Coming Home to Jasmine Cottage

by Zara Stoneley

  Molly didn’t stir from her spot on the rug in front of the blazing fire.

  ‘A tot to warm you up?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Whisky dear, my father always swore by it. Settles the nerves and warms the stomach.’

  Lucy laughed. ‘I’ve got to drive back to Charlie’s, I promised to make him some supper. I’m not sure I’ll be capable of either if I start drinking whisky on an empty stomach.’

  ‘Well I’m sure you’ve got time to pop the kettle on and make us a cup of tea, you know where to find everything, don’t you?’

  Lucy nodded, and tried to check the time without it being too obvious. It was unusual for Elsie to delegate the tea-making duties, and she realised why when she carried the tray through to the front room, there was a definite tremble in the old lady’s hands.

  ‘So, Maisie has been found safe and sound?’ She launched straight into the matter, before Lucy had even poured.

  ‘She has, she’s cold and tired, but apart from that she seems fine.’

  ‘Children are surprisingly resilient, we worry too much. She was down by the oak tree, Timothy tells me?’

  ‘She was. I’ve never been there, but from what she’s said I think Jim took her in the summer.’

  ‘That tree is quite a magnet, a strange place for the child to go though.’

  ‘I think,’ Lucy paused, she’d not quite got it all straight in her head yet but she had her suspicions about why Maisie had headed there. ‘She’d got upset and felt that nobody wanted her.’ Elsie raised an eyebrow. ‘Me and Charlie had thought it best to keep a bit of a distance, because it was winding Josie up, Maisie chattering about what we were all doing together. It would have been totally wrong to tell Maisie not to tag Lucy said on the end of her sentences,’ the last thing she wanted was to ask the little girl to cover things up, ‘so it seemed sensible for us just to spend less time together.’

  ‘But that caused a new problem of its own?’

  ‘It did.’ Lucy sighed. ‘It was well intentioned, but we never really thought about how Maisie would see it.’ Which was so stupid of her. She knew what it was like to lose somebody, she knew she’d felt abandoned and not good enough when she’d thought her dad and her friends didn’t want to talk to her any more. How could she have got this so wrong? A pain in her chest grew as the truth hit her. She should have known. ‘She thinks her mum has abandoned her, and now I have too, on top of that Charlie’s been so busy, so—’

  ‘She felt that nobody wanted her?’

  ‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘I should have known how she’d feel, oh Elsie.’ Her hand trembled and she put her cup of tea down.

  ‘No.’ Elsie shook her head decisively. ‘Now look at me Lucy. Your situation was quite different. That little girl hardly knows you, you’re her teacher and a friend of her father. I’m not going to insult your intelligence and say that your absence played no part, not seeing you could well have been the straw that broke this particular camel’s back, but what you did was perfectly reasonable. It’s her mother at fault here, and I’m not going to pretend any different.’ She tapped her stick on the floor. ‘Charles has done his absolute best, but that woman has thrown nothing but obstacles in the way.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Your mother had no choice but to leave your father and sever all contact, the only regret is that she left it so long to explain to you.’ Her voice wavered. ‘But leaving things is often what we do to protect ourselves.’ There was silence for a moment, as though Elsie needed to gather her thoughts, then she seemed to pull herself back into the present and frowned at Lucy. ‘But why did she go down there?’

  ‘Jim had told her she was part of the village when she scratched her name on the tree.’ The full significance of it finally dawned on Lucy, and her words slowed. ‘That it meant she belonged here. It offered her security I suppose.’

  ‘You and Charles make her feel secure, Lucy.’ Elsie’s voice was soft. ‘But sometimes when we’re upset or angry, even if we’re only little, then we need a little bit more.’

  ‘Jim understood, even if we didn’t.’

  ‘Jim is a smart man.’ Elsie picked her cup up in hands that trembled slightly. ‘He understands about belonging to a place. Is he injured badly? I could get no sense out of Timothy, sometimes all that man does is waffle.’

  Lucy knew her eyes had opened wide in surprise. Elsie and Timothy were very close, and she’d never heard either of them criticise the other. Although Elsie, who was a master at disguising her feelings normally, did seem quite shaken, and maybe this showed just how upset she really was. ‘To be honest I haven’t seen him myself, but Charlie said he’d wrenched his knee quite badly. I think he dislocated it.’ She gave a little shudder. ‘Which sounds painful.’

  ‘But he has gone to hospital now?’

  ‘Yes, the ambulance left just before I came back. Charlie had a word as they loaded him in, and he said he’s had painkillers and seemed comfortable.’ Lucy reached out and laid her hand over the older woman’s. ‘I’m sure he’ll be fine, Charlie would have said something otherwise. And Beth Wright insisted on going in the ambulance with him, and Timothy was following in his car.’

  ‘Good. I’m sure he will update me.’ Elsie’s shoulders seemed to relax.

  ‘I’m sure he will. Jim was so fantastic though, if it hadn’t been for him we might never have found her. He’s a hero.’

  Elsie suddenly smiled, the beam reaching her eyes so that some of her old spirit returned. ‘How nice, a hero. I suppose he is, he’ll be very pleased to hear that.’ She put her cup down, her hand steadier. ‘Well, with all this excitement I feel quite weary. Thank you for popping in dear and updating me, one does worry these days when one can’t get out. Now, I suppose you need to get off.’

  Lucy smiled. She’d been dismissed. But as she walked to the door and let herself out she had the distinct impression that Elsie had been much more interested in Jim’s welfare than Maisie’s.

  Roo and Piper were curled up together on the rug by the log-burner when Lucy got back to the farm. They looked cosy, happy together. Like maybe she and Charlie could be one day.

  Piper flapped her tail in a welcome gesture.

  ‘Is Maisie okay?’ She kept her voice low as she pushed the door closed quietly.

  ‘She’s tucked up in my bed, she was worn out.’ He patted the seat next to him. ‘None the worse for wear though, unlike me.’ The smile was strained, but he looked much more relaxed than he had when she’d left a short while ago. ‘I feel like I’ve been steamrollered.’

  ‘Me too.’ They shared a smile, and there was no need to add any words of explanation. They were both shattered, the worry and emotional turmoil taking far more out of them than anything physical would have done. ‘Sorry I was so long.’

  ‘No problem, it gave me time to settle her. Animals okay?’

  ‘They’re good, all fed, watered and locked up. Although Mischief wasn’t too keen about being locked up in his shelter, that pony can be so stubborn at times. Good job I’ve got the measure of him now, a handful of carrots and he soon forgot his principles!’ Luckily after a few months of looking after Annie’s animals she knew most of their quirks and could whizz through the tasks in half the time it used to take her. ‘It wasn’t them that took the time, Elsie wanted to chat. She seemed quite worked up and worried which isn’t like her at all, but I think she was fine once I updated her.’

  She sat down, glanced his way under her eyelashes and he was studying her. Then he moved in closer, draped an arm over her shoulders.

  ‘Good. I missed you.’

  ‘Missed you too.’ And she knew that they weren’t just talking about her brief trip back to the cottage.

  ‘We’ve got to sort this Lucy, haven’t we?’

  ‘We have.’

  ‘Josie is going to have to accept my life as it is, Maisie’s here with me and I can’t just live life on her terms.’

  ‘She’s agreed to talk to Timothy you know.’

  ‘I didn�
�t.’

  ‘He emailed her the other day, threatened to call in the heavy squad as he was concerned about Maisie’s welfare. She’s calling next week, so that might help. He wants me to sit in, on the off chance she’ll talk to me. She has to realise as Maisie’s teacher I’m part of her life.’

  ‘She has to realise you’re more than just her teacher.’ He kissed the top of her head and a little shiver ran down her spine.

  ‘We’ll get there.’ She hesitated. ‘Look, the thing with Jamie …’

  ‘You don’t need to tell me, I trust you.’

  ‘I want to tell you, but we’ve just not seemed to have a moment on our own when nobody’s been listening. I took Piper to Sal’s puppy party, then at the end she was busy tidying up, so Jamie and me sneaked off for a chat.’ Charlie raised an eyebrow. ‘Jamie and Matt are planning a surprise for Sally, seeing as she missed out on a proper wedding. I mean Jamie knows she didn’t want the full works here, but he also knows she likes a bit of a party and he reckons she’s a tiny bit sad she missed out on having a proper wedding.’ She smiled. ‘He’s madly in love, he’d do anything for her. So …’ And she told him all about the plan, and about Matt roping Jill in to help, and about how she really thought it was time Matt and Jill actually went on a date.

  ‘You’re a right matchmaker aren’t you?’ Charlie chuckled and pulled her in closer to his warm body. ‘Worse than Elsie.’

  ‘I’ve got a feeling about Elsie.’

  ‘A feeling in your waters as my mother used to say?’ He was grinning when she looked up, lovely crinkles fanning out from his warm brown eyes.

  ‘A feeling in my ditch waters. I think she’s going to admit what her guilty secret is soon.’

  ‘And what makes you say that?’

  She tapped the side of her nose, thinking of Jim as she did. ‘It was something I saw in her eyes earlier, I’ve never seen her look like that.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Maternal.’

  Chapter 19

  ‘My mam says that if you bend my halo there’ll be hell to pay.’

  Lucy stifled the smile, and stared at the font, wondering if it was really such a bright idea to do the school nativity play in the church. But it was, as Timothy had told her, tradition. And Langtry Meadows held a great store in tradition.

  It had seemed appropriate to hold the dress rehearsal in here, and try and put the children in the right frame of mind for the real thing, which was approaching far too quickly. But the children weren’t the biggest of her worries. What really bothered her was the idea of having real live animals next to the crib. They’d settled for a baby Jesus made out of rubber and plastic, why couldn’t the cow be?

  Next time they were here there would be chickens, a cow and a donkey. Or a fat pony pretending to be a donkey. And the risk of wind, or something much, much worse that the church floor might never recover from.

  ‘Daisy, will you stop swinging baby Jesus by his foot please.’ Jill’s voice echoed around them.

  ‘It’s not a Jesus, it’s a she.’ Daisy, dangling the doll by a chubby ankle, held it up as high as she could. ‘Look, it’s got pink knickers.’

  ‘My mam says if God was a woman there’d be a lot more common-sense.’ Sophie shook her head, and her halo rocketed from side to side as if it was on a spring. ‘What’s common-sense?’

  ‘Thank you, Sophie.’

  ‘It’s a she cos it’s my baby sister’s and she calls it Elsa,’ Daisy continued as though she’d never been interrupted, and pulled at the pink knickers in indignation.

  ‘Well Elsa is going to pretend to be Jesus, just as you’re going to pretend to be a king, Daisy.’

  Daisy, looking very unregal in a costume made out of what looked like an old shower curtain (the loops gave it away), adjusted her cardboard crown and rustled her way closer to Sophie. ‘Why do we all have to pretend to be boys? Kings are boys, shepherds are boys, Jesus is a boy.’ She drew a breath, running out of examples. ‘I want to be a queen, or a princess.’

  ‘I’m a sheep. Sheeps are girls.’ Billy who’d been quiet up until that point folded his arms. ‘And I want a wee.’ He scratched his bottom, and Lucy started to wonder if a cow might be less trouble after all.

  ‘You went before we set off Billy, so I know you can wait until we get back. Right,’ Lucy clapped her hands, ‘let’s all stand in our places so that I can have a look at these beautiful costumes.’

  Harry eyed Daisy up suspiciously as she lobbed the baby back into the crate that they’d brought with them as a makeshift crib.

  ‘Ah, here are the other children.’ Lucy let out a sigh of relief as the church doors opened and the older children filed in, led by Mrs Potts who was brandishing a clipboard.

  ‘Hallelujah, Jesus is saved,’ whispered Jill in her ear, as the older Mary and Joseph took their positions and Mary carefully turned the baby over, straightened it’s skirt so that the pink knickers were no longer on view, and tucked a blanket round it.

  Daisy glared, lunged forward and made a grab for the doll. ‘Amy said I’m the only one that can touch her Elsa.’

  The Hargreave twins swapped places, Timothy wandered in smoking a pipe, and Lucy wondered if a braying donkey might actually be a godsend.

  With the younger children intimidated by the presence of the headmaster and the older pupils, the rehearsal went much more smoothly than Jill and Lucy had expected. If you could ignore the king’s very noisy costume that crinkled alarmingly every time Daisy moved (which was quite often), Joe knocking over the biggest pile of hymn books Lucy had ever seen, and Sophie the very un-angelic angel seeing if her halo would make a noise if she bobbed her head hard enough. It didn’t make the whistling noise she was hoping for when she set it bouncing backwards and forwards, but it was moving so fast she nearly took the vicar’s eye out, and Lucy made a mental note to stick with cardboard and foam, and to ban metal coat hangers next year.

  The best bit about the afternoon though had to be that by the time they got back to school, took the costumes off and sat down, it was nearly home time.

  ‘What’s an acre?’ Some of the children had already spotted their parents and run off across the playground, and Maisie was next in line. She slipped her hand into Lucy’s and smiled up at her. ‘Jim said we were in the two acre field.’

  ‘An acre is a way to describe the size of a field.’ It was the first time Maisie had mentioned her little adventure. ‘But I think that’s the name of the field as well. Is it a nice field?’

  ‘I suppose so.’ Maisie frowned in concentration. ‘It’s big and it’s got a pond, and it goes up and down a lot. But it’s cold and muddy. I’ve been there before. Jim took me and Roo. It’s got a very, very big tree, Daddy has put his name on the tree.’

  ‘Has he?’

  ‘And Jim has, and Sally. Everybody has. Even I have. I wanted to take you and show you but Daddy wouldn’t let me see you except at school. Don’t you want to see me?’ Maisie’s grip on her hand tightened slightly.

  ‘Of course I want to see you, Maisie. It’s just a little bit difficult sometimes, but I’d love to see your tree some time.’

  ‘You have to put L for Lucy and J for Jacobs.’

  ‘I will do.’

  ‘There’s a big hole as well, that’s what Jim fell in and he said a rude word.’

  ‘Ah. I think that’s because he really hurt his leg.’

  ‘You shouldn’t really say rude words even if you’re hurt, should you?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘He said bloody, and hells bells.’ Lucy tried not to smile. ‘He got stuck and very muddy. He had cake as well.’

  ‘Cake?’

  ‘The first time he took me. He didn’t have cake this time because it’s winter, and you don’t have picnics in winter. But he had a big coat he gave me. He said Roo hadn’t run away, he’d run to get help.’

  ‘He did, he was very clever, and Jim knew exactly where you’d gone.’

  ‘I went to see the tree
. Daddy’s by the gate, can I go?’

  ‘You can. See you tomorrow, oh and Maisie?’ Maisie glanced up. ‘Tell him I like your costume.’

  She grinned. ‘It’s a stripy tea-towel!’ Then giggling, she turned and ran, flinging herself at her father’s legs with a force that sent him staggering back.

  ‘Maisie seems a lot more settled now.’ Jill was straightening up the chairs when Lucy went back into the classroom.

  ‘She is, a lot of that was down to Jim though I think.’ Lucy grinned. ‘He’s very fatherly isn’t he?’

  ‘He is.’ Jill smiled back. ‘Though talking about fatherly, he’s always our Father Christmas; it looks like we’ll have to find another one this year.’

  ‘Oh hell, I hadn’t thought about that! I’ve been too busy worrying about the cow.’

  Jill chuckled. ‘Matt picked out a lovely quiet one, slobbery but sweet.’

  ‘Slobbery sounds fun.’ Lucy pulled a face and tried not to think too much about drooling. ‘Then there’s the donkey.’

  ‘He had a brainwave on that as well, fingers crossed his friend at the sanctuary has got a very old one that isn’t at all grumpy.’

  ‘I’m crossing everything, living in the country is one thing, but taking it into a church seems a step too far.’

  ‘Oh stop being a city-girl wimp.’ Jill laughed. ‘Where’s your sense of adventure? What’s the worst that could happen?’

  ‘Oh God, don’t get me thinking about the worst. I have nightmares about cow poo and what will happen if Sophie Smith skids her way through it. Gawd knows what her mam will have to say about that.’

  Jill grinned. ‘But you have to admit, a donkey making more of a racket than Sophie bellowing out her version of Silent Night might be quite a good thing.’

  ‘True. I’ve never heard it sung quite like that before, I’m pretty sure the vicar hadn’t either.’

  ‘Anyway, you should be more worried about Timothy hitting the mulled wine, just before he introduces posh George.’

  ‘Now that might be worth seeing, and I won’t care. As soon as the kids finish their bit, I’ll be joining him.’