by Heidi Swain
He stopped suddenly as Minnie jumped to attention and began to bark and a vehicle came to a halt out on the road. I heard a van door slam and I knew exactly who it was.
‘Anyone about?’
Just as I had guessed, it was Matt. My heart sank in my chest. Not only did I not want to have to referee another sparring match between the two men, I also resented the intrusion. It was still ridiculously early, so unless he was trying to catch me in bed I had no idea why he would be calling.
‘Hang on!’ I shouted back, darting to grab Minnie and rush her into the dining room.
Will looked at me and raised his eyebrows.
‘She hates him,’ I hissed, ‘and I can’t risk the lawsuit if she chews his leg off.’
Will began to laugh and I bit my lip, trying not to giggle. I was just about to go and answer the door when Matt strolled in and caught us in the middle of what looked like a private joke about him. Which of course it was.
‘I’m not interrupting anything, am I?’ he asked, looking suspiciously from one of us to the other.
‘Nope,’ said Will, pushing back his chair.
Matt nodded and looked me up and down and I realised I was still wearing my boxers and frilly vest. I crossed my arms self-consciously. I hadn’t been in the least bit bothered when it was just me and Will, after all he’d seen me naked the first time we met, but Matt’s gaze was far too inquisitive for my liking.
‘You left this in the van last night,’ he said, stepping forward and handing me my cardigan. ‘I thought you might be wondering where it had got to.’
To be honest, I hadn’t even had a chance to miss it.
‘Thanks,’ I said, quickly unfolding it and pulling it on. ‘I was going to give you a ring later to ask about those roof tiles,’ I added.
‘What roof tiles?’ cut in Will.
‘Well, I’ll pop back later,’ nodded Matt, completely blanking Will. ‘I’ll leave you two to your cosy breakfast.’
I knew exactly how the situation must have looked, especially given the ungodly hour, and I felt obliged to explain, even if only to stop Matt from gossiping.
‘Will just called in to show me—’
‘Oh, I’m sure Matt doesn’t need to know the details,’ said Will, jumping up, ‘and besides, I’m off, so don’t feel as if you have to leave on my account, Matt.’
In an instant the puzzle pieces slipped into place and I felt my face flush, but not for the reason Matt was no doubt thinking. I hadn’t dreamt about Grace, Will’s beautiful and best-kept secret, I’d blabbed all about her, and to Matt, one of the few people around here he didn’t get on with.
‘So what did he want?’ asked Matt the second I’d shown Will out of the door.
He was helping himself to the last cup of tea in the pot and I rather resented his casual and slightly proprietorial handling of Gwen’s things.
‘Sorry?’ I blinked.
‘Will,’ he said, pointing to the door and pulling a silly face. ‘What did he want?’
‘That’s really none of your business,’ I snapped.
I knew I probably sounded more annoyed than I intended but I felt unnerved by this sudden shift from ‘builder I’d recently met’ to ‘man getting his feet under the table’, and I tried to ignore the little voice in my head that was keen to remind me that the shift in our relationship was at least fifty per cent down to me and that if I’d wanted to keep everything on a purely professional footing then I should never have gone to the pub with him in the first place and I certainly shouldn’t have reciprocated when he kissed me.
‘Sorry,’ Matt mumbled sulkily as he watched me swoop around the table tidying away the breakfast things. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’
‘You haven’t,’ I said brightly but still feeling no more inclined to share the reason behind Will’s early morning appearance. As far as I was concerned I’d already done more than enough damage to his endeavours to keep Grace’s presence at Cuckoo Cottage a secret.
‘Thank you for bringing my cardigan back,’ I said.
I didn’t want Matt thinking I was ungrateful as well as miserable.
‘You’re welcome,’ he said, drinking his final mouthful of tea.
I shifted uneasily from one foot to the other.
‘And thinking about last night,’ I began, ‘I want to apologise for the way it ended.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The kiss,’ I elaborated, feeling my face flush crimson. ‘It should never have happened. I blame the wine.’
‘And the stars,’ Matt added helpfully.
‘Exactly,’ I sighed, grateful that he understood. ‘Ours is a business relationship, nothing more.’
Matt nodded and changed the subject.
‘Are you planning on going out today?’
‘Nope. The weather’s supposed to take a turn for the worse again later, so I’m going nowhere.’
I glanced out of the window at the sunshine and wondered if Grace had tucked herself away somewhere for the day.
‘Looks all right to me,’ said Matt, following my gaze.
‘That’s as maybe,’ I said, ‘but you’ve lived here long enough to know that makes no difference, haven’t you?’
‘Yeah, you’re right,’ he agreed, the cheeky-chappie grin back in place. ‘Could be tipping it down in an hour, and with that in mind . . . ’
‘Yes?’
‘I have nothing lined up for today that I can’t put off, so how about I get up on your roof and have a look at sorting out those wobbly ridge tiles?’
‘Don’t you need scaffolding for that?’ I frowned. ‘Surely that’s a job for a roofer?’
‘Nothing I can’t manage,’ he said.
‘Well, as long as you’re sure,’ I said resignedly.
I’d been looking forward to a peaceful day working on the Bailey. The campsite plan might have fallen at the first hurdle, but the date of Harriet and Rachel’s grand nursery opening was creeping quickly closer and I couldn’t afford to waste a single day if the mobile café was going to be ready in time to provide the tea and cakes Jemma had been planning.
‘Absolutely,’ said Matt, as if he was doing me a favour, which really, I suppose, he was. ‘I’ll get my stuff together, but you’ll have to keep Minnie inside for the day, I’m afraid.’
‘No, it’s all right,’ I told him. ‘I’ll take her down to the barns with me.’
‘Oh right,’ he said, tapping the side of his nose and whispering with a wink, ‘mum’s the word.’
Matt kept himself busy with jobs at the cottage all day. We had a quick lunch together outside with Minnie tethered to her lead, which she absolutely loathed. I watched her skulking about and knew that if I let her anywhere within range she would quite happily feast on whichever piece of Matt she could reach. Down in the barn I didn’t really settle to doing anything productive and spent more time fretting about my dashed dreams than moving the conversion project forward.
I was also mulling over the rivalry between the two men in my life, and resolved that when the time was right I would ask one or the other, or possibly even both, if there was a genuine reason behind their posturing.
‘You all finished, then?’ I asked at the end of the afternoon as Matt slung the last of his tools back in his van and lashed his ladders to the roof bars.
‘For today,’ he said, chewing his lip and frowning.
I’d noticed there had definitely been more tutting and head-shaking as he packed away and hoped he hadn’t found yet another problem that needed fixing.
‘Let me grab my purse,’ I said, not daring to come straight out and ask.
‘No, you’re all right,’ he said. ‘Let’s just settle up when everything’s done, but I have to warn you the costs are mounting up a bit now, I’m afraid. You might find you need more than the cash you carry about in your purse, Lottie.’
I didn’t like the sound of that at all, but couldn’t bring myself to press him for an exact figure.
‘Well
, all right,’ I reluctantly relented, ‘but if you could warn me roughly how many zeros I’m looking at next time you come, because I haven’t got endless funds to draw on.’
‘Of course,’ he smiled grimly.
There was that concerned frown again.
‘Oh, come on,’ I said, rolling my eyes. ‘You might as well just say it. I know you’ve found something else.’
‘It’s the septic tank,’ he blurted out.
‘What about it?’
‘Well, I haven’t lifted the cover, but I reckon there might be a crack.’
‘How do you know if you haven’t inspected it?’
‘You kind of get a nose for these things,’ he said discreetly.
‘Oh,’ I blushed. ‘I see, and I suppose that’s going to be another expensive job, isn’t it, as well as unsavoury?’
‘Can be,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Leave it with me and I’ll see if I can think of anyone who can recommend someone to come out and have a look.’
‘Surely you must have an uncle or another cousin tucked away somewhere who can sort it,’ I said. ‘You seem to have every other trade in the book covered.’
‘Not this time,’ said Matt, shaking his head and cranking my stress level up a notch, ‘but don’t worry about it. I might be wrong, after all.’
As I watched him leave I began to wonder just how many more little problems there were still to discover with my seemingly idyllic abode and whether I was actually cut out for this new life in the country business after all. Perhaps Gwen had underestimated her timing when she thought I would only need a year to establish myself; perhaps a decade would have been more fitting.
Chapter 26
True to her word, by the end of the week Mags had taken ownership of the sizeable Skylark Farm truck she needed for ferrying about plant stock and Ed’s ever-increasing menagerie, and the little yellow minivan was parked in the yard awaiting my attention.
‘Now you have to promise to look after her,’ Mags sighed, as she gave her trusty old runabout an affectionate stroke and braced herself to hand over the keys. ‘And talk to her nicely every time you take her out.’
Liam stood in the background, chewing his lip and shaking his head.
‘Are you really sure you want to give her up?’ I asked. ‘I’ll completely understand if you’d rather keep her.’
‘No,’ said Liam, stepping in and prising the keys from Mags’s grasp. ‘Absolutely not, everything’s sorted. She’s all yours now, Lottie.’
Between us we had worked out what I considered was a ridiculously fair price for the vehicle, based on the promise that if I did ever decide to part with her – it, I mean – I would give Mags first option on taking her/it back.
‘Well,’ I said, taking the keys with a hand that was less than steady. ‘I promise to do my best by her, and yes, I’ll talk to her lots.’
Mags looked at me and smiled, thankfully mollified by my Girl Scout-style pledge.
‘I’m so pleased it’s you,’ she said, ‘and not just because I’ll get to see her every day, but because I think you need her.’
She was definitely right about that. Ever since Will had suggested I would be able to take myself off to wherever I wanted to go without having to worry about the weather, I had been feeling ever so slightly more excited than terrified.
‘She’s really going to transform your life, Lottie,’ Mags said wistfully.
Also potentially true, given the magical powers my friend seemed convinced the little van possessed and I wondered if it were capable of spiriting away such tiresome things as agricultural restrictions and damp patches. The crack in the septic tank had fortunately turned out to be a false alarm, but I had still endured stress-filled hours prior to the announcement worrying that I was going to wake up one morning to a garden filled with . . . well, you get the idea.
Rather than settling deeper into life at Cuckoo Cottage, I found I was now living on tenterhooks and absolutely dreading Matt finishing one job because it inevitably seemed to lead on to another, bigger one. He still hadn’t given me any real indication as to how much it was all going to cost and that only compounded the worry. If he didn’t stop soon then I decided I would have to put the brakes on myself.
When I had first met him and discovered his connection to Gwen, I had hoped to feel comforted that he was handling the work because she had chosen him herself. I thought his presence would make me feel safe and looked after, something I hadn’t felt in quite some time, but actually I was feeling more fraught than protected and, added to that, the guilt I endured for having let him kiss me after our trip to the pub meant everything was turning into a bit of a nightmare rather than a dream come true.
‘Right,’ I said bracingly, determined to make the most of this historic moment in my life. ‘I think we could all do with some tea, don’t you? And I’ve baked,’ I added enticingly. ‘It’s only a Vicky sponge, but this one is definitely better than the last.’
Mags looked at me and raised her eyebrows.
‘It is,’ I said defensively. ‘If you launched this one at the greenhouse it wouldn’t go through the glass, I’m sure of it.’
As well as the slightly weighty Victoria sponge, I had also made sandwiches and scones, and the four of us – Ed having bombed back from the field with Minnie in tow at the mere whisper of cake on the air – sat under the cherry tree sharing news and catching up.
‘And did you know David’s gone away for a few days?’ asked Mags.
‘No,’ I said, ‘I didn’t.’
That would explain why he still hadn’t called me back. I had rung and left a message with his secretary asking him to get in touch, but I was still waiting to hear from him. I had been thinking it was out of character for him not to return a call and wished she could have just told me he wasn’t around at the moment.
‘It was a spur-of-the-moment thing,’ Mags went on. ‘And coincidentally, Angela’s taken a few days’ holiday from working in the café as well.’
‘Well I never,’ I began, a small smile spreading as I realised what she was suggesting.
‘It’s the first time she’s taken a proper break since she started working there apparently . . . ’
‘You aren’t gossiping are you, Mags?’ said Liam, opening one eye to survey her from beneath the brim of the battered straw hat he was sporting.
‘No,’ she said, with a wink in my direction. ‘I’m just bringing Lottie up to speed with all the news from town as she hasn’t been able to get there herself.’
‘Until now,’ I said, glancing over at the van. ‘As of this afternoon I’ll be able to keep up with all the gossip, I mean news, myself.’
‘Are you looking forward to driving?’ asked Ed as he surreptitiously fed Minnie pieces of crust under the table.
‘Sort of,’ I said honestly. ‘I’m more excited now than I was a couple of weeks ago and I know there are certain things I can’t keep putting off, driving being top of the list.’
‘No, I suppose not,’ he said without a touch of condescension. ‘When you get to your age,’ he continued, now addressing us all, ‘I guess you want to make the most of every minute.’
‘Ed!’ chorused his parents in dismay.
‘What?’
‘I’m not even thirty yet,’ I told him, but all the while knowing it was a fear I’d been carrying for far too long which was holding me back.
He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders and I guessed to him I was probably just one step away from drawing my pension.
‘So this is it, Lottie,’ Will announced later that evening. ‘Just check she’s out of gear and then turn the key in the ignition.’
I hadn’t planned to have a lesson that evening but Ed’s words had stuck with me and I had phoned Will on the spur of the moment and asked if he could spare a few minutes to chaperone me around the yard. He was delighted by my determination to get going straightaway and now here we sat, side by side, with my knees knocking and my hands unhelpfully shaking.
‘Of course,’ Will frowned. ‘I’ve already said I will be. Just don’t let your nerves get the better of you.’
‘I won’t,’ I swallowed, ‘but this is about more than nerves. I do have another reason for not wanting to do this besides my own cowardice.’
‘Would you care to tell me what it is?’
I could see he thought I was playing for time and that I was just jittery because I hadn’t driven for so long. I couldn’t bear it a second longer.
‘Because,’ I went on, taking a big breath and pushing the words out in a rush, ‘when I was growing up I had the biggest crush on Shaun Dempster.’
‘Chris and Marie’s eldest son?’
‘Yes,’ I croaked. ‘I thought he was the best thing since sliced bread and the last summer I saw him . . . ’
‘Go on.’
I shook my head.
‘The details aren’t relevant,’ I stammered.
I didn’t think it was necessary to tell Will how I had lost my virginity one steamy August night or how my crush had suddenly turned into something more serious for both of us as a result.
‘Let’s just say that when he was killed up at Hecate’s Rest I was heartbroken and I vowed that I would never even learn to drive, let alone own a car of my own.’
‘I don’t understand . . . ’
‘Look, no one really knows what happened that night, do they?’ I went on. ‘No one knows whether another car was involved or not, but I couldn’t bear the thought of climbing behind the wheel and getting it wrong. I never wanted the responsibility of being able to snuff out someone’s life because I made a mistake.’
‘But Lottie, that’s . . . ’
‘Please don’t say silly,’ I cut in. ‘I don’t expect you to understand, but I do ask that you respect my reluctance. I’m trying my best to make my peace with what happened now and consequently I’m not letting it hold me back any longer. I want to try, OK?’
‘OK,’ Will nodded, ‘of course. I had no idea.’
‘Of course you didn’t,’ I sniffed. ‘No one did, not even Chris and Marie, and I’d like to keep it that way.’
