‘Miss, Miss.’ Sophie stopped abruptly, the girl behind collided with her, and the boy who should have danced between them improvised by doing an impromptu circle, then squealed and started dashing round and round them until Lucy stepped in and stopped his progress before he had the two girls cocooned in blue ribbon.
‘Sophie?’
‘My mam says that you should put sunscreen on us if we’re outside.’
‘It’s quite cloudy today.’
‘She said.’ Sophie sat down, let go of her ribbon and stuck her lower lip out in rebellion.
‘I will write you a letter home to explain, it is only April.’
‘Can I have one Miss?’
‘Me too Miss?’
‘I don’t want one, I’m not a cissy.’ Billy wound the ribbon round his forehead and did a rain dance on the spot, complete with whooping and stamping.
‘Joe’s a cissy, he’s got a pink ribbon. Joe’s got a pink ribbon.’
Sally watched as Lucy calmed them down, untangled the ribbons, repositioned the children and restarted the music. The younger children were all lined up around them, clapping in time (or not) to the beat.
‘What’s going on?’ Charlie had approached unnoticed, and sounded slightly irritated.
‘I don’t care.’ Matt’s treacle-smooth voice washed over it and he draped an arm over Sally’s shoulder so that Archie licked her ear. ‘I could stand and look at scenery like this all day.’
Charlie took his glasses off, and wiped the palm of his hand wearily over his eyes as though it would help him see more clearly. ‘I thought this was our car park, not a playground. Don’t they have their own place?’
‘It’s tradition.’ Sally knew he wasn’t hot on the tradition side of things when it involved him. ‘Don’t you remember? They always rehearse here because we’ve got a big space and a pole, and…’
‘Don’t tell me, Eric always let them?’ It came out on a frustrated sigh.
‘He does.’ She tried not to smile too broadly, and linked her arm through his. ‘And so did your dad. They won’t be here long, they get bored easily or tie themselves in knots.’
‘I’d quite like to see Miss Jacobs tied up in knots.’ Matt grinned, and Charlie threw him a dirty look, which was the first time Sally had seen Charlie even vaguely unprofessional. This summer looked like it could be shaping up to kick out Langtry Meadows’ sleepy ‘Darling Buds of May’ vibe, with the two new additions to village life. She really would have to pop over and have a chat with Miss Harrington and see what the wise old woman thought. Nothing escaped her notice.
‘Go and do some muck spreading on your field Matthew.’ She patted Archie, and gave Matt a gentle push, then let her hand slip from Charlie’s arm. ‘Come on Mr Davenport, let’s go neuter that randy spaniel we’ve got in, a bit of snipping will make you feel much better.’
They watched as Matt made a detour on the way over to his Land Rover – stopping to whisper in Lucy’s ear, blow a kiss at Jill and let the younger children pet his dog.
Lucy, she was pleased to see, just nodded politely. But that could have just been because she was in professional mode. She had blushed. Oh dear, a girl that blushed that easily was going to find life in this village a bit of a challenge to say the least.
***
After tidying up the consultation room, setting the sign to closed, straightening the chairs and mopping the floor, Sally switched the answer machine on and turned the lights off. She collected her bicycle from the back of the surgery then headed off up the lane, but found herself slowing as she neared Lucy’s cottage. Propping her bicycle up against the fence and made her way up the cute pathway, and rapped on the door. It was opened immediately, by a rather surprised Lucy. ‘I just thought I’d check you were getting on okay with the hens? My God, you’ve done wonders with the front garden, how on earth have you done it that quickly?’
Lucy smiled and opened the door wider. ‘Come in, come in, oh I haven’t done much yet really, I just attacked it with the shears. I love gardening and this place is amazing isn’t it? The prettiest garden I’ve ever seen, it’s already gorgeous with all the spring flowers and the winter jasmine, but I bet it looks even more wonderful in the summer.’
‘It is, but it doesn’t often look wonderful to be honest. Annie likes the wild look.’
‘I had some time before term started so I thought I should show willing, she’s letting me stay here for a pittance.’
‘But you’re looking after the place and the animals. That means far more than money to her.’
‘I still feel I should.’ Lucy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘The hen’s been fine. Do you want to see it?’
‘Oh no, no. I’m not checking up on you, I just wanted to say hi really. And maybe if you fancied going for a drink sometime? Like tonight? I could introduce you to a few people.’
‘That would be lovely, it’s really kind, it’s just,’ Lucy waved behind her at the paperwork on the large pine kitchen table, ‘I do have lots of lesson prep, and I’m only here a few weeks.’
‘Just an hour or two? I mean it is a Friday evening. I thought the beauty of doing cover work was that you didn’t have as much to do?’
Lucy hesitated.
‘Even if you aren’t here long, it does help if you know people, makes it easier. We’re quite a quirky bunch.’
Lucy grinned. ‘Like Matt and that dog?’
‘That dog is unique in Langtry Meadows, he doesn’t actually need it to attract attention but Matt is a terrible flirt and attention seeker, his brother James is much more normal.’
‘How normal?’ Lucy grinned and raised an eyebrow, and Sally felt the colour rush to her face. It was silly. She’d known both the brothers all her life. Matt was the same age as her, and James was a couple of years older. And he’d always seemed older and wiser.
Mature. He’d pulled Matt off her when their arguments over whose turn it was on the swing had turned to rough and tumble. He’d rescued her when Matt had pushed her into the village pond, and caught her pony when it had spooked as she’d ridden across their farm. He’d been the big brother she’d always longed for, and totally unlike Matt who was the little brother she definitely didn’t want.
‘Maybe he feels in his brother’s shadow a bit, you know, needs to shout look at me?’
‘Oh he’s never been in James’ shadow; James is the quiet sensible type.’
‘Once you get labelled the noisy clown it’s hard to shake it off, people play to it.’
‘Like some of the kids dancing round the maypole today?’
Lucy rolled her eyes. ‘I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been duped. The headmaster saw me coming didn’t he? Mug,’ she pointed to her forehead, ‘pasted right across here. Oh, and thanks for diverting Charlie, he seems a bit grumpy whenever I mention the school.’
‘He’s having a tricky time, ignore him, he’s lovely really.’
‘Apart from when you corner him the first time you meet him and demand he comes to see kids when he obviously hates them, then block his car into his own car park when he’s got an emergency, and then fill his car park with kids and coloured ribbons?’ Lucy buried her head in her hands.
‘Well you might have overloaded the poor man a bit. He does seem to prefer animals to people, but underneath it all he is lovely. Really. Are you sure you haven’t got time for a quick drink?’
They both studied the pile of paperwork.
‘I suppose I could do this tomorrow. It’s prep for parent’s evening really, I like to set up a spreadsheet then I can add notes as I get to know them.’
‘I can do a far better job of filling you in on the families in Langtry Meadows than wading through a pile of schoolwork and past reports will. Honest.’ She crossed her heart. ‘And I can tell you just what you need to say whenever little Soph mentions her mum.’
‘You’re seriously tempting me now. Annie told me I need to live a little, do I look such a sad case?’
‘Annie�
�s right. I’m all for a bit of living, but you’re not a completely lost cause.’ She grinned. ‘You just work too hard. Believe me, there’s a lot to be said for lightening up. Come on, I’ll tell you about before I worked for Eric.’
‘Or, we could sit out in the garden and drink this?’ Lucy opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of white wine. ‘From what I’ve heard it’s heaving in the Taverner’s Arms on a Friday night and you can’t hear yourself speak.’
Sally laughed. ‘You know what, you’re even smarter than I thought. I’m not going to stand any chance of interrogating you properly in there, am I?’
Lucy frowned.
‘Kidding. Honest. Although Miss Harrington is dying to know more about you, she considers it her duty to know everything about everybody.’
‘Really? Is that the old lady that lives in that lovely house near the church?’
‘That’s the one. And don’t let appearances fool you; she’s as sharp as they come. She’s lovely too though, not out and out nosey for the sake of it like a lot of the buggers round here. She just likes to know where everybody fits.’
‘A bit like me in my classroom. God,’ Lucy rolled her eyes, ‘I’m seriously thinking about dyeing the hair of one of the Hargreave twins so I can tell them apart, and I still can’t work out whether it’s a good idea to let Ted sit next to Daisy.’ She uncorked the bottle and poured two glasses out.
‘Why?’
‘They spend all their time pulling livestock out of their pockets to see if they can outdo each other. I never had this problem in Birmingham, squashed spiders and nits were the nearest we got to wildlife.’ She grimaced. ‘The only worms were the unmentionable ones that came out of bottoms.’
‘Eurgh stop it. The nit bit was bad enough, it sounds more like our surgery than a school, except we get more fleas.’
‘I give in, no way can I beat you at the bugs game.’
‘Glad to see you’re sensible. So, what do you think of Langtry Meadows? Settling in okay?’
‘Oh yes, it’s lovely,’ Lucy paused, ‘but it is totally different, not just the worms. The kids are just more innocent for a start.’
‘Aren’t all six year olds innocent? Not that I’m an expert, give me a puppy any day.’
‘Not really, some of them at my last school had tough lives. And since I’ve been here I haven’t had a single parent come up to me and threaten to shove my snotty letter where the sun doesn’t shine if I try and tell them how to bring up their kids.’
Sally flinched. ‘Oh God, really, you used to get that?’
Lucy took a mouthful of wine and seemed to consciously sit up straighter, and lighten her tone. ‘It’s just so hard for some of them, and it’s all concrete and car fumes. Lots of them have never seen a cow or sheep, and probably never will. Here they’re just happier.’ Lucy sighed. ‘I do miss them though, the parents could be daft, but it was so rewarding when you got children that actually wanted to do their homework, they took pride in it even if they only had a mum who couldn’t see the point of books.’
‘It must be very different for you here.’
‘It is.’ She paused as if unsure whether to continue, then it came out in a rush. ‘I was brought up in a village not much bigger than Langtry Meadows, but we moved when I was little. To be honest I can’t remember much at all about it.’ She shrugged. ‘I just never imagined I’d move back out to a place like this I suppose.’
‘Boring life in the sticks eh?’
‘No, no, I don’t mean that, it’s gorgeous here and so peaceful. I just, well it was a funny time, I suppose I just shut that bit out of my mind and thought that moving on was all about a bigger school, better money, more of a challenge. Which meant a city school.’
‘I’ve always been here. Apart from a brief, disastrous stint away.’ She studied Lucy over the top of her glass, and tried not to be envious. The girl had done what she hadn’t been able to – moved on. ‘I was always rubbish at school, but I loved animals so being a veterinary nurse was the only thing I could do.’
‘But you’re doing what you love, you’re good at it, brilliant. School exams aren’t what’s needed for every job. I bet you’ve had to work so hard to do what you do.’
‘Well,’ Sally shrugged, ‘I have done all my vet nurse training, and learned to type properly. My mum was shocked when I did a book keeping course as well. But I sometimes wish I was more like you.’
‘Me?’ Lucy choked on her wine again. ‘Wiping snotty noses and explaining why it’s not acceptable to pull the legs off spiders?’
‘No, oh no, I couldn’t teach. I mean, do something different. I tried to leave Langtry Meadows and failed miserably.’
‘Where did you go?’
Lucy actually looked interested. The first person who ever had. Her dad had just said ‘now what would you want to do that for?’ when she’d told her parents she’d applied for a job twenty miles away, and her mum had said ‘I’ll miss you so much, are you sure you really want to do it, darling? It just won’t be the same there, town people are different, they don’t even stop and say hello, don’t have time. Who will you talk to? You won’t have any friends.’ As though she’d told her she was moving to Outer Mongolia, or outer space.
‘I saw this job advertised at a veterinary hospital, you know the whole bigger, more challenging thing, but it was awful.’ She’d failed, had to hand in her notice and come running home.
‘Awful?’ Lucy prompted.
‘They were just so demanding, I was expected to work these really strange shifts and they were always asking me to do cover for people who were off. You could end up working nearly two weeks without a day off if you said yes, and if you said no,’ she sighed, ‘I did say no once or twice and it seemed fine, just a bit awkward. Then, I had my three month review and the buggers said they were going to extend my probationary period.’
‘But they can’t do that! You were doing your job properly weren’t you?’
‘I was, but Dad was ill and Mum doesn’t drive so I needed time to come home to see them, and ferry him to hospital, so I couldn’t work every day even if I’d wanted to.’
‘But they must have understood?’
‘Not that you could tell. I did love the job. There were all kinds of interesting cases because people got referred there. But they were so unfriendly. It was a real them and us thing, and the pay was rubbish as well. So, I wimped out and told them where to stick their shitty job. If you’ll pardon the language.’
‘They didn’t deserve you. If you ask me you had a lucky escape.’
‘I’m destined to be here forever and marry a farmer.’
Lucy’s eyes were positively twinkling. ‘And did you have any particular farmer in mind?’
‘Well now you mention it…’ Oh God, she was losing it, she had never ever told anybody about her crush on James Harwood. But since her return to Langtry Meadows she’d had a growing feeling that she really had to do something with her life – she had to speak out, be a bit more positive. It was easy at work. She had no problem at all telling the clients what she thought. But telling James how she felt? That was different altogether. What if he laughed? Well, he wouldn’t laugh, he was far too nice. No, he might feel sorry for her, and that really would be the pits.
But Lucy seemed lovely, and kind, and non-judgemental.
‘Go on, you can’t leave me hanging. I need more!’
‘Well, it’s Matt’s brother, Jamie.’
‘Matt?’ Lucy frowned. ‘The one with the bald dog?’
‘He’s not at all like Matt. And he’s got two lovely whippets.’
‘Two lovely whippets?’ Lucy giggled, and looked younger. Like she was finally relaxing. ‘Is that a euphemism?’
‘Sorry no, although it might be.’ She’d been thinking about Jamie for years, and every bit of him was lovely, including his whippets. ‘It’s a bad habit associating people with animals, part and parcel of the job! The thing is though, about that crap job I had, it made me thi
nk it might not be so bad here after all. I mean I would like to do a bit more with my life before I turn into a wrinkly, but people do care. Well actually they care too much, there is so much gossip, but at least they do look out for you, and Charlie is great to work for.’
‘He is?’ Lucy looked genuinely surprised. ‘He always seems a bit, well, grumpy and er, stern. He looks at me like I’m asking him to leap off a cliff, not talk to a few kids.’
Sally shrugged. ‘I don’t know what his problem is about the kids, but he is fine. Quite a few of the women hassle him, it’s not often we get a sexy new man.’
‘Sexy?’ Lucy had an eyebrow arched.
‘Oh come on, you have to admit he’s sexy, a bit geeky maybe. But he is hot, even though I prefer somebody a bit chunkier.’
‘Well, okay, he’s nice enough.’
‘Nice enough?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, very nice. But he’s not keen on me at all.’
‘Oh I wouldn’t say that.’ Sally giggled and watched as colour tinged Lucy’s cheekbones. ‘He’s a bit fussy about how stuff is done, but he’s kind and considerate, and generous.’
‘Generous?’ Lucy spluttered into her glass. ‘If you say so. He obviously hasn’t shown that side of himself to me yet. He kicked up such a fuss when I parked the van across the driveway. But,’ she paused, ‘he did apologise for being a bit bad tempered.’
‘See. He’s nice.’ Sally could see Lucy’s brain working overtime.
She poured a generous measure of wine into the glasses. ‘And he did let us practise in the car park. So,’ she stared at Sally, ‘it’s just me trying to get him into school that’s the problem?’
‘Maybe.’ Sally hadn’t got a clue, but she was pretty sure that Charlie didn’t dislike Lucy at all. In fact from where she was standing, it looked quite the opposite. ‘He’s like you, another hotshot. Local boy made good. He managed to escape this place once, although it’s a shame he won’t come back for good. His dad wanted him to and,’ she grinned, ‘he’s very easy on the eye wouldn’t you say?’
Lucy went pink again, and didn’t give her a straight answer. ‘I’m not a hotshot, and I can’t say I’ve made good, but I did enjoy teaching where I was. I told myself I’d be able to get back to my home soon.’
Summer with the Country Village Vet Page 11
