Summer At Skylark Farm

by Heidi Swain

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Annie, passing around more chips, ‘makes him sound like a proper little rock star!’

  Whether it was because I hadn’t been to a funfair for such a long time or whether it was down to all the other excitement of the day I couldn’t be sure, but the evening at the fairground was the best night out I’d had in years.

  The entire experience was a full-on, fabulous assault on the senses and we were bombarded with music, madly flickering bulbs of every colour and the smell of hot dogs and candy floss, toffee apples and fried onions. I watched on, enraptured, as local children ran madly between the rides screeching and carelessly throwing toxic filled neon glow-sticks high in the air, oblivious to the warning cries of their parents.

  ‘What shall we go on first?’ Harriet shouted above the din, rubbing her hands together.

  ‘Whatever’s loudest and fastest!’ I yelled back. ‘I could do with a good scare!’

  We lurched dizzily from ride to ride, meeting up with some of Jake’s other friends from the town and a few of Jessica’s colleagues from the riding stables. As the evening wore on we became increasingly breathless and raucous, our aching bellies filled with every sickly and unsavoury treat we could lay our hands on.

  ‘I can’t eat anything else,’ I pouted as Harriet handed me a red sticky dummy the size of my hand. ‘If I eat one more thing I swear I’m going to throw up!’

  By half past ten the fair was winding down; ever mindful of the licence the council inspector had issued the day before, Luca wasn’t prepared to push his luck and stuck rigidly to the hours he was allowed to run the rides and sell his wares. Everything would be in full swing until midnight after the May Fair, but the way I was feeling after all the excitement the day had thrown up, I was grateful that the fun on Saturday was capped to a more reasonable hour.

  The families had long gone and only the gangs of local teens, usually bored witless by life in a small town, remained along with Jessica, Harriet and me as we searched in vain to find Jake and Henry. I knew they’d been watching us when we strapped ourselves on to the Eliminator, but I’d been so dizzy when we spilled off it that I hadn’t noticed they had slipped away.

  ‘I bet they’ve gone to check on Pip again,’ said Jessica sensibly. ‘Don’t worry, Amber, we’ll walk you back to the house. Our car is in the yard anyway.’

  We were just about to set off when we noticed, tucked away in the furthermost corner of the field, close to the caravans, a small tent standing alone with practically no illumination or hint of ostentation, unlike everything else.

  ‘What’s that?’ I said, nodding my head in the direction of the tent as I tried in vain to painfully pull the last bite of candy floss out of my hair.

  ‘Aha!’ Harriet grinned. ‘This’ll be a laugh! Don’t you agree, Jess?’

  ‘Oh yes!’ Jessica squealed, dumping her sticky dummy in the nearest bin and linking arms with me.

  Frogmarched would be the best way to describe my brisk walk towards the tent, which was, I discovered, the domain of the much revered fortune teller, Rose.

  ‘Have you got any silver?’ Harriet whispered.

  ‘What?’

  ‘To cross her palm with!’ she urged.

  ‘I don’t think it works like that in real life!’ I giggled, conscious of violating the subdued aura that seemed to pulsate from and around the little tent.

  ‘Please, come, sit.’

  The three of us, shamed into silence, entered the incense scented, dimly lit confines. Suddenly the noises of the fair winding down were barely audible and the lights and music from earlier quickly forgotten.

  ‘Just you,’ said the woman, pointing at me with a bony clawlike finger, ‘you two wait outside.’

  Before I could make a grab for them Harriet and Jessica slipped back outside.

  ‘Sit.’

  I sat.

  ‘Let me see your face.’

  I looked up at the covered head of the woman. Her face was almost impossible to make out and her body was draped in layers of sequin-edged shawls in spite of the oppressive heat. The smoke from the incense was thick and heady. It stung my eyes and throat.

  ‘What is it you want?’ she asked me.

  Part of me wanted to run straight out of the tent, but the other part kept my bottom firmly attached to the chair. After all, what harm could possibly come from playing along? I thought carefully for a few seconds before giving her the most honest answer I could think of.

  ‘To live here,’ I said eventually, ‘at Skylark Farm. And to be happy.’

  ‘But you aren’t from here. You have only just moved here.’

  ‘That’s true,’ I said. I wasn’t at all suspicious that she already knew this. Doubtless Luca had told her who I was. ‘But I already love it and I love Jake and Annie and I want to make a new life for myself here.’

  I’d expected her to tell me that all would be well, that my wish was granted, but her demeanour, or what I could make of it, appeared decidedly doubtful.

  ‘I see problems ahead,’ she said slowly, ‘and arguments. Things are not going to go smoothly for you but you don’t know why yet. Someone is keeping secrets from you.’

  I swallowed hard and tried to dismiss her pronouncement, but her words struck an answering chord in my heart. I did feel there were things I didn’t know about Jake and the life he had lived at the farm before I arrived, but that was only to be expected. He’d spent the best part of his life associated with this place whereas I had only been here a few weeks. There were bound to be things I would probably never know.

  The woman stared at me intently and I quickly looked back down at the table.

  ‘I see the prospect of sunshine on your horizon,’ she said languorously with her eyes half closed, as if she herself was dreaming of far off places, ‘and intense heat, but only if you choose it.’

  I pushed back my chair and pulled the last of my change out of my jeans pocket. I didn’t want to hear any more.

  ‘But don’t forget,’ she said triumphantly as I turned to walk out and she scooped up the change, ‘you yourself are both the deceiver and the deceived.’

  Chapter 19

  I was surprised to find Jake was already in bed when I got back to the house. I’d somehow managed to fob Jessica and Harriet off with some nonsense about living a ‘happy ever after’ from fortune teller Rose and was mulling over exactly what she might have meant about people keeping secrets from me and whether or not I was suspicious enough to believe that there was anything of value in her prediction.

  ‘Are you all right?’ I whispered as I slipped into bed, determinedly claiming the tiny space next to Jake left for me by the dogs. ‘I was worried about you,’ I said, nuzzling up behind him.

  ‘I’m fine,’ he said.

  I couldn’t work out if he sounded genuinely sleepy or more like he was coming down with a cold.

  ‘I just wanted to check on Pip and Blaze,’ he eventually added.

  ‘But why didn’t you come back?’ I asked. ‘I missed you.’

  ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, ‘I thought you were having fun with Jess and Harriet and decided to leave you to it. I hope that was all right?’

  ‘Fair enough,’ I yawned, moving even closer and slipping my hand around his waist, ‘and were they OK?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Pip and Blaze of course, they weren’t upset by all the noise and commotion, were they?’

  ‘No,’ he whispered, finally turning over and pulling me into his arms, ‘they were fine, absolutely fine. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of you, Amber.’

  I felt myself blush in the darkness.

  ‘I never thought I’d see you doing anything like you’ve done today,’ Jake continued.

  ‘Me neither,’ I admitted.

  I wasn’t altogether sure if I was offended by his remark or quite certain of what he meant by it. However, assisting a mare in labour was hardly in the same league as waiting for a few eggs to hatch so I guessed I could let him of
f. If anyone had told me, even just a few weeks ago, what I was going to find myself doing that morning I never would have believed them either.

  ‘By the way,’ I said, having decided not to look for any deeper and probably unintentional meaning behind his words, ‘you were right about the eggs. When I went to check them this morning all four had hatched. I meant to tell you before, but with Pip stealing the limelight I forgot all about the dear little things!’

  ‘I think that’s allowed,’ Jake chuckled, kissing my hair.

  ‘I expect they’ll be up and about tomorrow,’ I said, yawning again. ‘I’ll go and have a look at them first thing. I’ve had enough for today. I’m dead beat.’

  ‘I know,’ Jake agreed, ‘it has been something of an “in at the deep end” kind of day, hasn’t it?’

  ‘Just a bit,’ I muttered, while mentally ticking off the hundred or so things from my to-do list. ‘Oh God!’ I shouted, suddenly sitting bolt upright and making the dogs jump. ‘I forgot the bloody cake!’

  ‘What cake?’ said Jake, trying to pull me back down beside him.

  ‘My cake for the show tomorrow,’ I sobbed, ‘I’m supposed to be entering a Victoria sponge!’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about that,’ Jake said, trying to placate me, but actually making the situation even worse. ‘That’s one of the fiercest classes there is. Believe me, you’re better off out of it.’

  ‘Don’t you think I can do it?’ I frowned, pulling further away from him and feeling wide awake again. ‘Are you afraid I’m going to show you up?’

  ‘Of course I’m not. For goodness’ sake, Amber, that isn’t what I meant at all!’

  ‘What did you mean then?’

  ‘Look,’ he sighed, ‘you’re going to be under enough scrutiny tomorrow as it is and I just thought you could do without any extra pressure. Given all the trouble you’ve gone to I want you to enjoy tomorrow, not be worrying about what people think of your baking skills.’

  ‘What pressure?’ I laughed. ‘What people? No one’s going to be the slightest bit interested in me . . .’

  My words trailed off as I began to imagine the car park filling up and hundreds of people descending on the meadow and all wondering who exactly was responsible for the fiasco that all of a sudden I was convinced the entire day was going to be.

  ‘Everyone will be interested,’ said Jake significantly and consequently cranking my paranoia up another notch. ‘Everyone knows the suggestion to have the May Fair here was initially your idea and naturally they’ll all want to see what sort of job you’ve made of it.’

  Inwardly I felt my insides squirm and I groaned at the thought. In the city I knew what I was doing. I knew the right things to say and the right clothes to wear, but I hadn’t been here long enough to have fathomed any of that out. What if I gave off the wrong kind of image, teamed the wrong shirt with the wrong shoes? I knew my new friends wouldn’t be bothered about all that, but what about all the locals who were looking forward to their annual get-together? What if I failed them, and not just in my choice of outfit? What if my efforts simply weren’t good enough? I’d never live it down.

  ‘Believe me,’ Jake continued, clearly oblivious to the fact that he’d already said more than enough, ‘there’ll be dozens of people to meet. Everyone is going to want to catch a glimpse of the girl who’s been stirring things up on the farm.’

  His tone was light, but I knew that in truth I was most likely going to be the talk of the town, or the show anyway.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Jake hissed as I swung my legs out of bed and made a beeline for the door.

  ‘To make this damn cake,’ I whispered back. ‘It won’t bake itself, will it?’

  In the end, May Fair day didn’t begin quite as I had expected it to. In my rose tinted, unrealistically idyllic vision, I had fantasised that I would wake from an uninterrupted night’s sleep, throw on a vintage floral print frock and skip down to the field in the sunshine. I’d charm everyone with my easy manner and kind words and then drift away leaving a rose scented haze in my wake.

  Unfortunately the reality couldn’t have been any further from what I’d spent the last month dreaming about. The first thing I was aware of was a crippling pain in my neck, a damp patch on my cheek and freezing cold ankles.

  ‘Have you heard?’ I heard someone shouting.

  I thought it sounded like Harriet, but what would she be doing in the bedroom and at such a godforsaken hour?

  ‘Have you heard who’s back?’ came the voice again, which this time I could definitely identify as belonging to Harriet and sounding much closer than before. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

  Suddenly it all came flooding back to me and self-consciously I wiped the dribble on my dressing gown sleeve and tentatively levered myself into a sitting position.

  ‘Have you been there all night?’

  ‘Not quite,’ I croaked, quickly scanning a note Jake had left at my side explaining that he’d had to go out early and that he didn’t like to disturb me. ‘When I got to bed last night,’ I elaborated for Harriet’s benefit, ‘I remembered I hadn’t made my cake.’

  ‘Don’t tell me it’s taken you all night to bake a Victoria bloody sponge?’ she smirked, filling the kettle and placing it on the range.

  ‘No,’ I said testily, ‘it has not taken me all night to bake a “Victoria bloody sponge” as you so elegantly put it. It’s taken me all night to bake seven.’

  ‘Seven!’

  ‘They kept going wrong,’ I said defensively, shooting her a glance to warn her off taking the mickey, ‘and by the time I’d managed one I was happy with I simply didn’t have the energy to crawl back up the stairs to bed so I sat down here for a few seconds and, well, you can guess the rest.’

  I stretched my aching back and tried to rub some feeling back into the sorest spot on my neck.

  ‘So where is this masterpiece?’ asked Harriet as she looked around.

  ‘They’re all in the pantry,’ I told her. ‘You can help me assemble it in a bit. I still haven’t completely made up my mind which is the best, to be honest. Anyway, never mind my cake, and not that you aren’t welcome, Harriet, but why exactly are you here?’ I yawned. ‘And more importantly who is back from where?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You were yelling about someone being back,’ I reminded her as I caught sight of Jake pulling into the yard in the truck.

  ‘Never mind,’ said Harriet, rushing for the door, ‘I’ll help you in a bit.’

  In the end I got on with making a pot of tea myself and, in the absence of any help, I selected the two sponges I considered most capable of showing off my baking skills at their best and holding their own amongst the Wynbridge WI et al. According to Annie the ladies from the WI alone had over seven hundred years’ combined experience and therefore centuries more expertise than me. As I slipped the cake inside Annie’s prettiest tin I tried not to think about what I was letting myself in for or remind myself that the whole fair debacle had been all my idea.

  With practically no time left I drained my cup, retied my dressing gown and pulled on my wellies to go and check on Patricia and the chicks. I could see Jake and Harriet down at Pip’s stable and although I couldn’t hear what they were saying, judging by the head shaking, gesticulating and arm waving, I could tell it was none too friendly. The scene came as something of a shock. Jake and Harriet’s relationship had always seemed perfectly amicable to me. My mind drifted back to Rose the fortune teller and her timely mention of secrets and deceit.

  I shook off my creeping suspicions and got on with my chores. I let Mabel and Martha out at the front of their house before slipping in the door at the back to see how things were progressing in the nursery wing. To my surprise Patricia was up and about and she looked much like any other new mum to me – worn out and a little unkempt – but when I peeped inside the box I could understand why she had been sitting tight. The four little chicks were no longer loose necked and bedraggled; now they looked
like they had had a sharp blast under a hairdryer.

  I smiled to myself as I watched three of them exploring the straw and cheeping to one another. The fourth was sitting quietly but I guessed that the effort of hatching was more than gargantuan for such a tiny little thing and therefore it deserved a rest. It was hard to believe that just a couple of days before they were all still firmly ensconced in their eggs.

  ‘Amber?’

  ‘I’m in here,’ I said, poking my head back out of the door so Jake could see me and I didn’t have to shout. ‘Come and see.’

  Jake joined me in the henhouse and quietly re-closed the door behind him.

  ‘Oh wow,’ he grinned, giving me a hug. ‘Well done you!’

  ‘Nothing to do with me,’ I laughed. ‘It’s Patricia you should be congratulating.’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ said Jake, looking around him. ‘I’ve never seen this place so spic and span, inside and out.’

  I shrugged my shoulders to indicate that it was nothing, but actually it was and I was delighted that Jake had noticed all the trouble I’d gone to. It had taken me more hours than I cared to add up to transform the place to its current smart state and it was now finally beginning to look something like the henhouses I’d coveted in the magazines I had poured over in the run up to our move.

  ‘I’ll go and get some chick crumbs ready in a minute,’ said Jake, carefully picking up the quietest ball of fluff and examining it. ‘What with the fair and everything we might not get to check on these little guys again today, but they’ll be OK. Can you do the water?’

  ‘Of course,’ I nodded, as he returned the tiny bundle to its warm, straw bed.

  ‘Um,’ he said, giving it a final stroke as it snuggled back down and made no attempt to join the other three.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘I think we might need to keep an eye on this one,’ he said seriously, ‘probably nothing to worry about. Could just be a slow starter, but I’d like to see it up and about a bit more by now.’

  ‘I thought it was just tired out from the effort of hatching,’ I whispered, staring at it intently and willing it to jump up and start cheeping.