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You leave her with an ultimatum: leave Gordon alone, or else. Studying your face, she understands that you're serious and that whatever gain she hoped to achieved by ensnaring your friend are not worth the risk of drawing your wrath. But she will have the last word and tells you, as you leave, that you've a cold and barren heart and could never understand what men like Gordon feel. What men like your father felt.
That is Mabel's way, altogether the opposite her mother's. She collects the sore spots of all the people in the village, and strikes them without mercy when roused. But you'll not give her the satisfaction of seeing how her words affect you. You walk stiffly away, without turning around, taking comfort in the fact that she will finally leave Gordon alone.
By the time you get home it is almost dark. Your uncle is waiting outside your house, sitting on the steps leading up to the main door. He explains that he was afraid to confront your grandmother without you, laughing a little as he says this. Then seeing that you're in low spirits, he shuts up and meekly follows you inside the house.
Your Gran is by the fire, poking it at it with her iron-tipped cane, rapt in the movement of the flames. She asks if you've eaten, and you suddenly remember your hunger. All you've had to eat today were the honeycakes at the funeral and the sugared plums at the castle. It's a miracle you were able to make the journey to the castle on such poor fare. You head to the cellar, whose entrance is outside the house, and your uncle, having put down his bundle of things, follows you like a lost dog.
Your Gran wonders aloud if it is Gordon who is with you. When you answer that it is your uncle, she replies with a few choice words, each one bowing your uncle's head a little further, till he is practically prostrate with shame. But, when you declare that he'll be living in the house from hereon, she does not argue, merely twirls her cane in her hands.
You prepare some food (with your Uncle's help) and, after making a plate for your Gran, sit down to eat with him. Your uncle, being more of the garrulous type (which neither you nor your father were), tries several times to make conversation.
You decide to talk about:
>The future, your expectations respecting him and the work and your plans
>The present, your father's death, your troubles with Mabel and Gordon and the reeve
>The past, stories from your uncle's childhood, when he and your father were boys
>Write-in
