Lauren was almost skipping as she pushed Sam’s buggy down the road to school in the afternoon. The sun was shining, she thought she might truly be in love, and all seemed right in the world. On the way back up the hill as she was chasing after the twins who’d run on ahead, she bumped into Kezzie coming back from work.
‘You’re finished early, aren’t you?’ said Lauren.
‘I got to a point where I couldn’t do any more. I was waiting a delivery of compost, which hasn’t come, and I need some more bedding plants, and by the time I waited for Joel to bring them back from Chiverton it would have been time to pack up anyway. Plus I’m still knackered from the weekend, so I thought I’d call it a day.’
‘How’s the head?’ grinned Lauren. ‘You seemed pretty out of it on Saturday.’
‘Er, I was.’ Kezzie looked shifty and a bit embarrassed.
‘You didn’t make a fool of yourself, did you?’ teased Lauren. ‘Only I couldn’t help noticing that Tom has a bit of a thing going for you.’
‘No, no, nothing like that,’ Kezzie seemed determined to drop the subject.
‘Ooh, you sly dog you,’ said Lauren, in delight. ‘You did do something with Tom.’
‘I didn’t, really I didn’t,’ said Kezzie, looking even more mortified.
‘Don’t believe you,’ said Lauren, grinning. ‘You look like you’ve got a guilty conscience. Go on, who was he?’
‘Will you just leave it!’ Kezzie snapped. ‘Nothing happened.’
‘Oh,’ Lauren was staggered. Kezzie had never ever spoken to her like that before. ‘Sorry, I was just having a laugh.’
‘No, I’m sorry,’ Kezzie looked embarrassed. ‘I’m a bit tired. All that happened on Saturday was I drank too much, smoked too much dope and had the head from hell yesterday. That was quite enough.’
Lauren, sensing it was a sensitive issue, changed the subject.
‘Well, you guys did a great job in the Memorial Gardens,’ she said. ‘It looks fantastic. Everyone’s saying so.’
‘It does, doesn’t it?’ said Kezzie. ‘Now all we need is to get the war memorial back and we’re in business.’
‘And you need to finish Joel’s garden before the Summer Fest,’ reminded Lauren.
‘That too,’ said Kezzie. She looked as though she were dying for the conversation to end. ‘Anyway, gotta go.’
‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ said Lauren. ‘Only you seem a bit edgy.’
‘Never better,’ said Kezzie, but she looked guilt-stricken when she said it. ‘I really do have to go though. See you.’
Lauren puzzled over their conversation as she let herself in and sorted the kids’ tea out. It wasn’t like Kezzie to be so snappy. She only worked it out when Kezzie popped round to borrow some milk, and saw her reaction to Troy sitting in the corner. She tried to hide it, but she was clearly shocked.
‘Er, Lauren,’ she said, when Lauren walked her back to the front door, ‘you can tell me to butt out if you like, but has Troy moved back in?’
‘He might have,’ said Lauren.
‘I thought you weren’t ever going to let him back in your life?’ Kezzie sounded horrified.
Lauren shrugged, feeling embarrassed. She rather wished she hadn’t made the point quite so emphatically.
‘Things change,’ said Lauren.
‘Clearly,’ said Kezzie, sarcastically, and Lauren flushed with embarrassment.
‘Don’t be like that,’ she said. ‘I know I was down on Troy, but I really think we can make a go of it. Please be happy for me.’
‘I’m sorry, Lauren, I can’t be,’ said Kezzie. ‘Troy’s a louse of the highest order.’
‘You don’t know him,’ protested Lauren.
‘I know him well enough,’ said Kezzie, with surprising vehemence. ‘He’ll let you down.’
‘He won’t,’ said Lauren. ‘Troy wouldn’t do that to me again.’
‘If you say so,’ said Kezzie, but she looked unconvinced.
Lauren shut the door on Kezzie and sighed. It was going to be hard persuading people that she was doing the right thing, particularly when she’d been so clear that she wasn’t getting back together with Troy, but she had to try. Even if it meant losing some of her friends.
Edward and Lily
1918
Lily’s diary, November 1918
The joy seems to have gone out of life. I go to the garden, and I sit brooding, and I can only see pain and heartache. I keep recalling the babies who never lived. Edward tells me this is a morbid fancy, and I dare say he is right, but we have all seen so much death and sadness over the last few years, I cannot help but think of them.
It was here in the garden that George proposed to poor brave Connie. She is away now, in France. She insisted on becoming a nurse, to do her bit. She writes that she would like to become engaged to a doctor at the hospital where she works. We gave our permission, gladly. I pray she has found happiness at last.
Harry has been in the army now for over a year. I cannot wait to see him again, and I worry about him so. He writes as often as he can, and always seems so cheerful, but the stories from the invalided soldiers who come from the Front tell such a story. In my dreams, Harry is always under threat. I fear that I may never see him again. Edward tells me not to be foolish, but I am haunted by the idea that he may fall in battle. And if he does, I know I shall not be as brave as Connie.
Edward heard the bells pealing out over the village and felt a great weight fall from his shoulders. Lily would know what they meant, too. She was shopping in Heartsease with Tilly, and the pair of them would no doubt be joining the excited crowds as they celebrated the Armistice. At last after four long years, the war was over. Please God, now Harry could come back to them. Lily hadn’t been the same since he’d left. She’d been working feverishly at the hospital, and rose every day pale with dark shadows under her eyes, the anxiety about what was happening to their only son too much for her. Well, thank God, she could stop worrying now. Their last letter from Harry had only arrived a week or so ago, and he reported being well and happy, and eager to see them both soon.
Edward was drawing himself a celebratory glass of whisky when he heard the telltale tinkle of a bicycle bell. He frowned, wondering where the telegram boy could be going; there was only one other house further up the hill than they were. Edward felt a clutch of fear as he heard the tentative knock at the door. He opened it with a growing feeling of unreality, remembering the day when they’d received the telegram about George. This was a new boy of course, the other one was long gone, his bones mouldering in a Flanders field along with so many others. Here was a new lad, fresh-faced and chipper, and thankfully for him, young enough to be spared the horror of war. He held out an envelope to Edward, who took it from him without a word. He didn’t need to read the telegram to know what it said, but he forced himself to look.
Corporal Harry Handford. Killed in Action. Battle of the Sambre. 4 November 1918
The words swam before his eyes. Harry Handford. Killed in Action. Sambre. 4 November. A week ago. Only a week ago. They hadn’t been spared after all.
He let out a great howl of anguish, and the boy looked frightened, and said, ‘Sorry sir, I wish it wasn’t so.’
‘Not your fault,’ said Edward, his eyes prickling. He patted the boy on the arm, and found a shilling in his pocket to give him. ‘No one’s fault.’
He turned the telegram over and over in his hands, trying to work out how he was going to tell Lily. Lily, who spent all her waking time fretting about what would happen to their only son. Lily, whose heart was going to be broken as surely as his was.
He sat in the lounge, watching the sun set over a wintry garden, his coffee untouched where the servant had left it.
Eventually, the door banged open and Lily burst in with Tilly.
‘Wonderful news,’ she cried, her eyes shining brighter than he’d seen in a long time. ‘They say that a peace has been signed. The war is over. Harry can come home.’
Edward stood up with a heavy heart.
‘Lily,’ he began, but couldn’t find the strength to continue. He held out the telegram instead. Lily looked at him as if not quite sure what he was showing her, and then she said, ‘Oh,’ in a quiet, faraway voice. Guiltily he felt a smidgeon of relief that she hadn’t created a scene, but then she let out a scream of anguish so piercing it tore his heart anew.
She slumped down in a chair, weeping and saying, ‘Not now. How can it be now?’, while Tilly stood looking on in mute shock.
Edward went to her and kneeled down, taking her hands in his.
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I don’t know. It’s too cruel.’
‘How can we endure this?’ she whispered, her eyes brittle with tears.
‘What other choice do we have?’ said Edward, drawing her close. ‘We aren’t the only ones who have suffered. Others have shown great bravery. Now we must too.’
Lily laid her head on his shoulder and wept.
‘But what if I can’t?’ she said.
Part Three
Summer’s Promise
Chapter Twenty-Five
It wasn’t just Kezzie who was unimpressed by Lauren’s news; her mum was none too impressed either. Particularly as she found out about it via Facebook, where Lauren had gleefully changed her relationship status from single to in a relationship with Troy Farrell.
‘It will only end in tears,’ her mum had warned her. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
‘I’d never say that,’ said Lauren, feeling a little sore. It would be nice if just one person she cared about was slightly happy for her. The girls were, of course, but it wasn’t the same. Lauren didn’t want to end up in a position where she had to choose between Troy and everyone else, but a small gnawing knot of anxiety growing inside her was warning her that it might be inevitable.
It was a warm May morning as she walked down the hill with Sam, after dropping the girls off at school. The trees were lined with the last of the pink and white apple blossom, which fell at her feet like confetti as she passed. Sam laughed as the petals gently floated into his hands. Lauren smiled as she saw a couple of Summer Fest posters tacked to the trees. Eileen had obviously been out early; she was keen to get what she called a ‘buzz’ going.
Troy had the afternoon off, and they were going to go shopping later, but for now she and Sam were heading for the playground. Although Lauren was pleased to be back with Troy, she lurched between her anxious feelings that everyone else was right and she was making a mistake, and an insane giddy happiness because Troy made her feel so amazing when they were together. Their relationship was a hundred times better than it had been previously, because now it was a proper adult one, with both of them taking responsibility for it. She wished everyone else could see it.
Humming to herself, she pushed open the iron gate that led into the Memorial Gardens.
‘Oh no!’ Since the revamp of the gardens, no one had reported any vandalism, and slowly the night patrols had tailed off. Thanks to the campaign in the paper, more parents were using the playground, and Eileen had assured her the Parish Council was looking at allocating some money towards replacing the equipment. ‘We’ll still have to raise some money via the Summer Fest,’ she said, ‘but at least it’s something.’
The cause of Lauren’s dismay was the empty plinth, which once more bore the legend Daz 4 Zoe, and was covered with empty bottles. Someone had clearly thought it was fun to pull up some of the bedding plants, too, and there was mud all over the path.
‘All that hard work for nothing,’ she said, picking up the plants and putting them to one side. If they’d done this here, what on earth had they done to the playground? She pushed Sam towards it with her heart in her mouth.
The damage was not as bad as she feared; there were some broken bottles it was true, and someone had sprayed graffiti on the side of the slide, but it could have been worse. But still. All that effort and people just wanted to destroy it. She could have wept.
Instead, she rang Eileen and Kezzie, who both arrived as quickly as they could, and Rose Carmichael, who promised to get her husband to bring some paint stripper home from work. She had barely seen Kezzie since Troy had moved back in and when they did meet things had felt awkward between them. Kezzie didn’t talk about Troy, but Lauren knew what she was thinking. And of late, she’d been getting the idea that Kezzie might be avoiding her.
‘I just can’t believe it,’ said Lauren. ‘Bastards.’
‘I still think it’s bored kids,’ said Kezzie.
‘They may well be bored,’ said Lauren, ‘but they need to learn to show some respect for other people’s property.’
‘Ooh, touchy,’ said Kezzie. ‘I was just saying.’
‘Grow up, Kezzie,’ snapped Lauren. ‘Even if they are kids, we can’t just give them a pat on the back and send them on their way.’
Kezzie looked a little hurt, but said nothing, while Eileen smoothed the way with, ‘I guess we’ll have to reinstate the patrols. Now the warmer evenings are here, it’s more tempting for the vandals.’
‘I can do tonight,’ said Kezzie. ‘I’ll see if Joel’s available.’
Lauren felt a spasm of envy shoot through her, although she couldn’t have explained why. She and Joel had had such a comfortable friendship till Kezzie came along, and over the last few months Lauren had felt she had been slowly edged out. She had no right to feel like this, she knew, particularly now Troy was back in her life, but she’d got used to being the person Joel relied on, and he seemed to be relying on her less and less. It was no one’s fault, Lauren could see that someone as dynamic and dazzling as Kezzie was going to be more attractive to Joel than she was (though why she should care about that, she didn’t know), but she missed the easiness of the relationship she’d had with Joel. And worse, Joel had seemed withdrawn in the last few weeks, since she’d been with Troy. They’d never quite recovered from the awkwardness of Joel’s declaration of love being so swiftly followed by Troy moving in. And she had no doubt at all that Joel disapproved.
‘I can’t babysit tonight,’ said Lauren, thinking of the evening she had planned with Troy. It was probably good for Joel to know that she wasn’t constantly at his beck and call.
‘I’m sure Christine’s free tonight,’ said Eileen. ‘I’m not, unfortunately.’
‘Hot date is it?’ grinned Kezzie, and Eileen blushed.
‘I am seeing Tony, as it happens,’ she said.
‘Good for you,’ said Kezzie. ‘I’ll give Joel a ring, but I’ll do it anyway. I’m not having all our hard work going for nothing. In the meantime, I’m going to go and sort those beds out in the Memorial Gardens. There might be something we can salvage.’
She left quickly, barely saying goodbye to Lauren. Damn. It looked as though Kezzie wasn’t going to forgive her easily.
As the weeks had gone by, Joel had got used to seeing Lauren with Troy, and even persuaded himself it wasn’t like a knife digging into his heart. His feelings for Lauren had crystallized at a point when they could come to nothing. He told himself what he’d never had was no loss, but he knew in his heart it wasn’t true. Every time he saw the way Lauren was with Sam, how loving she was with him, how much fun he had with her, he regretted not having been bolder before. He realized with a jolt that, just as Lauren always had, he missed the sense of completion that he would have had from being part of a family. And though he could never have it with Claire again, there had been just the smidgeon of a possibility that he could have had it with Lauren, but he’d cocked it up. By taking her for granted, he’d ensured that Lauren would never show any interest in him. And now that door had been closed to him. With Troy on the scene, Joel felt he had to hang back more, and become more reserved with Lauren, for fear of intruding. Their usual easy intimacy had been replaced with an awkward distance, and Joel regretted that more than anything.
‘There’s nothing you can do,’ Kezzie said to Joel, when they reached the gardens that e
vening. It hadn’t taken him long to agree to come out. He was furious that someone should have tried to destroy their hard work. ‘She’s completely head over heels in love with the guy. We just have to hope that she sees sense. At the moment she won’t hear a word against him.’
Joel sighed, ‘I know, it doesn’t make it any easier though, does it?’
‘Nope,’ said Kezzie. ‘Come on, let’s make ourselves comfortable.’
They sat down on the bench, and chatted idly about the Summer Fest, and the gardening celebrities Kezzie had managed to interest in the project. Latest was, that at least one known TV presenter was likely to turn up on the day. ‘Wouldn’t it be great if he’d endorse my work,’ Kezzie was saying, when they heard a rustle in the bushes. Joel flashed his torch.
‘Anyone there?’ They heard muffled giggles, and a rather obvious, ‘Ssshh!’
Kezzie and Joel looked at each other and grinned. They sat waiting for a few minutes, and everything went quiet. This seemed like a good moment to put their plan into action.
‘Must have been a fox,’ said Kezzie, loudly. ‘How about we call it a day now?’
‘Good idea,’ said Joel. ‘I don’t think anyone’s coming.’
Noisily, they got up and left, clanging the garden gate shut behind them. Then they waited with bated breath. It took five minutes for the giggles to start again, and then there were a few shouts of laughter, and four teenage kids burst out of the hedge.
‘Coast’s clear,’ they said. And one of them ran to the plinth and sprayed something on the side.
Summer Season Page 23
