Demelza nods and is quiet again for a moment, watching their children play. Julia is smaller than Jamie, but she's fast and filled with energy, keeping up with him well.

"Ross do say I sometimes insist on doin' things all on my own without help even when I don't need to," she admits. "But I think it's only that... well, once my mother died, there weren't no one else to help me. I have six younger brothers and it were just me and them and our father and Lord knows he was more often in his cups than not."

Tom Carne was a useless man. She doesn't miss him at all.