On the Black Hill Page #5

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- All right.

No.

Ah, now, Mr Jones. I need your advice.

Which one would you choose?

Oh... Thank you very much!

No! Which one do you like the best?

- Er...that one, Mrs Lambert.

- Mm. Quite right. The other's awful.

Look, we have to go.

Mam will have tea ready.

Well, afternoon.

Oh, Mr Jones. Are you all right

for this Wednesday? The riding?

- Oh, yes. I'm fine.

- The usual time, then.

- All right?

- Yeah.

Here comes the old lecher.

Now, then. It's 25 shillings, this year.

That's one woman in London,

five in Abergavenny.

Morning, Mrs Jones.

Life's all moil and toil, Lewis.

Do you fancy a cup of tea, then?

Maybe when you've finished...

you could fix the yard gate.

Haines said he'd do it.

Well, that was last month, and...

I'm alone in the house.

They say Rosie Bevan's

a good pastry cook.

Needs a few jobs doing about the place...

...now that Evan's gone off, like.

Get yer dirty, interfering nose

away from here!

Late!

I'm very sorry, ma'am.

Had a bit of trouble with me brother.

He was none too keen on it.

Says we might get lost in the fog, like.

- Oh, well. You're not afraid of getting lost...

- No, ma'am.

Besides, it'll be sunny on the tops.

Just you wait.

Look! What did I tell you?

The sun!

Oh, I love Scots pines.

Ah...

and when I'm very, very old,

I'd like to look like one!

Do you know what I mean?

Well...n0.

What's that you got on your cheek?

Nothing.

Get off.

Benjamin!

What's that?

"If thy right hand offend thee..."

Thank heaven for that.

I want to come home, Mother.

No, you can't. Not yet.

It's terrible to see your brother

in such a state.

'...when Parliament is meeting today.

'Hostilities have been going on

since early this morning,

'along the frontiers

between Germany and Poland.

'There is no news

about the progress of either side.

'What news there is comes, chiefly,

from the official broadcasting stations

'in Warsaw and Berlin.

'The German Supreme Command

announced at half past eleven this morning,

'that German troops

had passed all the frontiers,

'that the German Air Force had gone

into action...'

Mam...

Mam?

Oh, my God!

Oh, Mam, no...

Lewis...

Lewis...

He's come.

Must be Coventry again.

Mm...

And a good job it isn't we.

- Goodnight now.

- Aye, goodnight.

So...twins?

You know, in Vienna, before the war,

we had the most wonderful pastries.

But I would like it very much

if you would give me the recipe for these.

And this is the, er...bedroom, like.

So...

you loved your mother very much.

'You know, before

the war, I was making a study of twins.

'Twins who had never been separated.

'Just like you two.

'I should like to continue that.

'It's so fascinating.

'You know that some twins

are inseparable.'

Even in death.

There we are.

That's as I always felt.

Oh!

But what do you think will happen to you

in the life to come?

How do you imagine Heaven?

And how do you imagine hellfire?

Something like London, I expect.

But will your souls be together?

Well, how can we have two souls, like?

I look at Lewis and I see me.

Once, I looked in the mirror

and I thought it was him.

And once, I thought I heard my own echo.

If one of us dies before the other...

I don't suppose there is much

beyond the grave, but...

We shall have to go together, somehow.

So...

there is a very interesting monument here.

Dame Blanche Parry.

She was a maid...

to Queen Elizabeth's bedchamber.

Are you coming, Ben?

No, no. I'll sit by here for a bit.

You two go on.

Sometimes...

I think I'd be better off on me own.

I've always loved Benjamin, mind.

Loved him more than anything,

and no one can deny that.

I've always felt left out.

Pushed out, you might say.

I was always the strong one and...

and he was a poor mimicking thing.

But I loved him for it, though.

Go on...

Aye...

well, that's the worry.

Sometimes...

I lie awake

and wonder what it would be like

if he weren't there.

If...if he'd gone off.

Was dead, even.

Then I'd have had a life of me own.

Had kids...

I know.

But our lives are not so simple.

No...

No, it would not be correct.

I'm sorry.

Them two fields either side

of the brook are on the market.

Lewis...

Down by the Pant.

I wonder if Uncle Eddie in Canada

ever had any grandchildren.

Mr Lewis and Mr Benjamin Jones, is it?

My name is Mrs Redpath.

Pleased to meet you.

I have something very important

I'd like to discuss.

No bread and butler, thank you.

All those curios.

Take a bit of dusting, I shouldn't wonder.

Thank you very much.

I expect you're wondering why I've come.

You see, my mother died, last June.

It's a bit difficult to explain, but...

before she went, she told me that...

Well, when she was younger, she used to

take in lodgers, to make ends meet.

And I was left to board with her.

1924 it was.

So, you see...l wasn't her daughter at all.

She said my real mother was a girl

from on a farm, on the Black Hill,

who ran off overseas,

with an Irishman.

Rebecca's baby.

Aye. My mother was Rebecca Jones.

I checked my birth certificate

and the register.

Just you wait till you see my little Kevin.

He's the spitting image of you both.

- I'll bring him up tomorrow.

- No.

No,

we'll come down and see him sometime.

I keep telling you,

what's the use in owning more and more

land, and buying more and more tractors,

if the one thing we lack is an heir?

Aye, and that's what she's after, isn't it?

Mm'?

- The money!

- Oh...

Now, you mind what I say, now.

No good will come of it.

He's a gift from providence...

that's what he is.

There you are. I've been looking all over.

Kevin's in the nativity play at Llanfechan

and I wondered if you cared to come.

I could drive you over and back.

He's Father Joseph.

Father Joseph. Aye, aye!

Tonight's the last night, like.

Aye, well...I'll come with you.

...he's playing Joseph.

I told you he's playing Father Joseph,

didn't I'?

Yes, yes.

He's been doing his lines every night.

He's very good.

That's my Kevin!

Can't you find us a room, sir? My wife's

going to have a baby at any minute.

I ain't got room in the place. The whole

town's chock-a-block with folkses...

to come...has come to pay their taxes.

I got this stable, though.

You can sleep in there if you want to.

I thank you very much, sir.

I think it'll do very nicely

for humble folks like us.

Joseph, I think he's going to be

the loveliest baby in the world.

instead of leaving Vision Farms

to young Kevin, when you die,

there's a considerable advantage

in giving them to him in your lifetime.

Far be it from me to influence you

in any way, but...

providing you live another five years,

the estate will escape paying death duties.

- Nothing to pay?

- Nothing but the stamp duty.

Naturally, he would be legally bound

to provide for you, in your old age,

and of course,

it would be held in trust until he's 21.

- Lewis?

- Aye.

Oh, well. There you are, then.

We'll give him the farm now,

and he can come into it, like,

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