Chapter 14
I had absolutely no idea which birds to pick, but with the impact of two half-pints of Skylark Scrumpy coursing through my teeny-tiny system, watching Ed and Jake trying to gather up the birds was, to my slightly hazy mind, highly amusing. Apparently this was way after the hens’ normal bedtime and as a result the little birds were hilariously flappable.
‘Why don’t you just go for that one?’ frowned Matt, pointing to one that was bigger than the others at the furthest end of the run.
He was clearly bored with proceedings, nowhere near as amused as I was and itching to get back to the party.
‘Because she wants eggs, you idiot,’ puffed Ed, as he quickly clamped another startled hen under his arm and brought her to the fence for me to have a look at.
‘I know she wants eggs,’ Matt bit back, sounding even more childish than Ed. ‘That’s why I’m helping her choose chickens!’
‘But that’s a cockerel,’ said Will quietly, as he pointed to the bird Matt had picked out.
I couldn’t help but laugh, even though Matt was frowning up at Will with something like intense loathing.
‘Oh dear,’ I giggled after another sip of cider. ‘You know as much as I do, Matt. Well done us.’
I was trying to make him feel better, but given his obviously unaltered expression, I’d failed, miserably. I cleared my throat and turned my attention back to the job in hand.
‘They’re smaller than I thought they would be,’ I admitted, again probably showing myself up as equally ignorant of all things fowl as Matt was. ‘I thought they’d be bigger.’
‘These are all young birds,’ Ed explained patiently as he stroked the little lavender lady under his arm, ‘but they’re bantams anyway so they won’t actually get all that much bigger than this.’
‘Well, I have to have her,’ I said, poking my finger through the metal fence and stroking her silky head. ‘She’s lovely.’
‘So just two more to go,’ said Will. ‘What about that little grey?’
‘Two!’ I said, taking a step back. ‘Don’t they lay an egg a day? What am I going to do with over twenty eggs a week?’
‘Three is a traditional number of hens,’ said Ed, with a shrug. ‘But it’s up to you, of course, although you must have more than one.’
‘And they do only lay small eggs,’ joined in Jake, bringing over the grey Will had pointed out.
Matt, I noticed, had now gone very quiet amid his fellow poultry fanciers.
‘All right,’ I said, giving the nod to Will’s choice. ‘I’ll have her as well and that little darker one who’s making eyes at the cockerel.’
I looked back at Matt and winked and he began to grin. I was relieved to have won him round. I had no desire to fall out with my builder before he’d even made a start on the cottage repairs, assuming of course that I did decide to offer him the work.
With the girls carefully carried across to the other coop for the night we made our way back to the party.
‘Shall I get us something to eat?’ offered Matt as the others peeled off. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.’
‘Yes please,’ I said, as I spotted Mags and Liam sitting close together next to the fire pit. ‘And I’ll find us a seat.’
‘So have you picked your hens, then?’ Mags asked as I plonked myself next to her on the straw bale.
‘Yes,’ I said, jumping back up again as my still sore calves met the scratchy straw. ‘Ouch. Bugger.’
‘Here you go,’ said Liam, hopping up and laying his jacket across where I had been hoping to sit.
‘No, it’s OK,’ I said.
‘Honestly, it’s fine,’ he said, sitting back down next to his good lady. ‘Mags told me what happened. Are you OK now?’
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘Yes, I’m fine. My calves are still a bit sore, but there’s no permanent damage. So,’ I chattered on, keen to make up for all the times I had monopolised my conversations with Mags, ‘how long have you two been married?’
‘Married?’ she spluttered, spitting out her mouthful of cider and fanning the flames of the fire pit, which crackled in excitement at her impromptu alcoholic addition to their vigour.
‘Yes,’ I said, feeling confused by her reaction. ‘You are married, aren’t you?’
‘Er, no,’ said Liam, grinning sheepishly. ‘Not married.’
‘But you are a couple?’ I questioned.
To my mind there could be no doubting that they were ‘together’ in some sense. You only had to look at their body language to see that they were joined at the hip. However, thinking back, Mags had never actually mentioned she had a man about the house.
‘Absolutely not,’ she croaked, finally regaining her composure.
‘We were once,’ blushed Liam.
‘On my eighteenth birthday,’ Mags giggled, ‘for about ten minutes.’
‘Hey!’ protested Liam.
‘Oh, all right,’ said Mags, rolling her eyes. ‘Twenty minutes then.’
‘Thank you,’ smiled Liam, sounding soothed. ‘That’s more like it.’
‘But I don’t understand,’ I rushed on, my face feeling flushed more from embarrassment than from the heat of the fire pit. ‘I thought you must at least live together. You seem so, so comfortable together.’
‘Well, we’ve been friends since kindergarten,’ explained Liam. ‘So we have known each other forever.’
‘And on my eighteenth birthday,’ Mags sighed, ‘we decided, thanks to one too many cheap lagers, that it would be a good idea to take our friendship further.’
‘And Ed was the result,’ put in Liam. ‘So you see, we’ve always been friends, but we’ve never been more than that since that one night.’
‘Oh,’ I said, ‘right, I see.’
But I didn’t really. This pair looked absolutely made for each other, so it made no sense to me at all that they were anything other than a couple. I was about to say as much, but then remembered how I had put my foot in it with Angela in the Cherry Tree. Not to mention how mortified I had been when Chris had insisted he was going to find me a fella the day I arrived in town.
‘Here you go,’ said Matt, passing me a plate loaded with succulent hog roast and apple sauce. ‘Budge up.’
Mags looked at me and shrugged her shoulders.
‘And in case you were wondering,’ she whispered, ‘we wouldn’t change a thing.’
Everyone gathered around the fire pit to enjoy the delicious food, which was further enhanced by frequent refills of Skylark Scrumpy, and before I knew it, I had chatted to practically everyone and it was pitch-black. I could just make out the very top of the full moon as it rose, golden and heavy, over the roof of the farmhouse and added its own magical light to the little party playing out beneath it.
‘So,’ said Jake, as he came round with the cider jug again. ‘Everyone keeps telling me you’re on the lookout for a vehicle, Lottie.’
‘Oh jeez,’ I groaned loudly, my confidence much enriched by the alcohol. ‘Is there anyone here who hasn’t heard this?’
‘No,’ the group chorused as one and then began to laugh.
I shook my head in disbelief and Ben began to strum quietly on a guitar.
‘I am thinking about it,’ I told Jake.
It really was the last thing I expected to hear myself admitting, but I was. Everyone had been on at me about it since the moment I arrived, but actually it was Mags’s words about getting stuck in a rut and not tapping in to my creativity which had really struck a chord. As much as I hated the idea, it was time to face my fears and spread my wings a bit.
‘Right,’ he said, ‘great. I’m asking, you see, because Amber and I are planning to get rid of the truck soon and I wondered . . . ’
So much for saving the potentially life-changing conversation until he dropped the hens off in the morning.
‘What, that enormous thing?’ I choked, pointing back towards where everyone had parked. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’
‘No,’ he shrugged. ‘What’s wrong with the truck?’
‘Well, it’s mahoosive for a start,’ I began.
‘What’s mahoosive?’ frowned Mags, who had only just arrived back after going with Amber to check on Honey and Annie who were now up at the house.
‘My truck,’ said Jake. ‘Apparently.’
‘So?’
‘Well, we’re getting rid of it,’ Jake explained again. ‘So I thought I’d offer Lottie here first refusal.’
‘But I don’t need something that size,’ I said firmly.
‘Of course you don’t,’ tutted Mags, ‘but I do.’
‘You do?’ questioned Jake.
‘Yes,’ said Mags, thankfully letting me off the hook. ‘I’ve been thinking about upsizing for ages. There’s no way I can get all of Ed’s kilter in the minivan, along with the plants I ferry about for Harriet and Rachel now. It just isn’t practical any more,’ she added sadly.
It was a shame really. I’d grown rather fond of the sight of her little custard yellow van parked on the cottage drive.
‘So you’ll buy the truck,’ said Jake slowly, as if he was puzzling out some great conundrum. ‘And Lottie will buy your van.’
‘Oh well . . . ’ I began.
‘What a brilliant idea!’ agreed Mags, slapping me on the back and inducing a coughing fit. ‘That’s perfect.’
‘I can’t buy your van,’ I spluttered. ‘I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to afford it, and besides, I haven’t driven a van before, not even a small one.’
‘I can take you out in it, if you like,’ said Will, butting into the conversation. ‘I’m only up the road, so it would be no bother. Just think of it as my way of saying sorry for my own bad driving and helping to get you off two wheels and onto four.’
‘What’s all this?’ asked Matt, sitting back down with yet another packed plate.
‘Lottie’s going to buy my van,’ said Mags.
‘And Will’s going to drive about with her until she’s got used to it,’ added Jake.
I opened my mouth to protest, but didn’t get the chance.
‘You won’t find a better teacher,’ said George, while everyone agreed and Ben set his guitar aside as it was obvious no one was ready for a singsong when they could be organising my life for a few more minutes. ‘He’s a soldier, Lottie, used to driving anything and everything,’ George carried proudly on. ‘And a highly decorated soldier at that.’
‘Ex-soldier,’ Matt quickly added. ‘And you know, I could take you out.’
‘He’s driven all over the world, in all sorts of terrain,’ George continued, despite the fact that Will was waving a hand and remonstrating silently for him to stop. ‘You won’t find a better man to get you going again than our Will.’
A few cheers went up as he said that, but I got the distinct impression no one was thinking about his driving skills.
‘What do you think?’ asked Mags.
She sounded ridiculously hopeful and I knew she was pinning her hopes on me saying yes so she could take the truck off Amber and Jake’s hands, and of course she had already become such a kind and helpful friend that I pretty much felt indebted.
‘Oh, go on then,’ I said nervously, my hands shaking at the thought. ‘But if I can’t do it, I’m giving you the keys straight back.’
‘I’m sorry if I’ve annoyed your boyfriend,’ said Will when we found ourselves side by side as we sneaked a little more crackling from the tasty hog roast. ‘But I meant what I said about getting you back on the road.’
‘Thank you,’ I said, wondering just how those confidence-building lessons were going to pan out.
Not very well if I kept reminding myself that he had seen me naked, and certainly not very well if he was going to bark at me like an impatient sergeant major every time I stalled the engine or crunched the gears. I had to admit my interest in him was rather piqued now I knew a little more of his history and I was dying to ask how a former soldier came to be living in a barn conversion in practically the middle of nowhere and working as a Wynbridge vet.
‘So were you a vet in the army, then?’ I asked.
‘I was,’ he nodded.
‘And have you really driven in terrain all over the world?’
‘Yes,’ he sighed. ‘I have.’
I could tell he didn’t want to talk about it and I swallowed hard, thinking of some of the sights he had probably seen, along with some of the horrid things he had probably had to do. I could imagine him kitted out in fatigues, the strong, tall hero brandishing the union flag and offering a safe haven from further harm.
‘About your boyfriend,’ he said again.
Instantly it felt as if he had put a pin in the romantic little fantasy balloon I had just begun to inflate around him and I reminded myself that right up until a few minutes ago I wasn’t actually all too keen on this chap.
‘He’s not my boyfriend,’ I said quickly. ‘He’s my builder.’
‘Your builder?’
‘Yes,’ I huffed. ‘My builder.’
‘And what exactly is it that you’re having built?’
‘Nothing,’ I said, tearing into the salty crackling with my teeth. ‘He’s going to do some remedial work at the cottage, should I agree to give him the contract, of course.’
I didn’t want Will thinking I was a complete pushover.
‘What remedial work?’ he frowned, sounding suspicious.
‘There’s loads of stuff,’ I said, sucking at my fingers before wiping them on a napkin.
‘There can’t be,’ he said, now sounding bemused.
‘Are you saying that in your capacity as an ex-army vet,’ I asked, ‘or as a builder?’
‘But Gwen looked after the place,’ he insisted. ‘It was her pride and joy.’
‘Well, that’s as maybe . . . ’ I began, the words dying in my throat as Matt called my name.
‘Are you coming?’ he shouted. ‘Some of the others are leaving and they want to say goodbye.’
I started to walk away, but Will caught my wrist. I stared up at him and he let go.
‘Just be careful,’ he warned. ‘I know for a fact that Gwen kept on top of jobs that needed doing at the cottage. She might have come across as scatterbrained when it came to some things, but as far as Minnie was concerned, and Cuckoo Cottage, she left nothing to chance.’