‘And yet another reason for not having the hotel here, I’m guessing,’ finished Cat before she went on her way.
Making her way through the crowds, Cat tried to include as many differing points of view as she could, in the interests of fairness. Jenny Ingles, from the local estate agents, was totally pro the development, naturally.
‘It’s going to be good for the town,’ she argued, ‘and it will help people like my Tom who was made redundant after Christmas and needs a new job.’
And it turned out that the Yummy Mummies weren’t the only ones keen on the use of the spa facilities and gym.
‘Let’s face it,’ declared Ann Young, a relative newcomer to the area who’d just retired to Hope Christmas from London, ‘the gym facilities here are extremely limited. Hope Christmas needs something like this.’
If you wanted Fitness First, why did you leave London? Cat felt like saying, but she bit her lip and turned to Batty Jack who started extolling the virtues of sleeping out in the open every night, which wasn’t quite what she was after. Eventually about to declare it a wrap, Cat became aware that Diana Carew was holding court.
‘We need this development like a hole in the head. What good is it going to do us, I ask you? Everyone talks about globalisation these days, globalisation, my eye!’ she concluded, ‘my eye!’ Cat was able to escape, thankfully, to the back, just as Pippa called the meeting to order.
Marianne and Gabriel squeezed in next to Vera and Albert.
‘This is just like old times,’ said Vera with a smile.
‘Isn’t it?’ grinned Marianne. ‘To think we all got together thanks, in part, to the campaign to save the Post Office. And here we all are again.’
She and Gabriel had been thrown together by the campaign Pippa had started to save Vera’s post office, while it had also been the catalyst for Vera and Albert to finally reveal their true feelings. The worst kept secret in Hope Christmas at the time had been their undeclared love for one another. Everyone could see it, but they’d both been too shy to say it.
‘Only I don’t feel so confident about saving our fields,’ said Gabe gloomily. ‘LK Holdings have a lot of money to throw around and Old Joe’s great-nephew won’t be the only one to take notice, I’m sure.’
‘We’ve done it before, we can do it again,’ said Marianne. ‘Besides, we do at least have something they want. I told you Luke Nicholas is prepared to negotiate for our land.’
‘Like I’m going to let that happen,’ snorted Gabriel.
‘It’s so frustrating,’ said Vera, looking fretful. ‘I hate the thought of us all being swamped by these big companies.’
‘Me too,’ said Marianne.
‘By the way,’ continued Vera, ‘do you know of anyone looking for work? Only Albert and I have decided we want a bit more time to ourselves and we could do with some help in the Post Office.’
Gabriel and Marianne looked at one another. Marianne didn’t want to push, but squeezing her hand, Gabe said, ‘As it happens, we do. Eve used to help out in the village shop ages ago. It might do her good to get out of the house to come and help you.’
That would be a result. Getting Eve a job would be one step further on the road to giving her the means to be independent again.
They were shushed as Pippa began to speak. She started by making an impassioned speech, as only Pippa could, about the need to save their land and community, raising laughter, when she spoke about her attempts to persuade Felix Macintyre that having merlins in the woods were a good enough reason for him not to build there.
‘But, sadly, the birds alone won’t do it,’ she said. ‘We may have given Mr Macintyre and LK Holdings pause for thought, but that’s it. We have to make them see that this development is simply in the wrong place, and not what this community needs. So if everyone here could write to them, and not just to them, to the planning committee, the county council, to our new MP, Sarah Carnforth, that will show how strong the feeling here is. I’ve written a draft letter which has the key points, which you’re welcome to crib – please it’s vital that every voice is heard. The more of us who complain, the more they have to listen.’
Pippa sat down to a wave of applause, followed by some bad-tempered shouting from a couple of the Yummy Mummies who thought their point of view wasn’t being heard. Then a strange little man, called Otis Hooper, who was dressed in clothes which would have looked shabby on Wurzel Gummidge and who lived at the back of the woods, leapt up and started pontificating. He seemed to be saying (when he finally got to the point) that any merlins in the woods were a bad thing, as they were birds of prey so would attack the other wildlife, and therefore the development should go ahead, which was quite a piece of skew-eyed logic. Ralph eventually managed to leap in to shut him up and wrapped the evening with a speech urging everyone to attend the planning meeting to be held in September.
‘They’re hoping by sneaking it in at the end of summer, very few people will be around to complain,’ said Ralph. ‘Let’s play them at their own game and prove them wrong.’
‘Brilliant, Pippa,’ said Cat at the end of the meeting. ‘I think we’ve got some great footage.’
‘Thanks,’ said Pippa. ‘It’s a great start, but there’s a long way to go.’
‘Fancy a drink?’ asked Cat.
‘Not tonight,’ said Pippa. ‘Mum’s babysitting and Richard said he’d take me out for dinner.’
‘Well done, Pippa.’ Dan was standing at the back when she left. ‘If anyone can save our woods it will be you.’
‘That’s the plan,’ said Pippa. ‘And thanks for speaking to Lucy.’
Lucy, though not reconciled to her and Richard, at least was less grumpy about it. She had even apologised for being rude. When Pippa had thanked her, Lucy had typed crossly, ‘Dad made me,’ which made them both laugh.
‘It’s the least I can do,’ said Dan lightly. ‘By the way, your lift is here.’
He nodded to where Richard was sitting in the car, waiting for her.
Pippa felt a stab of irritation. She’d asked him to come in. He knew how important this was to her. But no, it didn’t matter to him. As far as Richard was concerned, the campaign was a waste of time, and the sooner she was shot of the farm the better.
‘How did it go?’ he said, as she got in the car, and strapped on her belt.
‘Fine, I think,’ said Pippa, ‘but this is only the beginning. There’s a long way to go and a lot to do. After the planning meeting in September we’ll see what we’re up against.’
‘You know they’ll ignore you, don’t you?’ said Richard, as he steered the car down the driveway of Whispers, their favourite restaurant. Or actually not their. His. What had got into her tonight? She was feeling very grumpy.
‘Oh let’s be positive,’ said Pippa. ‘Try and have some faith, why don’t you?’
‘Just being realistic,’ said Richard as they sat down at the table.
‘Well, don’t,’ said Pippa. ‘This is important to me. It could be vital to us as a family.’
‘But it doesn’t have to be,’ said Richard. ‘When you sell the farm and move in with me, it won’t be so important. We can use some of the money to adapt the house to Lucy, and you wouldn’t have to work so hard.’
‘But I like working,’ said Pippa, ‘I couldn’t sit around being a decorative housewife. I’d go nuts.’
‘You wouldn’t have to,’ said Richard. ‘I’ve seen you in action. You could do charity fundraising, run your own business. The world’s your oyster.’
‘No,’ said Pippa, with sudden clarity. ‘My world is farming and my family. I want to leave a legacy for my children, and that’s that.’
Richard reached into his pocket and suddenly she felt sick. He couldn’t be, could he? They’d hardly been together any time at all. But Richard was an all or nothing kind of guy. She might have known he’d rush things.
‘Would you say that even if I gave you this?’ He opened his palm and in it lay a box which he opened to reveal
a huge diamond ring.
Oh god. She’d got this all wrong and it had to stop now. She’d been half asleep for the last few months, thinking moving on from Dan meant being with Richard. But this was so wrong. They weren’t right together.
‘I’m sorry, Richard, but the answer is no,’ she said, feeling terrible, but knowing she had to do it. ‘You’re lovely and I’m really fond of you, but my future is with the farm, even if I have to go it alone. You won’t ever want to be part of that, and we both know it. I’m really sorry, but we can never be together, not in the way that you want.’
My Broken Brain
Day 100 and something … 7pm
The law of unintended consequences. Or how to bugger things up more than you can imagine.
Lucy’s happiness means more to me than my own. After my accident, I knew I’d changed. Didn’t think I could be a good husband. Or a good father. And after frightening my sons half to death – and me too, the look in their eyes when I shouted at them, haunts me still – I thought it was better if I left.
I wanted Pippa to find happiness again. I thought it would help, give a purpose to all this.
I didn’t think about what Lucy wanted.
And what Lucy wants is for me to come home. Despite everything that’s happened, she still has faith in me. A faith I’m not sure I deserve.
But instead, she’s having to deal with her mum moving in with another man. Thanks to my actions, my poor little girl is heartbroken.
What have I done?
August
Chapter Twenty-Two
‘Have we forgotten anything, do you think?’
Marianne was fretting as they drove out of the farmyard with the Land Rover laden down. Gabriel’s parents stood at the doorway, waving them off.
‘Only the kitchen sink,’ laughed Gabriel, as he expertly manoeuvred the Land Rover up the lane.
‘Shut up,’ said Marianne.
But with three children, her mum (meeting them off the train at Barmouth) and Eve, who looked as if she wouldn’t get a holiday otherwise, all slumming it in a caravan park for a week, she’d not taken any chances, and had come, she hoped, prepared for anything. Thankfully, they’d been able to leave Patch behind, otherwise Marianne wasn’t sure she’d have been able to cope. The twins had really wanted to take Dolly, who had finally graduated from kitchen to fields, and the children missed her. Marianne had had to be very firm.
‘Dolly lives in the fields, now,’ she said, ‘she’ll be too uncomfortable in the car.’
As it was, Marianne wasn’t sure if she were going on holiday, or going to need a holiday to recover. Guiltily, she wished it were just her and Gabe off for a week to the lovely LK Holdings hotel she and the girls had stayed in. Now that would have been relaxing.
‘We’re all going on a summer holiday!’ started up Gabriel, before a, ‘Lame, Dad, really lame,’ from Steven shut him up.
Marianne glanced at him, squeezed in next to Eve and lots of luggage, with Harry and Daisy squashed in at the back with even more. He was engrossed with his iPod, either playing some game, or pinging his mates about this being the most boring trip ever. He’d already made no bones about the fact that it wasn’t his idea of fun.
Marianne felt a pang. When Eve had been with Darren and had had money, at least Steven had had exciting holidays. But what was there for a fourteen-year-old boy on a Welsh caravan site? The twins would be happy as larry, playing on the beach, enjoying the rubbish entertainment at the bar, eating fish and chips; Mum would be happy to be with her grandchildren; she and Gabe would manage because it was a family holiday and at least it was a break from the farm, and Eve would be getting a freebie, so if she wasn’t happy, Marianne didn’t really care. But poor old Steven was going to get fed up really quickly.
‘I hope this week won’t be too boring for you, Steven,’ she said.
Steven shrugged his shoulders. ‘It’ll be ok, I expect.’
‘Maybe you and Dad can go off and do something fun together,’ suggested Marianne, hoping that would help.
‘Maybe,’ said Steven, looking non-committal.
Oh dear. This wasn’t at all promising. At least it was only a week.
Half an hour into the journey, there was a wail from Daisy.
‘I feel sick,’ she cried, and promptly was.
‘Oh, gross!’ said Steven, while Daisy screamed the place down, and then Harry decided to join in.
‘Didn’t you give her travel sick pills?’ said Gabriel, accusingly. He always got tense when he was driving on a family holiday.
‘Yes,’ said Marianne. ‘It must be these windy roads.’ That Daisy was a champion vomiter, they’d discovered early on in their family car experiences, but this was a first even for her. ‘She must be overexcited.’
Gabriel found the nearest safe place to park, and Marianne got out of the car, extricated a snivelling Daisy from her seat, and went through the joyous experience of cleaning up.
‘It stinks,’ moaned Steven as they set off again. Marianne had come equipped with antibacterial spray, but it wasn’t enough to keep the smell away.
‘Open the window,’ said Marianne unfeelingly, but changed her mind as they hit a torrential downpour. It seemed as if they were heading into a storm.
‘I need a wee!’ It was Harry’s turn to yell.
There hadn’t been a sign for a service station for ages, so they hadn’t been able to stop, and judging by the road signs, there wasn’t going to be one for miles.
‘I’ll pull over as soon as I can,’ said Gabriel, which wasn’t very soon, and the yells from the back became even more urgent.
‘Can’t wait!’ Harry was crying, his face bright red with effort.
‘Too late,’ said Marianne with a sigh, when Gabriel was finally able to pull over.
Sitting with the tailgate up, she changed the second of her children in the pouring rain. They hadn’t even arrived yet and she’d nearly used up all the spare clothes she had for the journey.
It was going to be a very long week.
‘This is great,’ said Cat, as she, Lou Lou and Ruby hopped off the tractor ride, which took them on a small circuit of Pippa’s farm. It was a sunny day, and the farm was buzzing.
To Pippa’s delight, a steady stream of summer visitors had availed themselves of the opportunity to visit the farm, and it was great to see small children everywhere, excitedly oohing and aahing at the animals. There were parents with babies in backpacks, and toddlers in buggies, older children clamouring to go on tractor rides. The numbers had exceeded her wildest expectations.
She’d roped in the boys and their friends to help out with the small animals, and though there wasn’t a lot of variety, she’d got chickens, lambs, a couple of goats, and a few rabbits and guinea pigs, which were going down a storm with the younger ones. So much so that she’d even been asked if any were for sale. Now there was an idea …
The greatest success of all was the hay barn, where George and Nathan, veterans since their youth, had hooked up a variety of slides and jumps. Who needed a ball pit, when you had hay to jump in? Admittedly the cost of liability insurance was diabolically high, and the working days were even longer than normal, but if this many people kept coming through the doors all summer, it would be worth it.
Lucy was enjoying herself too, sitting in the entrance taking money, selling home-made jams and chutney by the dozen. It turned out she was a talented saleswoman, she only had to smile at people, and they immediately fell in love and parted with their money. She had been so much happier since Richard left, even if Pippa had had any doubts, they would have been quashed by the sight of her daughter.
Her teenage strops seemed to have vanished overnight and Lucy had reverted once more to being the happy-go-lucky, easy-going child she’d always been. Pippa was staggered at how much impact Richard had had on Lucy’s behaviour. How she could have ever considered putting her own happiness above Lucy’s, Pippa couldn’t now imagine. She felt she’d been caught up in a we
ird bubble for several months, where her sensible head had gone walkabout and she’d been oblivious to what really mattered. Maybe that’s what rebound relationships did to you.
And she was happier too, Pippa realised. She was sleeping better and felt as if a great weight had lifted from her shoulders, as she had finally taken control of her own life. Ever since Dan had left, it felt as if she had let events dictate to her what to do, and now finally she was taking charge of her own destiny. It was up to her to save the farm. But if only it were that simple.
Uneasily, she looked across the road. The surveyors had been back and forth over the last few weeks, and there had been a couple of rotivators in one of the fields. Batty Jack was running a war of attrition, letting sheep and turkeys into the fields on a regular basis, as promised, and deflating the tyres on the surveyors’ cars (illegal or not) just to annoy them. He seemed to have the knack of invisibility though, and avoided detection, despite the installation of CCTV on gates at Blackstock Farm. He and his fellow campers seemed well ensconced in the woods now, and were daily joined by newcomers. There was real momentum growing for the campaign, but still Pippa felt anxious.
Despite Jack’s efforts, with a month to go before the planning meeting, there seemed to be an awful lot of activity on the land, with old fences being knocked down and security fencing and lighting going up in the yard. And the voices in Hope Christmas who were pro the hotel seemed to be growing in number daily. There had been several bad-tempered clashes in the letters pages of the local paper. Pippa was growing genuinely concerned that they might not, after all, be able to stop the hotel being built. But at least by the look of things she could save the farm. And that was something.
‘Don’t like the plane! Don’t like the plane!’ Lou Lou was sitting next to Mel wailing her head off as the engines started and the plane took off.
Cat didn’t entirely blame her granddaughter. She wasn’t all that sold on flying either. But to celebrate Mel’s eighteenth birthday, and as a reward for all the hard work she (and some of the effort James) had put into their exams, Noel and Cat had decided they’d stretch to a villa this year for the family holiday, instead of two cramped apartments.
Coming Home For Christmas Page 19
