by Daisy Styles
‘I’ll start laying the breakfast,’ said Ruby, and loaded the trays with Maudie’s soft, warm rolls, marge and rhubarb-and-ginger jam. ‘Put the kettle on,’ she said, as she headed for the stairs. ‘We’ll have a brew when I get back.’
As Ava grated the strong Walsingham Cheddar cheese, she blurted out what had been worrying her all morning: ‘I haven’t got any trousers!’ she wailed.
Maudie burst out laughing. ‘It’s not funny!’ Ava exclaimed. ‘I can’t go riding in a skirt. It’ll blow up with the first breeze and my knickers will be on display for the whole world to see!’
‘I’ve got some trousers,’ Maudie volunteered.
‘My hips aren’t as slinky slim as yours,’ Ava said, dropping the grated cheese into the milk mixture, along with a generous sprinkling of salt, black pepper and some fresh parsley.
A wicked smile crept across Maudie’s mouth. ‘I know somebody who must have more than one pair of jodhpurs.’
Ava looked blank. ‘Who?’
‘Lady Diana, of course.’
Ava’s jaw dropped. ‘I can’t go borrowing her horse, and her trousers, too!’ she spluttered.
Maudie raised her beautifully arched eyebrows as she replied, ‘I really don’t see why not.’
When Ruby came rushing back for another tray-load, Ava dropped three heaped teaspoons of tea into the big kitchen teapot as she said, in all innocence, ‘Would you know where Lady Diana keeps her old jodhpurs?’
Ruby nodded as she loaded the tray with more bread rolls.
‘In a box of junk that’s been sitting at the back of her wardrobe since she was moved to the suites upstairs. Why?’
‘I haven’t got anything to ride in,’ Ava explained.
‘Do you think you could liberate a pair of jodhpurs for our head cook?’ Maudie asked with a wry smile.
Ruby grinned and nodded. ‘I could nip up and get you a pair after we’ve finished clearing breakfast.’
‘Will they fit?’ Ava asked. ‘I’ve got a bigger bum than Lady Diana!’
‘They stretch quite a lot, so even somebody as fat as you will be able to squeeze into them!’ Ruby joked. ‘Now, in return for stealing from her ladyship, you can carry the rest of those damn heavy trays upstairs while I’ll stay here and drink my tea!’
‘Deal!’ said Ava, and loaded two more trays with bread and butter. ‘I might even give you a Woodbine to accompany your tea break!’
When breakfast had been cleared and the savoury flans were cooking in the slow oven, Ruby, with a mischievous look on her pretty face, skipped up the back staircase.
‘I hope she won’t get into trouble,’ Ava murmured, watching her go.
‘Stop worrying. Lady Diana’s never sober long enough to miss anything,’ Maudie answered knowingly.
While Ava was busy in the large pantry, stacking the latest delivery of sugar and flour on the stout wooden shelves that ran around the small room from floor to ceiling, Ruby returned with a pair of jodhpurs.
‘Come out of there and try them on for size,’ she called.
‘Thank you, Ruby, you’re a pal,’ said Ava. She stripped off her uniform and stood before the hot Aga in only her bra and knickers.
‘I only hope Peter doesn’t come waltzing in with a delivery of cucumbers!’ Ruby chuckled.
Ava wriggled into the jodhpurs, which were a snug fit.
‘They show your bum off a treat!’ Ruby said.
‘That wasn’t the look I wanted,’ Ava said, stretching down to touch her toes. ‘I hope they don’t split when I’m in the saddle,’ she added anxiously.
‘As long as they don’t split when you’re out of the saddle, you’ll be fine,’ Ruby teased.
As Ava whipped off the jodhpurs and slipped back into her uniform, Maudie smiled mischievously at Ruby. ‘You and that sweet-looking Polish boy seemed to get on well the other night.’
Ruby blushed. ‘He’s a nice lad, but we barely understand each other,’ she giggled.
‘I could teach you how to say, “Have a sandvitch with me” in Polish,’ Maudie teased. ‘Ma sandwicz z mna.’
Ruby’s dark eyes widened as Maudie slipped effortlessly into her mother tongue. ‘Could you really teach me Polish, Maudie?’
‘Of course,’ she replied. ‘We could start right now, naming things in the kitchen. Cup and saucer: filizanka i spodek.’ She nodded to the large dresser stacked with crockery. ‘Knife and fork: noz i widelec,’ she went on, as she picked up some cutlery. ‘Meko i cukier: milk and sugar.’
Bewildered, Ruby put her head in her hands, ‘Slow down!’ she wailed. ‘You’re getting me all confused.’
As soon as lunch was cleared, Ava headed off to the bedroom she shared with Ruby, where she stripped and washed herself down with warm water. Then she pulled on Lady Diana’s jodhpurs and a white-and-pink striped crêpe blouse, which she tucked into the waistband.
‘I hope I don’t look fat,’ she fretted, peering over her shoulder, trying to get a view of her backside.
Next, she cleaned her teeth and brushed her hair. She didn’t apply any make-up ‒ what she had was old and greasy; and, anyway, as Maudie had pointed out, this wasn’t exactly a date. She took a quick glance at herself in the tiny bathroom mirror. Her dark blue eyes were glowing with excitement, her lips were full and pink and her long hair floated in a cloud around her smiling face. When Ava walked back into the kitchen, her friends nodded in approval.
‘You look like you’ve just walked off the set of a cowboy film!’ Ruby teased.
‘I’m a nervous wreck – and I think my bum looks big,’ Ava blurted out.
‘Stop worrying. You look all curvy and sexy, like Jane Russell!’ Ruby assured her.
Ava dashed into the cold store to collect two apples before leaving. ‘Have fun! Don’t fall off!’ Maudie yelled after her, laughing.
When the back door banged shut and Ava was well out of earshot, Maudie turned to Ruby.
‘So what makes you think this vet of Ava’s is spoken for?’ she asked.
Ruby was sitting, smoking, in the old Windsor chair by the Aga, and lowered her voice when she replied.
‘I remember, when he made his first visit to the hall, he was definitely with a tall, dark, snobby woman, more a Lady Diana type than a vet’s wife,’ Ruby said. She stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray. ‘I’ve never seen her with him since, but a handsome man like him is never short of girlfriends.’
‘Let’s hope he’s not the flirting kind,’ Maudie said thoughtfully. ‘Because from the smile on her lips and the sparkle in her eye, Ava has definitely taken a shine to Mr Tom Benson!’
9. Holkham Beach
Ava chattered away happily as she groomed Lucas’s chestnut coat until it shone like burnished gold. ‘You’ve got to look your best, young man,’ she said, as Lucas, searching for treats, pushed his muzzle into her jodhpur pockets
She jumped when she heard the sound of an approaching car. Turning quickly, she saw Tom driving his Land Rover, with a horsebox in tow. Her heart lurched as he jumped out of the vehicle. Her reaction to the sight of his golden hair, smiling, bright eyes and strong, tanned body suggested that this meeting was more than ‘just a ride on the beach’, no matter what her common sense told her.
Tom grinned as a thump and a shrill neigh emanated from the horsebox.
‘Drummer’s in a pig of a mood,’ he said. As he walked round to the back of the horsebox, Ava again noticed the distinct limp in his right leg. ‘He hates being cooped up, even though I told him it would be worth it in the end.’
‘Drummer …?’ she queried.
‘Drummer Boy, my horse,’ Tom explained.
Intrigued, Ava watched Tom lower the ramp to the horsebox.
‘Come and meet Ava,’ he said to the sixteen-hand dark bay gelding that trotted down the ramp, tossing his silky black mane and waving his long black tail.
‘Oh, he’s beautiful!’ Ava cried, and hurried over to stroke the frisky young horse. ‘How old is he?’
&n
bsp; ‘Four years old,’ Tom replied. ‘I delivered him when he was born to a breeder in Fakenham and, for a reduced fee, I bought him and broke him in. I know both the dam and the sire, so I knew he’d be a beauty, but I never dreamed he’d be as fast as he is. Believe me, give him a free rein and he goes like the wind.’
Lucas, in the paddock, fed up with being overlooked, neighed and pawed the ground.
‘Don’t think we should keep these two impatient creatures waiting much longer,’ said Tom, as he tied Drummer’s lead rope to the fence. ‘I’ll just get his saddle from the horsebox.’
Ava quickly tacked up Lucas, who was nudging Drummer’s nose and sniffing his nostrils. Wearing tightly fitting jodhpurs and a soft, cotton open shirt that showed off the golden hairs of his tanned chest, Tom laid the saddle over Drummer’s back, then looked over to Ava, who sat mounted on Lucas, her hair flying around her face.
‘Ready?’ he asked.
‘Ready as I ever will be,’ she answered, with an excited smile.
Five minutes later, Ava and Tom were trotting side by side down the curving drive that led out on to the quiet main road. They crossed it, then continued up an even longer drive, flanked on either side as far as the eye could see by fertile water meadows, where groups of honking geese waddled between grazing cattle. Ava’s eyes grew wide as she gazed around.
‘This is amazing!’ she exclaimed. ‘Right outside the front door and I’ve never even seen it.’
Tom, who was having trouble reining in feisty Drummer, looked surprised.
‘You mean you’ve never ventured down to the sea?’ he asked.
Ava shook her head.
‘I’ve hardly ventured out of the kitchen,’ she admitted.
‘Oh my, are you in for a treat,’ he promised. The muscles on Tom’s arms strained as he continued to rein in his horse. ‘I can’t give him his head yet ‒ the drive is used by pedestrians and farm traffic. Whoa, there, boy,’ he said, in a firm but soothing voice.
Ava bent to pat Lucas’s neck. Even though he was excited, he kept calm and didn’t react to Drummer’s high-pitched squeals. ‘My lovely boy is happy to be out,’ she said fondly.
Tom nodded, and smiled at Lucas, who was sniffing the air curiously.
‘He’s a fine horse. Pity he’s so neglected.’
‘Not any more,’ Ava replied happily.
When they reached the belt of pine woods, she inhaled the sweet smell of pine resin mixed with the salty tang of the sea. This was nothing like riding out on the wild, wet northern moors. This was a cool, still, dark green world, where all sounds were muted; even Drummer stopped his impatient head-tossing as they walked deeper into the woods. A woodpecker’s sharp call startled the horses. The pine trees were replaced by rolling sand dunes that hedged the wide sweep of Holkham beach.
‘Hahhhhhh!’ she gasped, in a low, rapt voice.
Tom nodded and said, ‘I knew you’d like it. It’s my favourite place on earth.’
The perfect, white, sandy beach, hardly marked by a footprint, merged with the distant, churning sea, which fused with the arching, blue sky, creating an image so pure and light it almost hurt Ava’s eye to gaze too long at it.
‘It’s like paradise,’ she whispered.
Paradise or not, Drummer, by this time, was almost apoplectic.
‘If I don’t give him his head now, he’ll throw me.’ Tom laughed as he slackened the reins. Drummer took off like a flash of lightning.
Lucas tossed his head and whinnied, desperate to catch up with the dark bay whose hooves were pounding the compacted sand.
‘OK, baby, your turn now,’ said Ava, as she slackened her reins and gently pressed her heels into Lucas’s flanks. ‘Come on, let’s have some fun!’
Neighing with pleasure, Lucas tossed his head then broke into a gallop. There was no way he was ever going to catch up with Drummer, who was well ahead, but that didn’t stop Lucas opening out his long legs and thundering after him. Sitting tight in the saddle, Ava marvelled at Tom’s riding skills. He was a natural: graceful, bold and completely at one with his mount. She wondered what he’d think of her. Was she sitting erect and riding well? Were her feet pressed neatly into the stirrups or did she look like a sack of potatoes flopping around on top of Lucas? She needn’t have worried. As Drummer slowed his pace, Tom turned to see Ava galloping towards him, her glorious hair lifted by the sea breeze.
‘God! What a woman,’ he murmured under his breath.
As Lucas caught up with speedy Drummer, they both slowed their pace. Snorting and tossing their heads, they walked companionably side by side in the shallow waves breaking on the white sand.
‘I don’t know who’s happier,’ Ava said, ‘Lucas or me.’
Tom’s eyes roved admiringly over Ava’s open-necked blouse. He could see the soft swell of her full bosom, and forced himself to turn away.
‘So what do you think of Holkham beach?’ he asked.
‘Paradise!’ Ava replied, with a happy, carefree smile.
Tom nodded to the sand dunes that fringed the edge of the dense pine woods. ‘Shall we dismount and let the horses cool down?’
Ava smiled as she replied. ‘We’d better tie them up, though. We don’t want Drummer bolting off and joining the Hunstanton donkeys!’
They tethered their mounts to stout pine trees in the shade, then made their way to the sand dunes, where Tom threw himself down, as carefree and relaxed as a boy. With his hands folded behind his head, he stretched luxuriously in the warm sand and sighed with pleasure. Ava, suddenly awkward, sat rather primly, with her arms laced around her legs, looking out to sea. Sensing her discomfort, Tom sat up and took her hand.
‘News travels fast in the country,’ he started. ‘So I’m going to come straight out with it – I was married; I’m not any more. Divorce isn’t common in Norfolk, so it was quite a local scandal when my ex-wife and I split up last summer. After Edith returned to London, I stayed on here, which is when people started asking why I wasn’t serving at the front. Altogether uncomfortable,’ he added, patting his right leg. ‘Polio,’ he explained. ‘Unfit for duty.’
Ava’s eyes opened wide. ‘Did you catch it as a child?’ she asked.
Tom nodded. ‘I tried to join up. If I’d been accepted, I would have had officer status in the army, but they wouldn’t let me in.’
‘You’re doing essential work here,’ Ava said staunchly.
‘I’m the only vet within a radius of fifty miles,’ he informed her. ‘But it doesn’t stop the clicking tongues and pointing fingers.’ Tom gazed thoughtfully out to sea before he continued. ‘The divorce is going through. The only obstacle is parental custody.’
‘You have a child?’
‘A son, Oliver,’ Tom answered proudly.
Ava sensed that he felt vulnerable now that he’d shared his secrets with her. Squeezing his hand, she said softly, ‘Thank you for telling me, Tom.’
Looking her straight in the eye, he added, ‘So now you know all there is to know about me, and you can be prepared for the local gossip.’
‘I’m a big girl, I can handle that,’ she retorted. ‘But I do want to know one more thing,’ she said with a giggle.
Tom lifted her chin and stared into her honest, shining eyes. ‘And what might that be?’ he asked.
‘That we’re going to ride out here again soon,’ she answered softly.
‘That can easily be arranged, young lady!’ he replied, and pulled her closer to him on the warm sand. ‘Now I want to know all about you, Ava Downham. How come you’re so far away from home?’
Ava sighed. ‘It’s a long story with the wrong ending.’
Stroking her hair, Tom said, ‘Tell me.’
So Ava told him her story.
‘That’s rotten luck,’ he said when she’d finished.
‘It was, for sure,’ she replied. ‘But, if I’m honest, I love working with Maudie and Ruby. We laugh ourselves silly below stairs!’
‘So you’re not resentful?’
‘Not any more. I think I secretly enjoy the challenge,’ she admitted, for the first time.
But talking about her friends made Ava suddenly remember the time. ‘Bugger!’ she cried, and jumped to her feet. ‘I should be back by now.’
Tom reluctantly rose and accompanied her to the waiting horses. ‘I promise you, this is the first of many gallops we’ll have on this glorious beach.’
Ava gazed into his hazel eyes, which were flecked with gold lights. ‘I hope so,’ she answered, with a happy smile.
After a quiet ride back, the contented horses snickering and nudging each other like playful children, they arrived at the stables, where Tom said, as he lifted Ava from the saddle, and held her briefly in his strong arms, ‘Off you go, I’ll see to the horses.’
Ava gazed into his tanned, handsome face. ‘Thank you for a wonderful afternoon,’ she whispered.
‘Thank you,’ he said, and gently traced a finger down her cheek.
Ava dragged herself away, and walked quickly back to the hall, where, below stairs, she stood smiling and radiant in the doorway of the kitchen. Her happy smile rapidly faded when Ruby ran towards her, almost in tears.
‘What’s happened? What’s wrong?’ Ava cried.
‘It’s Maudie!’
Dreadful thoughts rushed into Ava’s head. Had she had a row with Lord Walsingham and run away from the hall? Had she had an accident, cut herself with the carving knife, got run over, been electrocuted? Was she in a hospital bed in King’s Lynn?
‘What’s the matter with her? Where is she?’ Ava demanded.
‘Maudie’s fine,’ Ruby quickly told her. ‘It’s her dad. He’s had a stroke.’
Ava covered her mouth with her hand and gasped, ‘Is he alive?’
‘Yes,’ Ruby told her. ‘He’s been taken to hospital.’
Ava immediately imagined the danger of being in a London hospital. It could be hit by one of the German bombs that rained down every night on the war-ravaged capital.
‘Poor man,’ she whispered.
