Читать книгу Creature Comforts - Trisha Ashley - Страница 13

I walked down to the Hut early for Lulu’s Halfhidden Regeneration Scheme meeting, but Rita and Freddie Tompion, who ran a clock repair shop in the village, were already there, carrying out stacks of tubular metal and canvas chairs from the curtained-off storage area and arranging them in neat rows.

It looked like they were expecting a full house.

From the tiny church of St Mary’s next door, the strains of a small organ playing ‘Nearer, my God, to Thee’ wafted across. Jonas was giving the pedals some welly. Now he’d moved in with his daughter, Lottie, he was practically next door, so I expected he often popped in to practise. He played for the monthly service when the new young Middlemoss vicar came over, too.

It was lovely to see Lulu again and give her a big hug – and even better that already she looked subtly different from the last time we’d met, when she was still firmly under the thumb of the increasingly jealous and controlling Guy. Cam and I had been so worried about her.

She hadn’t yet entirely lost the slight look of apprehension, but she was no longer quite so worryingly skinny and the blue shadows had gone from under her eyes. She’d always been the confident, gregarious, lively one of the three of us, till Guy got his hands on her, so now we’d just have to help her get some zippity back into her doo-dah.

She returned the hug, looking both pleased and relieved to see me. ‘Thank goodness you’re here!’

‘You said to come early, but it doesn’t look like you need me except for support, because you’re very well organised.’

She had a flip chart, a blown-up wall map of the whole valley, with numbered stickers all over it, and a stack of printed leaflets. She also carried a fat notebook and had a pencil stuck in the thick dark curls behind one ear.

‘Outwardly, perhaps, but inside I’m petrified!’ she confessed.

‘It’ll be fine,’ I assured her. ‘Come on, I’ve got some pecan biscuits here from Judy, for refreshment time, so let’s add them to the supplies.’

There wasn’t a kitchen as such because the Hut was too small, but tea, coffee, milk and a kettle were arranged by the small sink in the curtained-off storage alcove, along with a stack of paper cups and plates. There was a biscuit tin there already.

‘Myra’s bringing one of her famous marmalade cakes and Bruce’s latest batch of madeleines are in that tin,’ she said, following me over. ‘He says he’s perfected them now, but he’s had so many attempts lately, we’re all completely sick of them.’

Her brother was an excellent chef and since he and his wife, Kate, took over the restaurant side of the Screaming Skull, I’d heard it had gained quite a reputation for good food. When I said so, Lulu sighed.

‘He and Kate have really made a success of it and Mum and Dad could manage the hotel and pub side of things in their sleep, so I know they only gave me the Haunted Weekend breaks to give me something to do. I really feel I’ve got to make my own mark by expanding the holiday bookings.’

‘Well, that’s what tonight’s all about, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, and that’s what’s making me nervous, because maybe I’m being too ambitious in trying to involve everyone else. And you do look lovely, by the way,’ she added enviously. ‘Is that dress made of sari material?’

‘Yes, do you like it?’ I gave a twirl. ‘My own design, and it’s going to feature in my first collection, with a matching quilted patchwork jacket.’

‘It wouldn’t suit me, now I’m so skinny.’

She’d always had more curves than I, so it was odd that now I was the one with a modest figure, though if Bruce kept feeding her up with madeleines, she could soon overtake me again.

‘I’m sure it would look good on you because I’ve draped it sari-style and saris suit every size and shape. But I’ll design something especially for you one of these days, and then you can model the prototype for the online catalogue. Meanwhile, here’s a little something I brought you back.’

I gave her an amber silk scarf, which was a colour that really suited her, and a pair of silver and citrine earrings. She put them on straight away and draped the scarf around her neck so the two ends drifted behind her as she walked. It looked a little incongruous with her plain white T-shirt and jeans, but then, I liked incongruity. The clothes I was designing might be inspired by my collection of vintage Indian cotton garments from the seventies, but there was also more than a hint of classical Greek drapery and other influences thrown into the mix.

‘I’ve had an eventful afternoon,’ I told her, after the Tompions, having decided we might need yet more chairs, had gone to raid the stack kept in the church vestry. By then, Jonas had switched seamlessly to ‘Jerusalem’, by way of ‘Lead, kindly Light’.

‘I went down to the Spring for a dip just after lunch and had a run-in with Dan Clew on the way, which I’ll tell you all about later. But then I had another – with Rufus Carlyle!’

‘Who?’ she said absently. She was now riffling through her notebook, her mind obviously elsewhere.

‘The new owner of Sweetwell! You know, the missing heir who popped up just in time to scoop the jackpot when Baz had the heart attack?’

‘Oh, right.’ She looked up and focused. ‘Is he living in Sweetwell now, then? I knew he was moving his business here from Devon because there’s a garden antiques sign over the gateway, but if I’d known he’d be around, I’d have invited him to the meeting.’

‘Judy said Myra wasn’t expecting him till tomorrow, so running into him earlier was a bit of a shock … especially when I wasn’t wearing any clothes.’

‘What?’ she said, giving me her full attention at last.

‘Remember when we both bought white bikinis, for that holiday in Greece with your parents?’

She nodded. ‘I still have mine somewhere, but I don’t know why, because I haven’t been that plump for a good ten years and it would just drop off me.’

‘I have the opposite problem, because I’ve definitely got much more hip and boob than I used to. Anyway, I couldn’t find my old cossie and I haven’t unpacked my bags yet, so I grabbed the bikini instead. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be around at that time of day, not even Tom, but once I realised how tight the bikini was I double-checked that the clearing was deserted before I left the changing hut.’

I gave her a graphic description of my ‘rescue’.

‘There wasn’t a soul about when I got into the water and I was floating there feeling soothed and quite happy, considering I’d not only just broken up with the love of my life but also had an encounter with the ghastly Dan … Then suddenly, a total stranger had me draped over one arm and was thumping me on the back, before tossing me out onto the side of the pool like a drowned rabbit.’

Lulu giggled and I gave her a look, before reluctantly grinning myself.

‘OK, I suppose it was quite funny, in retrospect. But at the time it wasn’t, and when I’d finished coughing up all the water I’d inhaled when he grabbed me and got my first real look at him … well, it was a bit of a shock, because for a second I thought he was Harry.’

‘Why, is he so like him?’

‘Not really, it was just a momentary impression, though he does have the exact same green eyes as Harry and Baz did, and his hair is that really dark chestnut shade when it started to dry out a bit.’

‘It’s hardly surprising that Baz passed his colouring down to both sons, is it? Is he nice?’

‘No. I think if he’d known who I was before he rescued me, he’d have let me sink instead,’ I said morosely. ‘Dan told him I’d killed his half-brother while drink-driving and of course he lapped it up.’

‘I don’t know what Dan’s problem is,’ Lulu said indignantly. ‘He seems to have a down not just on Debo, but you and Judy too.’

‘Hell hath no fury like a gardener scorned,’ I said.

She went back to staring at her notes. ‘I’d have invited this Rufus man to the meeting anyway, if I’d known he’d moved in. What does he look like, apart from the green eyes, in case I see him about?’

‘Big, broad shoulders, angular sort of face with a cleft chin and a proper Roman nose. He seemed naturally sarcastic and bad-tempered – and he said I looked like a damp pixie, which didn’t exactly help to endear him to me.’

‘But everyone did call you Pixie Ears at school,’ she reminded me, grinning.

‘That was quite a long time ago, Bendy Benbow,’ I said pointedly, and she winced. ‘Those days are long behind us, and anyway, I can’t help it if my ears are a bit pointy and I’m small, can I?’

‘I expect he thought you looked cute.’

‘I hope not,’ I said, revolted, because being small and looking years younger than my age meant I’d spent all my adult working life striving to be taken seriously. ‘And he didn’t seem to like me even before he found out who I was. What’s more, he’s got Debo worried that he’ll want her to move all the new kennels off his land.’

‘Do you think he will?’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised. At the moment she’s managed to convince herself he won’t, but you know what Debo’s like, she can swing from unfounded optimism to the depths of despair in minutes … and I’ve got so much to tell you, but the rest will have to wait till we can have a good catch-up when we won’t be interrupted.

Perhaps Cameron could join us, too,’ she said.

‘Ah, yes – you and Cam,’ I said meaningfully. ‘Just what happened between you two on the way back from France?’

‘Nothing – it was only that I needed comfort and—’ she broke off, going slightly pink. ‘Really, it was nothing, Izzy, and I don’t want anything to change the friendship between the three of us. Cam understands that. He’ll be here tonight, but he’s got an art class first, so he’ll be very late.’

‘All right, I won’t mention it again,’ I said, ‘though I’m sure the three of us would always be best friends, whatever happened.’

‘Any word from Kieran yet?’ she asked, changing the subject firmly.

‘Nothing, just that one nasty message after his father was arrested, then silence.’

‘By now I thought he’d have seen your point of view and be texting you apologies every five minutes.’

‘Yes, so did I, really,’ I admitted.

‘He’ll come round,’ she said. ‘Only if he does, I really don’t want you to leave Halfhidden, just when the three of us are back together again.’

‘That’s OK, because I’m not going anywhere,’ I assured her. ‘I must be mega-fickle, because I seem to have fallen right out of love with him again – and I’m sure now he was a wrong turn up a dead end, and actually I was supposed to come back and live here on my own.’

‘An angel voice told you so?’ she said, half joking.

‘Something like that, though I never actually hear a voice, you know – I just get a sort of inner feeling that something is right or wrong.’

‘I wish I’d had any kind of message, angel or otherwise, warning me not to go and live in France with Guy,’ Lulu said with some bitterness.

‘You probably did, you just weren’t listening to it. Or like me with Kieran, you only heard what you wanted to.’

‘Or the ding on the head made you mad as a box of frogs, so there aren’t really any angel voices at all.’

‘There is that,’ I conceded.

‘Maybe Kieran will follow you up here, you’ll go weak at the knees again and the voice will tell you to marry him and live happily ever after in Halfhidden.’

‘I don’t know how I would feel if I actually saw him again,’ I confessed honestly. ‘I have wondered if I’d feel differently. But that whole scenario is probably not going to happen anyway, especially once he knows I’m definitely using what’s left of my legacy to bail Debo out of her current financial crisis, because oddly enough, both he and his dreadful parents were banking on it for a house deposit.’

‘Then they shouldn’t have counted their chickens before they were hatched, should they? And here are Rita and Freddie with more chairs. Come on, we’ll help put them out.’

We managed to squeeze them all in, though I hoped everyone was feeling friendly tonight, because the rows were tight. On each seat we laid a copy of a leaflet grandly entitled ‘The Halfhidden Regeneration Scheme: A Plan to Bring Prosperity to the Whole Valley, by Increased Visitor Numbers’.

People began to arrive, first clustering curiously around the wall map, before finding a seat, though some came over to say hello and how glad they were to see me back again.

More and more shuffled in until the room was so full that the heat was getting a bit Black Hole of Calcutta and the doors had to be opened.

Everyone seemed to be there – or everyone in Halfhidden who mattered, for the local families were out in force, including Tom Tamblyn, his sisters, Lottie Ross from the shop, and Myra, the Sweetwell housekeeper, along with her husband, Laurie, and their son, Olly. Then there were the Ferrises – Cara’s parents, the local vets – and of course, the Tompions. It’s always a surprise to me that though there has been much intermarriage between the local clans over the centuries, the tall, flaxen-fair, blue-eyed Tamblyn genes and the stockier, dark, brown-eyed Benbow ones continually reappear.

‘It’s a pity your parents couldn’t make it,’ I said to Lulu. ‘I know the restaurant is open tonight, so Bruce and Kate can’t.’

‘I think I’d rather they weren’t here, actually, because they know all about my plans and they think I’m mad.’

‘The jury’s still out on that till the rest of us have heard what they are,’ I told her. ‘Go on and do you stuff – it looks like everyone’s here that’s coming and it’s time.’

‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said, hands clenched so tightly on her notebook that her knuckles were white.

‘You’ll be fine,’ I assured her, then went and sat in the front row next to Judy and Debo, who’d been saving me a seat. Judy pointed out some newcomers nearby, who were actors in the Cotton Common period soap drama they shot locally.

‘Only minor characters, though, because all the big names seem to have bought places around Middlemoss,’ she whispered. ‘They’ve stayed longer than we thought they would, too, since they made it through the winter without putting the “For Sale” notices up.’

There was a bit of a stir as one or two latecomers arrived and slipped into the back row, and when I turned round for a quick peek, I spotted a familiar dark chestnut head that could only belong to Rufus Carlyle. Dan Clew was sitting next to him.

Lulu walked to the front of the hall, looking horribly nervous. Her ex really had dented her self-confidence and I wasn’t sure the old Lulu would ever totally bounce back, but I hoped she would. If someone tells you for years that you’re useless and ugly and no other man would look at you, it must be like water dripping onto a stone and wearing it away.

Everyone was still chatting, but Tom Tamblyn, who was sitting at the end of the front row, rose to his feet, his shock of once-flaxen hair framing his face like a silvery halo, and held up his hands for silence.

‘Quieten down, you lot,’ he shouted without ceremony. ‘Let’s give the lass a chance to speak her piece.’

‘Thanks, Tom,’ she said gratefully.

‘Yay! Go, Lulu!’ I called and she gave me an uncertain half-smile, then stepped forward in front of the flip chart.