Although Lancashire borders The Lake District, the countryside here is slightly softer than the ruggedness of The Lakes. The hills are more rounded, yet it still displays similarities with the miles of stone walls separating the fields. James has told me that he spent hours scaling the hills in his youth and I can imagine him up in these hills now that I’ve seen them.
As we near, I try to remember what James has told me about his family during our lengthy Sunday walks with Jack. His mum, Elizabeth (like me) works part-time writing for a Lancashire magazine, whilst looking after a rapidly growing menagerie of various animals. Apparently there’s always a new animal which has established its home here each time James calls. His dad, John, is retired now, but like James, is always outdoors walking or climbing. James’ sister, Rachel is a free-lance journalist and lives in London, but is visiting for Christmas.
Eventually we arrive at the brow of a hill and James points to his family home–a large stone cottage that fits neatly into the stone walls surrounding it and set in what appears to be a few acres of land. On approaching, I notice various animals wandering around the garden, seemingly happy despite the bitterly cold December weather. The cottage has a similar appearance to James’ and I wonder if it he bought it for that reason. I’ll ask him later, because right now the door has swung open and a lady, who must be James’ mum, is standing there smiling at us. She has her own eccentric dress sense – similar to Ruth’s. “Come in out of the cold – Lizzie, lovely to finally meet you. James, you look tired – have you been working too hard?” she rattles on without pausing for any response from us and we follow her into the warm glow of the house.
As we take our coats off in the large entrance hall full of various boots, wax jackets, hats and other walking attire, she updates James on her latest animal–a pheasant. Whilst they chat, I am distracted by a soft tickling on my ear, which I brush off until I feeling a feather. It’s still tickling me, so I flick it off me again, but this time feeling a hard, scratchy claw. To my horror, I turn around to find that I am face to face with a dead pheasant hanging from the ceiling giving me an indignant glare. Well, I’m sorry, but my initial response was not cool – particularly my high pitched shrieking, followed by my leap into James’ arms. Realising the pheasant she was talking about is not her latest pet, but this dead one, I feel a little silly and have not given his family the most sophisticated impression. “Goodness I am sorry, Lizzie. John was supposed to move it earlier. It’s from the farmer next door. You see – he brings us a pheasant every Christmas – a sort of tradition,” Elizabeth responds quickly to my fear of the dead bird. Feeling a little ridiculous, yet repulsed by its ugly appearance at the same time, I bravely smile as if I regularly find dead pheasants hanging from ceilings.
James’ dad, having heard my scream, arrives and quickly removes the dead pheasant whilst muttering apologies and hellos at the same time. James’ mum ushers us into the warm, cosy living room, obviously wanting to relieve my discomfort. Rachel is sitting by the huge open fire with its glowing, spectacular flames flashing delicately, causing shadows to flicker across the room. She is very beautiful and has thick dark curls, just like James’. Cringing slightly in case she knows about my flouncing off to The Lakes episode, I smile nervously, but she responds with a wide smile herself and hugs me, so I instantly start to relax.
The house is very homely, having a worn and well used appearance, but I always love houses that appear lived in as it makes them easier to relax in. When sitting down on the massive, squishy sofa, James plonks the bags full of presents onto the floor, accidentally tipping one of them over and spewing their contents. James has obviously picked up one of my bags by mistake – let me explain. Having loved the hand-made soaps that I bought in Grasmere last time I was there, I decided to get lots more on this visit – enough to last me a long, long time. I have a weird obsession about home-made soaps and have possibly purchased about 30 of them. They are now currently all over the floor, pretty much taking over the whole rug. “Why have you brought so many soaps, James?” asks his mum a little confused.
“I’ve not. Are these yours Lizzie?” James asks, whilst I ponder whether to pretend I know nothing about them, but knowing full well James is aware of my obsession with beautiful soaps, but perhaps not on this scale.
“Erm, yes, I thought they were so pretty, they’d be a lovely touch to The Tea Cosy’s toilets, so I bought quite a few.” I stammer, but you have to admit – what a fabulous excuse. I wonder why everybody is still staring with such interest at the soaps until I notice a beautifully crafted ivory book which has slid out of the bag as well and this is what now has their attention.
At the top of the front cover, in bold, golden letters, are the words, Wedding Planner. James is looking at me curiously as are the rest of his family and I realise that they think it’s mine. I am being totally honest now – I have never seen it in my life before and have no idea how it got in my bag. “It’s not mine!” I protest at the bemused stares whilst reaching down to pick the book up and study the cover for a name to prove my point. “Honestly I don’t know how it ended up in my bag. I do admit to buying an excessive number of soaps though, but not this.” I wrack my brains trying to work out how on earth this got into my bag. I went into the soap shop with Mum and Tabitha and we did all buy things from the shop. Could it be that we got our bags mixed up and I ended up with this in mine? There’s no way Mum is considering marriage – however, could it be Tabitha’s?
Before I can speculate any more, James, whose expression is a mixture of confusion and fear, says, “It must have got mixed up with somebody else’s shopping.”
“Well it’s a mystery. Perhaps you could call the shop and see if it got mixed up. Anyway tea will be ready soon, so shall we open presents after?” says Elizabeth moving the situation on to other subjects–to my relief. I realise that tea means dinner to me. Although James’ Lancashire accent is no longer as strong as it once was, he still uses Lancashire terms – his dinner is my lunch and his tea is my dinner. I duly follow everybody into the dining room, wondering if James’ mum now thinks I’m some crazy bunny boiler after her precious son – this, with the pheasant incident, is not the best start!
Dinner (or tea) is dished up and tastes delicious, however I keep getting wiffs of a horrendous smell, like a mixture of cat food and bowels after a hot curry. It seems to be coming from James’ dad, but nobody else seems to notice. I decide to ignore it too, not wanting to cause any offense to anybody and trying to make a good impression. Five minutes later, Elizabeth suddenly shouts, “Lizzie–out of the dining room–now!” I am a little shocked at her attitude, but not quite sure if this is a sort of Lancashire tradition or just an over-reaction to the wedding planner incident. But not being one to cause trouble, I slowly started to stand up ready to leave the room. “I do apologise Lizzie, I hadn’t realised she’d sneaked in – bowels like a fish mongers on a hot day, she has. Izzy is fourteen now and it’s got worse as she’s got older. If she sneakily eats the cat’s food, then we all pay the price I’m afraid!”
“Why are you standing up Lizzie?” James asks me as it dawns on me that Izzy is the family dog who farts like there’s no tomorrow and his mum was telling the dog to go out, not me. James starts to grin as he realises what I thought, which then turns to laughter, followed by an explanation to all of his family, followed by more laughter. “I can’t believe you thought my mum was speaking like that to you,” he laughs planting a kiss on the top of my head and I notice his mum and dad’s eyes meet briefly with surprise. If anything, this breaks the ice and I feel much more relaxed as the evening continues.
James’ mum was really interested in The Tea Cosy and has asked if she can visit it when she comes down to see James. I said the next time I see her, I’ll make her favourite cake–Bakewell Tart, which to me implies she has many layers to her personality. She has a strong, solid base, but is deeply soft within, topped off with a sweet but steely ext
erior. Rachel, James’ sister is equally lovely, and they have all agreed to come to the New Year’s Eve party. The disgraced Izzy was allowed back in after the meal and thankfully there were no more smells!
After eating, Rachel and I help James’ mum tidy away, whilst James tells his dad all about the centre and his plans for it. I have been a little curious about how Rachel must be feeling about her husband’s cheating; however, don’t feel that I know her well enough to mention it, but Elizabeth soon starts on the subject while we share the washing up duties. “Well I think you’re better off without him – I never could take to him, always thinking he was a cut above everybody else.”
“I just fell in love with the wrong man and didn’t see his faults, I guess ...” Rachel replies solemnly.
“I’m really sorry to hear about how things turned out – James mentioned you’d been upset.” I add because I feel a little strange just listening.
“I was devastated when I first found out he was seeing somebody else behind my back, but the more I thought about our marriage and how one-sided it was, I realised how unhappy I had been. So in many ways, he’s done me a favour. Anyway Lizzie, it’s lovely to finally meet you – James doesn’t often bring girlfriends home or tell us much about them, although we’ve heard a lot about you,” she smiles closing the subject of her marriage. I am not quite sure which bits he’s told them; hoping that it isn’t the naked frolic.
“Yes we were all slightly amused when he told us how he met you in the woods naked and then when he realised that you were Mark’s sister – just hilarious!” replied Elizabeth as I blushed at the thought of James’ mum knowing about this, but I see Elizabeth is smiling. Remembering my aim with my list and not worrying so much, I allow myself to laugh along with them and tell them how embarrassed I was at first.
Later on, James’ family start to open their presents, a mixture of jumpers, socks, perfume, books and typical Christmas gifts erupt the living room like an explosive volcano. I have always enjoyed watching other people opening presents and have missed it this year as my own family decided not to give gifts with none of us really being in the mood, Dad’s death being so close to Christmas.
Elizabeth surprises me with a gift after everybody else had opened theirs. I was very touched at her efforts because she had obviously listened to James when he had talked about me, but must also have know in advance that I was coming, unlike myself. Her gift is a lovely herb set and a framed poem about the relationship between a daughter and her dad. “I hope you don’t mind my giving you the poem, but somebody gave it to me when I lost my father and well, it was so lovely, I’ve read it nearly every week since he died many years ago.” Elizabeth looks slightly hesitant, as if she is not sure whether this is the right sort of gift for your son’s girlfriend and somebody you’ve only just met. As I read the poem, tears stream down my face with emotion at the beautiful thoughts and words – it’s perfect. “Lizzie, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I shouldn’t have given it to you, but we are all so sorry about your loss and it just helped me when I lost....”
“It’s perfect!” I quickly say to prevent her feeling uncomfortable as the poem is truly meaningful and I can honestly feel how it brings comfort. “Please don’t apologise. I love it. The words are so touching and everything’s still so raw that I cry easily when I think about my dad, but thank you. This is really kind of you,” I reply, wiping my tears on a tissue Elizabeth quickly hands to me.
Several hours later, after hearty goodbyes, James and I head south, back towards his cottage. We chat a little about the evening. “You’re family are lovely, if slightly eccentric!” I say to James.
“Yes they are and you fit in with them Lizzie – you’re slightly eccentric too,” he laughs.
“I can’t believe you told your mum about seeing me in naked the woods!” I say in mock horror.
“Well it’s the truth, and at that point, we weren’t an item. She asked how I’d settled into the area and I replied, ‘Very well, since I’d seen a beautiful, naked woman dancing around a tree during my first week living there.” I can’t help but giggle. As we continue down the M6, I feel my eyes drooping, as slumber gently beckons me...
“Lizzie, we’re home – wake up.” James taps my shoulder, bringing me back to my senses. “I’ll get the bags. Do you want to stick the kettle on – I’m gagging for a brew.”
Sleepily unlocking the door, I walk through the cold house missing the excitable Jack, who is staying with Pete, click the heating and lights on before heading towards the kitchen. Filling the kettle and reaching for mugs, I glance around the room seeing if any cups need washing whilst I wait for the kettle to boil. As I search the room, I notice something new up on the wall near the door. Oh my goodness, it’s the exact same slate heart message board that I saw in Grasmere with James – the one he mocked and said was pointless. What’s more, there’s a message written on the board, which I assume, and hope, is for me.
Move in with me – please!
As I turn, he is standing in door smiling at me. “Arrrrrgh ...” My excitable scream continues for some time.
“I’m glad you’re happy, Lizzie, but I wouldn’t have asked if I’d known you would be so noisy,” he playfully teases. “So–I take it that you are moving in with me?”
“With a heart of slate like yours, I can’t think of anything I’d like more.”
“Yes I thought you’d like it as much as it pained me to actually buy the thing.”
“Well I love it and I love you,” I say moving into his arms for a hug.
“I know you do. And I love you too,” he replies as we start to kiss.
Note to Self
Feel smug – my boyfriend wants me to officially move in. Now I can add a woman’s touch to this cottage (which it badly needs)–I’ve been holding back from doing this for so long; it’s killing me.
Reluctantly save one of my precious soaps to put in the Tea Cosy bathroom, when Elizabeth visits.
Text Tabitha about the Wedding Planning book.
Chapter 24
Moving out and moving in
The following morning, after much love making, James heads down to make breakfast, whilst I laze in bed a little longer. Switching on my phone to see if Tabitha has replied to my texts, I am disappointed that are aren’t any messages from her. Tabitha is usually one of those people who instantly texts you back, as though she is participating in an Olympic speed texting competition. The lack of response is intriguing–perhaps I should call her, then again maybe she is not replying for a specific reason.
James arrives with a tray from which delicious odours are wafting up my nose, enticing my tummy to grumble in response. “James I’ve texted Tabitha to see if she knows anything about the wedding planning book, but she hasn’t replied.”
“That’s not like Tabitha. She normally missile texts–fast, accurate and to the right phone. Maybe she’s busy.”
“Hmmmm, something’s going on. Do you know anything about it?” I ask him.
“No, but I’m sure you’ll find out if there is. Anyway, listen, I have something for you. I know we weren’t buying Christmas presents this year because of your dad and everything, but I did get you something. Think of it as a New Year present rather than Christmas,” James says as he hands me a golden envelope. I can’t deny that I am not slightly disappointed that it isn’t a small box shape, but well, I’m moving in – one step at a time. Butterflies excitedly circle in my tummy as I have no idea what it may be. Quickly tearing open the envelope, I find plane tickets to Vancouver. I stare at James in shock, with my mouth flapping open and closed, whilst I struggle to find appropriate words. “Whale watching – you said it was on your list. I told you I’d like to see them too. I thought we could go together,” James smiles at my surprised response.
“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!” I scream jumping on him, upsetting the tray. “When, how .
..?”
“Well we are going at the beginning of April, so we’ll be back in plenty of time for Kate’s wedding. Don’t worry–I checked the dates with Kate before I booked. April is the start of the whale watching season off the Vancouver coast, so hopefully we’ll see some. We can’t go later because of the wedding and also the centre is fully booked up all summer. I also thought you needed something to look forward to. After all you need to go before your 30th birthday, or you won’t finish your list – will you?”
“I hadn’t thought about that – you’re right. Oh James, thank you so much. This is the best present ever–I love you!”
“I know you do!” he replies as he waltzes out of the room to go and sort out the disordered tray – now in a total mess.
I can’t believe I’m actually going whale watching! I must phone Kate. James returns with a clean tray and seeing me deep in conversation with Kate, leaves it on the bed, disappearing downstairs, knowing that I’m likely to be some time.
Chatting with Kate, I tell her about meeting James’ parents and the slate heart message, asking me to move in, which Kate is thrilled about. We also discuss the New Year’s Eve party and Kate, as usual, comes up with loads of creative ideas and offers her help. “It’s lovely to hear a happy tone to your voice Lizzie,” Kate says recognising that I am no longer in the same deep gloom following the sudden shock of loosing Dad.
“Well I can’t pretend that I don’t feel an immense sadness a lot of the time, but now that we have laid Dad to rest, I feel some sort of closure. The pain is still there, but I can enjoy his memory, even if I still get emotional when I think about him. I do genuinely feel excited about the party and whale watching. Life goes on and dad would want me to make the most of it. He would want me to make the most of opportunities to see and do things and not put them off like he did with his desire to visit the Lakes.”
Lizzie's List Page 17
