s just the best horse I’ve ever ridden; she’s got so much potential and such a lovely nature.”

“Are you sure you don’t love her more than Tory?”

Jake thought for a minute, frowning, then he said: “I’m not sure, but if I take care of Tory as well as I look after Africa she won’t do too badly. Anyway, she couldn’t be worse off than she is at the moment with that bitch of a mother. She’ll have a nervous breakdown if she has to go to many more of those smart parties. It’s like putting a carthorse in a hack class, then beating it if it doesn’t win.”

“And I gather Molly has a new boyfriend, some colonel?”

“He’s a jerk; they don’t want Tory.”

“Why are they so reluctant to let her go, then?”

“Molly likes something to sharpen her claws on. Tory’s her cat-scratching board.”

She bent down to pull a bit of groundsel, then asked Jake to uproot a thread of bindweed that was toppling a lupin.

“It’s hell getting old. I can only prune sitting down now. And what’s in it for you?” she asked.

“I couldn’t marry her if she weren’t rich. I’ve got to get started somehow. And I think Tory and I could make each other happy. Neither of us has ever really had a home before.”

That was the nearest he was going to get to placating her.

“Aren’t you banking too much on that horse being a winner? She might break a leg tomorrow.”

“I’ll get more horses. This is only the beginning. To make it work as a show jumper, you’ve got to have at least half a dozen top horses and novices coming on all the time. The gypsies taught me how to recognize a good horse, and I can ride them, and I’ve got patience.”

“Let’s go and watch the three-thirty,” said Granny Maxwell.

Mal le Maison was second, Whirlwind Courtship nowhere. That’s torn it, thought Jake. At that moment, Tory came in with a tray.

“Are you ready for tea yet, Granny?”

“Put the tray down on this table in front of me, thank you, and sit down. I have something to say to you both.”

For a minute she looked at them both with speculative eyes.

“I’m not going to give you any money. Young people should get along by themselves. Tory has a considerable income and you’ll soon save enough to buy and sell a few horses.”

Jake’s face was expressionless. That was that. His hopes crashed.

“I’ve no intention of breaking the trust,” Granny Maxwell went on, picking up the blond peke and rolling it onto its back, “until I see if you’re capable of making Tory happy. In three years’ time, she’ll get the money anyway. However…”

Jake stiffened, fighting back hope, as with maddening deliberation Granny Maxwell poured tea into three cups, and went into a long “would anyone like milk, sugar, or lemon” routine, and then handed out plates, and asked whether anyone would like a sandwich.

“However,” she repeated, “Mr. Binlock is retiring to a cottage in the middle of June, which means the Mill House at Withrington — that’s about twenty miles north of here — will be empty. You can have that.”

Tory turned pale. “But Granny, it’s got stables and fields,” she stammered.

“Exactly, but it’s tumbledown and very damp. I hope you haven’t got a weak chest,” she added to Jake, “but it’s yours if you want it.”

“Oh, Granny, darling,” said Tory, crossing the room and flinging her arms round her grandmother.