Coming Home to Glendale Hall

by Victoria Walters

  ‘The work it takes to keep these plants thriving up here in Scotland is amazing,’ I said, gazing up. ‘I can’t wait to learn more about it all. Can you imagine what it would be like to work here?’ I felt a shiver of excitement.

  ‘You would be brilliant at it,’ Drew said. ‘Although will you be able to tear yourself away from the garden at the Hall?’

  I smiled. ‘I suppose it depends if our plan for a shop gets the go-ahead. That will be a lot of work. We want to sell products using the plants and herbs that we grow there. I am trying to persuade John to let me have beehives. Think about what we could make from them.’

  ‘Rory is excited about the idea of having a farm shop, too. I think it will do well. When do you find out what the council have decided?’

  ‘Any day now, hopefully.’ I watched as Izzy went on ahead to look at the lily pond. ‘What does Rory say about you coming back here?’

  ‘Not much, you know him. He’d never ask me to come back, but I know he could do with some help. There are a lot of incentives for me to come home.’ He nodded at Izzy and then he looked at me. ‘I honestly don’t know what to do. What should I do?’

  I stared at him, the palms of my hands turning clammy. Had he given me a chance to tell him how I felt? To tell him to stay. To choose me. To choose us.

  ‘Oh my god, look a lizard!’ Izzy cried then. I jumped and stepped back from Drew. My head spun as he went over to look at what she was pointing at. I followed them slowly, annoyed at myself for not being bolder.

  Once we got out of the glasshouse, the conversation fell on less important things. Izzy and Drew chatted as we looked around the gardens, and my mind wandered.

  I had done everything on my own since I had fled Glendale aged sixteen, and I didn’t want to do it any more. I wanted to come home, to be with my family again, and not have to do it all alone. I wanted a chance to make some of my dreams come true. To not have to worry about surviving but to be happy. And that would happen regardless of what happened with Drew, but the question I kept wrestling with was did I want it to happen without him?

  After we had seen the rest of the garden, we walked through the gift shop on our way out.

  Izzy looked around the shop for something to beg me to buy, and I looked at the gardening books. I felt Drew come over and watch me for a moment.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, finally.

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For asking you earlier to tell me what I should do. That wasn’t fair. I know that it’s up to me. I have to choose, just like you guys have.’

  I looked up from the book. ‘That’s why I forgave my gran in the end. Although she tried, she didn’t actually make my choice for me. I decided to run away. And I’ve done the same thing again now. It would be easy to go back to our life in London, but I know that’s not what I want. You need to decide what you want, and to be honest about it, to yourself, your family, to April and to me.’ I took a deep breath. ‘But, Drew, we would love it if you did come back here,’ I said, finally being honest.

  He smiled. ‘You would?’

  ‘Of course we would.’ My heart began to thump in my chest as I smiled back at him. I wanted him so badly to choose us.

  ‘Mum look at this,’ Izzy said, coming up to us. She held up a cuddly lizard. ‘Like the one we saw!’

  ‘And I’ve found a book,’ I said, knowing she’d be impressed.

  ‘Let me get them for you,’ Drew said, taking my book from me before I could stop him. ‘I insist. But you have to help me find something for me too,’ he said to Izzy, giving me a small smile before he followed her.

  Izzy picked up a small pot with a fake cactus growing in it. ‘You should get this so you have a piece of Scotland with you in Boston,’ she told him.

  ‘That would look very cute on my windowsill,’ he said, taking it to look at it.

  ‘Cute?’ I said with a grin, hoping to lighten the mood between us. ‘Are you a teenage girl?’

  ‘Just because you can’t pull ‘cute’ off,’ he replied, marching to the till with our purchases. Izzy waved a mug at me then and I went over to her, leaving Drew to it.

  ‘You need this,’ she said, showing it to me.

  I laughed at the Keep Calm and Garden On slogan on it. ‘Hey, I’m always calm.’

  ‘You have been calmer lately,’ she conceded, putting the mug back down.

  ‘I have?’ Sometimes the way Izzy saw the world fascinated me.

  She nodded. ‘In London, you were always rushing about, we always had things to do, you always had something to remember, but here you’re more chill. I like it.’

  I smiled because I knew she was right. ‘And I like how you are here too.’

  ‘Me too.’

  Chapter Sixty

  We drove home, and Drew came in with us. ‘Just missed the deluge,’ Drew commented as outside the heavens opened, and it started to pour with rain.

  ‘Did you all have a good time?’ my mum asked, joining us in the hallway as we took off our coats and shoes.

  ‘It was more Mum’s thing,’ Izzy said with a shrug. ‘But look what Dad got me.’ She showed her the lizard she had clutched all the way home.

  ‘Oh. Well, how… nice,’ Mum said, eyeing it a little suspiciously. ‘Sally has tea and cake in the kitchen if you want some?’ Izzy didn’t need telling twice and headed that way immediately.

  ‘Have you heard anything from Dad?’ I asked her. We knew the meeting at New Horizons was happening that day. She shook her head. I explained to Drew that they were going to discuss our bid to the council. ‘We hoped that my dad might persuade them not to counter our bid. But we just don’t know.’

  ‘Imagine you being a landlord. I worry you’ll be a pushover,’ Drew said with a grin.

  ‘My mum and I will be good cop, bad cop so it’ll be fine.’

  Mum rolled her eyes. ‘If people listened to you, they would think I’m a tyrant,’ she said, following Izzy into the kitchen. I raised my eyebrows at Drew, and he had to stifle a laugh.

  ‘Let me show you something before we join them,’ he said, heading into the living room.

  Curiously, I trailed after him. ‘What is it?’

  ‘I was waiting for my flight back,’ he said, rummaging in the bag from the gift shop. He pulled out a CD. ‘And I saw this in HMV. I haven’t bought a CD for years, but I wanted a physical copy of this. Let me play it.’ He went to the stereo and found the song he was after. ‘I haven’t listened to it for years.’ He pressed play and music filled the silent room. It was our song. The one I had named Izzy after. He turned to smile at me. ‘I still can’t believe you named her after this.’

  ‘I was in hospital having her, and Emily was with me and trying to distract me from the pain,’ I explained, perching on the arm of the sofa. ‘She asked me what I was going to name my baby, but I didn’t know. She told me to think about names that were special to me, that it would make deciding easier. And a song came on the radio, and I asked her to turn it over as I hated it, and I wished that ‘Isabelle’ would play. It didn’t, of course, but I started thinking about all the times we listened to it that summer, how we had danced to it, and how much I loved it. And how it would always remind me of us… and you.’ I felt myself welling up, remembering that day. ‘When the midwife put Izzy into my arms, I knew it was the perfect name for her.’

  ‘Your family weren’t with you?’

  ‘Just Emily. I didn’t let them come for a few weeks. I think I wanted to be sure that I could do without them first.’ I wiped the tear that had rolled down my cheek.

  Drew stepped forward and reached out, brushing back my hair over my shoulder. ‘I wish I had been there with you. It must have been so hard doing it all on your own. You were so brave, Beth.’

  The hairs on my arm stood up at his touch. ‘I was sixteen and thought I could take on the whole world. I’m not sure I could do it now.’

  ‘Of course you could. You’re still being brave. Moving back here, starting over, going bac
k to school and setting up a business. All of that while raising such a wonderful kid as Izzy. You’re amazing.’

  The song played in the background as we looked at one another. My breath hitched in my throat as I returned his gaze. He was so close. Every fibre of my body wanted to lean into him, to feel his lips on mine again. But I was terrified at the same time.

  Then he held out his hand. ‘How about we dance to it one more time?’

  I liked that he said one more time, and not one last time. I let him pull me up and he started the song again, wrapping his arms around me. I leaned against him as we swayed to the song, closing my eyes. It was as if we had been sucked back to when I was sixteen and he was eighteen, dancing outside his farm, the song playing in his car behind us, feeling like we would be together forever.

  ‘That summer was perfect,’ I whispered to him, his hands on my waist burning into my skin. I looked up at him, the stubble on his chin brushing the top of my head.

  ‘It was,’ he agreed with a small smile. And we stopped dancing then. Drew leaned down towards me, and I felt myself reach up to meet him.

  ‘Mum! Dad! Where are you?’

  We broke apart as Izzy called out to us. Drew stopped the song as she walked in, demanding to know why we hadn’t appeared for tea and cake.

  ‘We’re coming now,’ I told her, feeling my cheeks turn pink as she stood in the doorway, looking at us in confusion. ‘Right behind you,’ I added, and she finally turned and headed back to the kitchen. I glanced at Drew, but he was bending down looking into the garden shop bag. ‘We better go,’ I said.

  ‘Uh, yes. I’ll just nip to the loo.’

  ‘Okay,’ I said. I walked out quickly, hoping my cheeks would return to their normal colour quickly. My pulse was racing. I was sure we would have kissed if Izzy hadn’t come in. Did that mean he had feelings for me too? Or was he just caught up in the nostalgic moment we had shared?

  I thought back to him calling me amazing and my cheeks turned an even brighter shade of pink.

  I went into the kitchen feeling like a teenager again.

  * * *

  We were all in the kitchen as Sally, with Izzy helping, cooked the meal when my mum’s phone rang. ‘The council,’ she mouthed to me after she had answered it.

  ‘Oh my god, it’s them,’ I hissed. We all stopped what we were doing to watch her to talk to them. Drew gave me a reassuring smile. I tried not to blush again.

  ‘Yes… Right, I see,’ Mum said as she listened. ‘Right. Yes, okay. Thank you, Mr Murray… Yes, we shall see you then.’ She hung up and looked at us.

  ‘Well?’ I prompted when she didn’t say anything.

  ‘They said yes,’ she said, slowly. ‘They said yes to us. To everything.’

  ‘They said yes?’ I stood up. ‘They said yes?’ She nodded and broke into a smile. I rushed to her and gave her a big hug. ‘We really did it!’ Izzy joined us for a group hug. ‘I can’t believe it.’

  ‘That’s great news,’ Sally said. ‘I’ll find some champagne.’

  ‘Well done,’ Drew said from behind me. He reached for me and I fell into his arms. ‘I knew you could do it,’ he said, his mouth almost touching my ear. I shivered a little and hoped he hadn’t noticed.

  ‘Well, I hardly know what to say,’ Mum said, beaming. ‘They said they spoke to New Horizons earlier and they’ve pulled out of the process. They even said, apparently, they were happy that the premises would be staying with the community.’

  I gaped at her. ‘Seriously? That must be Dad’s doing.’

  ‘Maybe what we said got through to him.’

  ‘Oh, I have to ring Heather!’ I cried.

  ‘Get her over here for some champagne,’ Mum said.

  ‘I’ll call Rory too,’ Drew said. ‘We can make a party of it. I’m flying back tomorrow, and I don’t want to miss celebrating this.’ As he pulled out his phone, I tried not to let my heart sink at the thought of him going: there was too much to be happy about.

  I grabbed my phone to call Heather but then I heard the doorbell ring. ‘I wonder who that is?’ I popped out into the hall and paused in surprise to see my mum opening the door to my dad.

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Dad came into the hall. He looked tired. ‘I take it you’ve heard the news?’

  ‘We have,’ Mum said, glancing at me as I joined them.

  ‘We had our board meeting. The council had got in touch with us to tell us about your bid. They gave us the option of submitting a counter-offer. We had a rather heated discussion about it and took a vote and agreed that we would back out.’ He looked at us. ‘I know I haven’t been as supportive as I could have been. I was in a difficult situation but still… I also know I haven’t been the husband, or father, you both deserve and I’m sorry. I hope this makes up for some of what has happened over the past few weeks.’

  Mum nodded. ‘Thank you, David. I know that they might have voted another way if you hadn’t been there.’

  ‘Well, I’m not exactly popular with some of the board but a lot of us were born and raised in Glendale, or thereabouts, and there are other sites that we can use for the flats.’

  I smiled. ‘You did good, Dad,’ I told him, relieved that he hadn’t turned his back on us.

  ‘It was the least I could do,’ he replied. He glanced around the hall and sighed. ‘I’ve found a place. Close to the village. To rent. I can’t live in that hotel forever.’

  ‘And Cathy?’ Mum asked.

  ‘I don’t know. She’s talking things over with her husband. I don’t know what will happen, but I hope…’ he trailed off. ‘I’m so sorry, Caroline. For everything.’

  ‘I know you are.’

  ‘I’m so pleased you’ll be here now,’ Dad said to me. ‘And Izzy too.’

  ‘Me too,’ I replied. ‘We’re just getting the champagne out. Do you want to join us?’

  He smiled. ‘Thank you but no, I should go. I am pleased for you though. I’m looking forward to shopping in the Glendale Hall shop.’ He reached for me tentatively and I hugged him. I saw Mum duck out but not before I saw tears in her eyes. ‘Look after her, won’t you?’ Dad said to me.

  ‘I will,’ I promised, pulling back. ‘Are you sure this is what you want?’

  ‘It’s time, darling. It’s time.’

  I nodded. I was sad that it had come to that, but I knew that my parents would both be happier in the long run. ‘I’ll call you? Izzy and I can come over when you’ve moved in?’

  ‘I’d like that.’

  After I had said goodbye, I went back into the kitchen. Mum was there, looking more composed. Drew was opening up the champagne. Sally and Izzy had been joined by John. Heather and Rory were on their way. The whole family was there apart from Dad. ‘Mum…’

  ‘It was time,’ she replied, not realising she had said exactly what he had. I hoped they would both be okay, and I was glad that I would be there to make sure of that as best I could.

  When Heather and Rory arrived, my mum decided it was time to make a speech. ‘Right, everyone,’ she called out, clinking her glass for us to quieten down. ‘I just wanted to say a few words. First, thank you all for your hard work. Starting with the trail and everything you’ve done since to help us save the village. We have done it! And I’d like to thank Beth especially for giving me, us… well, to put it crudely, a kick up the butt.’ Everyone laughed at my mum saying that. ‘We have a lot of work still to do but I know we can make this a success together. So, here’s to the future!’ She raised her glass and we echoed the toast.

  ‘I can’t believe that you pulled this off,’ Heather said, giving me a tight squeeze around the waist. ‘You, Beth Williams, are a little star.’

  ‘We did it together,’ I said, squeezing her back. It was hard to believe that she hadn’t been in my life for a long time. I couldn’t imagine being without her again.

  We all got quite drunk on the champagne, minus Izzy, of course, and Rory and Drew who were driving. I easily persuaded Heather to
stay the night so she could have more. And, suddenly, it was late, and Drew was checking his watch.

  ‘Guys, I have a flight tomorrow,’ he said. We had moved into the living room in front of the fire by then and there was a chorus of groans at his words. He grinned. ‘I know, I’m a party pooper, aren’t I!’

  ‘I don’t want you to go,’ Izzy said, up way past her bedtime and loving it. ‘Don’t go back to Boston!’

  ‘Ah, Iz.’ Drew slung an arm around her. ‘It won’t be for long, I promise.’

  ‘Hey, how about you come with us to the airport?’ Rory suggested. ‘I can come and get you on the way? If you can be up early?’

  ‘Of course I can,’ Izzy replied, looking insulted. She turned to me. ‘Can I, Mum?’

  ‘Definitely,’ I said, smiling. I glanced at Drew, wondering if the invitation would be extended to me. He was avoiding my gaze. I looked down at my lap. Perhaps he was remembering the last time he invited me to the airport. I hated that he had stood there waiting for me to say goodbye and I hadn’t shown up. No wonder he didn’t want to go through that again. I wanted to tell him I’d go anywhere he wanted me to, but I had no idea if that would make him happy.

  And then he and Rory got up and everyone was saying their goodbyes. I hovered by the door and I showed them out into the hall. ‘So…’ My voice trailed off a little as I opened the front door.

  Rory glanced at me and then Drew. ‘I’ll get the car warmed up.’ He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. ‘Goodnight, Beth,’ and hurried out into the darkness.

  My hand rested on the door as Drew stepped into the frame.

  ‘I’ll call you guys when I land,’ Drew said, looking at his brother outside, and not at me.

  ‘Okay,’ I replied, my mouth turning dry. I started to reach for him, but he stepped down into the driveway.

  ‘See you, Beth,’ he said, and then he was gone.

  I slumped against the doorframe, watching as he opened the car door. He glanced back at me once and I gave him a small wave. I couldn’t make out the expression on his face in the darkness and then he climbed into the car and shut the door. It certainly wasn’t the goodbye I had been hoping for. I closed the door and leaned against it. I thought about us dancing, how I was so sure he had been about to kiss me, but now he had slipped off into the night with not as much as a second glance.