AN: Thanks for all your comments. I had in mind for this post to go in a certain direction and then somehow it went another way as these things sometimes do.

Chapter 2

Part 2

A week after Ross Poldark brought Demelza back to Nampara it was an overcast day. Demelza had been given some 'new clothes' a few days before which hung on her slim frame and did nothing to enhance her figure, save keep her in a more modest manner than her brothers clothes had done.

It was difficult here at Nampara and yet it was easy. Easy because she had shed all the responsibilities of home and difficult because Jud and Prudie were not very accommodating. She knew from the sly looks they gave her, from the work they bade her do that they wanted her gone and yet they seemed to take respite while she slaved away which she put down to bone idleness. Demelza was no stranger to idleness, she had witnessed it often enough in her father. Oh she was sure he pulled his weight down at the mine but that was as far as his effort in caring for his family had stretched. If you called spending most his wages on drink and leaving them to pretty much fend for themselves as caring and nurturing.

From the look Prudie was giving her as she half halfheartedly started the fire going Demelza didn't think she would get much nurturing here either. Hastily she averted her eyes and dashed outside to the water pump, no use putting off the inevitable.

Attaining the right angle to work the pump to its best advantage had taken Demelza a couple of tries to get it just so. She worked it hard, feeling the strain on her muscles and then ducked her head beneath the cold rush that spilled forth. With her free hand she combed through the tangles, gasping and spluttering. As she finished she could sense the Master's amusement and that irked her.

"Satisfied?" She demanded.

"Shouldn't I be?" Her Master asked with a smile that she wanted to wipe from his face.

"Ain't enough not to stink. A body must scrub herself raw as a buttock of beef to please some folks." She grabbed with rough linen towel and dried herself as she stomped off. He should try and wash under the pump of a morning, see how he'd like it instead of the basin and hot water she or occasionally Prudie brought to his chamber.

Prudie had wasted no time in filling Demelza in on the way of things, on the jobs she was expected to do, but most importantly about Mr Ross. How he'd come by his slight limp and scar down the side of his face, who Elizabeth was or had been to the Master. How the Master had grown up here as a lad, and for some reason today that irked her. It wasn't jealously or envy either come to that. She was who she was and he was he. Mayhap it was because her courses had started, she was still getting used to the idea of bleeding each month and the tell tale ache deep in her belly, didn't do much to improve her mood.

She had not skived off her duties mainly because Prude appeared as if from nowhere every time she even rested her chin on the broom, but just now she had to get away. She saw a young man she would later know by the name of Jim Carter converse with Mr Ross, and Prudie and Jud were there too, not paying her any heed. So she slipped round the edge of the barn, Garrick following close by and she walked into the meadow slinking down beside the dry stone wall so that she was hidden from view of the house.

With one hand she absently rubbed Garrick on the head, as he lay down with his head in her lap, waiting for her to move. Demelza took a few deep breaths, the air was always so invigorating, no matter how you felt inside.

Despite getting up on the wrong side of the bed as her mother would have called her grumps, she liked it here. She wouldn't lose her precious position from spending a few moments away from Nampara, she had learnt so far in the short time she had been there that if Mr Ross was cross he would shout a bit and that would be that. She smiled to herself, he had though on a couple of occasions told Jud that if he didn't do as he was bid he would tan his backside but Demelza didn't think the Master actually would, even when Jud was in his cups of Mr Ross' brandy.

Garrick's attention was caught by a pair of blackbirds settling to the ground nearby, Demelza kept her hand on his neck rubbing in a soothing motion that was both calming to the dog and herself.

It was with a resigned spirit that she finally got up and beckoned Garrick to follow, she felt happier now and not so disgruntled with life, although she thought it not fair that women should go through pain every month while men got out of such predicament. She slipped in the back way through the barn, there was no one about and she made herself useful by collecting the eggs, so that no one was the wiser that she had taken herself off for a few minutes peace.