Chapter Eight
Mandy froze. Squinting over at Seb, she saw him glance in alarm towards Mr Powell.
‘I said it wasn’t an emergency,’ Seb said in a thick voice.
Mr Powell strode across the lawn, swearing under his breath. Mia and Stephen had retreated behind their mother.
‘Maybe you should calm down, Jason.’ Mandy looked at Mrs Powell in surprise. Her words made no apparent difference to her husband, but Mandy was amazed that the woman had said anything at all.
A handsome dark-skinned face peered over the garden gate. Mandy, who was not far from the fence, tugged Holly over and opened the latch. Two police officers stepped into the garden, hats tucked under their arms. ‘I’m Sergeant Dan Jones, and this is PC Ellen Armstrong.’
Mandy didn’t know whether to feel relieved or alarmed at seeing PC Armstrong. On one hand, it was nice to see a familiar face. On the other, yet again Mandy and her rescue animals were at the centre of trouble which required police attention. She studied the officer with Ellen. She was pretty sure Sergeant Jones had been at Lamb’s Wood too, but she hadn’t had a chance to speak to him. Despite the intensity of the situation, she couldn’t help but take an interest in the man who she knew was married to Jimmy Marsh’s ex-wife. He looked fearless, she thought, and intelligent.
It didn’t take long for Mr Powell to react. He marched towards them, his head extended like a gamecock about to attack. ‘This just gets better, doesn’t it?’ he grunted. He held out his wrists. ‘Well go on then,’ he taunted, ‘arrest me, why don’t you?’
‘That won’t be necessary,’ Sergeant Jones said calmly. ‘We’re only here to support Mr Conway.’
Both of them turned to look at Seb, who was looking faintly incongruous, holding on to a knee-high donkey. Seb in turn looked at Mandy, his eyebrows raised.
‘The foals can’t stay here,’ she said. ‘The garden isn’t big enough and there are poisonous plants.’
‘Utter rubbish,’ Mr Powell objected. ‘You’ve no idea what you’re on about. They’re not even foals, they’re miniature donkeys.’
Mrs Powell, however, straightened up as if she was relieved to hear what Mandy had said. Looking down at Mia and Stephen, who were standing as close to her as they could, she began to explain. ‘I know you love Robin and Holly,’ she said, ‘but this lady,’ she pointed to Mandy, ‘she’s a vet and she says we haven’t got enough room. They’re not as old as we thought. They’re still growing and they won’t be able to fit in the garden.’
Mia’s lip began to wobble. There were tears in Stephen’s eyes. Mandy crouched down at the end of Holly’s lead rope, looking at the children on their own level. ‘I won’t be taking them far away,’ she promised. ‘You can come and visit them while they’re staying with me, if you like.’
Stephen blinked, and Mia nodded bravely. But Mr Powell hadn’t finished. ‘I don’t know how you’ve got the nerve to talk to my kids,’ he said. ‘Those donkeys were their Christmas present and you’re stealing them before Christmas is even here. Christmas is ruined now. Your fault. Stupid interfering cow.’
First Mia’s mouth opened and a loud wail burst out, then Stephen screwed up his face and began sobbing loudly. The toddler in Mrs Powell’s arms joined in too.
Mandy reached into her pocket and took out her mobile. ‘Could you hold Holly for a minute please, Ellen?’ she mouthed at the PC and held out the lead rope. Ellen stepped forward and took it. Dialling the Animal Ark number, Mandy turned away as far as she could, pressed the phone against her head and stuck her finger in her other ear to block out the sound of howling children and Mr Powell’s chuntering.
She was glad when Adam answered. ‘Hi Dad,’ Mandy said, as clearly as she could manage. ‘I need you to bring the trailer to Walton, if you can. I need to pick up a pair of donkeys.’ She had bought the secondhand trailer from Brandon Gill for a very reasonable price and she was glad of it now. Otherwise, they could have been scrabbling round all night, trying to find transport.
‘Is everything okay?’ Adam asked, having taken down the address and repeated it back to Mandy.
‘Fine,’ she assured him. ‘There’s a bit of a fuss going on, that’s all.’
After another tense thirty minutes, she was heartily glad when her father arrived. Mr Powell had finally tired of throwing insults, but was telling the children and the neighbours and anyone else who would listen that nobody had the right to take away his Christmas donkeys. What they were doing was theft. Mrs Powell hadn’t tried to argue with her husband any more. She looked defeated, Mandy thought.
With the help of her dad and Seb, Mandy ushered first Holly and then Robin up the ramp into the trailer. She was glad the two little animals weren’t any bigger. She and Adam almost had to lift Robin on board, linking hands behind him and pushing as Seb stood in front with the lead rope. When the donkeys were safely inside the trailer, Adam climbed into the front seat of the Discovery.
Seb spoke to Mr Powell once more. ‘I know you don’t agree, but we’re not stealing your donkeys,’ he explained. ‘We’re taking them away,’ and now he was talking over the aggressive man’s voice, ‘to somewhere suitable until you can find somewhere better for them to live. They need a properly fenced field and a watertight shelter, at the very least.’
‘What if we can’t find anywhere?’ Mrs Powell’s face looked unexpectedly hopeful at the idea the donkeys might not have to come back. ‘Will you keep them?’
Mandy glanced at Mr Powell, who was turning purple again. ‘Let’s not think about that now. I can have them for four weeks,’ she said, ‘which gives you plenty of time to look for a field.’
‘Can we go inside?’ Seb said to Mrs Powell. ‘There’s some paperwork we have to complete.’ Mrs Powell headed back to the door with her children trailing after her. Sergeant Jones and PC Armstrong stood beside Mr Powell while Mandy climbed into her car. As she drove off behind her father with the trailer, she glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw Mr Powell glaring after her. She took a long, shuddery breath. They hadn’t trained her for baby donkey conflict at vet school!
It was a relief to get back to Hope Meadows. Fortunately, for the moment, the two donkeys were the only large animals Mandy had in so there was plenty of room. Adam backed the trailer into the paddock and by the time Mandy had parked up and joined them, he and Helen Steer, who had returned from her holiday, were lowering the ramp.
‘Oh, they’re so sweet!’ Helen gasped as the two grey shapes trotted out from the back of the trailer. Robin looked around the paddock, comically long ears pricked. Holly dropped her head to the ground and snorted at the grass. After a pause, the pair skipped around the paddock, exploring every corner.
‘I’ll help you get the straw,’ Helen offered after they had watched the donkeys make a complete circuit of the orchard. She and Mandy gave the empty field shelter a thick layer of bedding and filled the water tub. When they returned, the foals were staring through the fence at the fellside as if they were dreaming of even bigger adventures.
‘We’ll give them a day or two to settle in,’ Mandy said, ‘then we can make a start on getting them trained.’
When she turned to go back in, she caught sight of the pallet that she had leaned against the hedge earlier. ‘Could you give me a hand?’ she asked Helen. ‘There was a hole in the hedge this morning. I put that pallet over it, but I need to find something better.’
Helen frowned. ‘A hole in the hedge? How did that happen?’
‘I really don’t know,’ Mandy admitted as she led Helen over. Together, they pulled away the temporary barrier and crouched down to inspect the strange gap. ‘Do you think it looks man-made?’ Mandy said. ‘It doesn’t look as if an animal did it.’
‘I see what you mean.’ Helen’s voice was doubtful. ‘But who on earth would want to do that? Don’t the locals think our dogs are wild and unsafe?’
Mandy could tell that Helen was trying to make a joke, but she was finding it hard to see the funny side. It was bad enough that Flame had been in danger once, running loose on the roads. If it happened again, Mandy’s reputation would unravel faster than an old sweater.
‘I don’t think you should worry.’ Helen’s voice had sobered as if she had realised Mandy wasn’t in the mood for humour. ‘Surely nobody would be mean enough. It must have been some kind of accident. Maybe it was a car?’
It would be odd if there had been an accident of any sort in the lane without them knowing about it, but it wasn’t impossible, thought Mandy. Perhaps someone had run off the road and their car had done the damage. But she couldn’t see how a car could have struck the hedge and made such a neat hole. With a mental shrug, she helped Helen stuff the gap with short pieces of plank and tie them in place with wire.
‘Jimmy’s invited me to the Fox and Goose for dinner tonight,’ Mandy said as she rotated her pliers to hold two ends of wire together.
‘Great!’
Mandy felt her cheeks turn pink as Helen stared at her. ‘We’re taking things slowly,’ Mandy told her.
‘Really?’ Helen looked as if she was trying not to smile. ‘I thought you liked him.’
‘I do,’ Mandy admitted. ‘There’s just so much going on here,’ she waved her pliers towards the rescue centre, ‘and with trying to buy the cottage and … well, we’ve both got too much going on.’ She didn’t tell Helen she thought Jimmy deserved someone less busy. The nurse would tell her she was being daft. And she couldn’t even begin to explain the complicated guilt she felt when she wasn’t putting Hope Meadows and James first. Her friend needed her, but even he would tell her to go ahead. She closed her mouth, feeling the silence grow.
Helen didn’t seem to notice. She reached up and patted Mandy’s arm with her gloved hand. ‘I can see it might be difficult,’ she said. ‘You’re right to take your time, but don’t …’ She paused for a moment, frowning. ‘Don’t close yourself off too much. I know this job can be all-encompassing, but you have to pace yourself. Jimmy seems like a really nice person,’ she pointed out. ‘Think of how much he helped with the rescue at Lamb’s Wood. And we both know he’s gorgeous!’ There was a smile in her eyes. ‘I almost turned down Seb,’ she added, ‘because I didn’t feel ready. But I’m not having any regrets at all.’
Mandy knew Helen was right. She would be a fool to push Jimmy so far away that she missed the opportunity altogether. Being a grown-up was so complicated! Then she thought of James, wracked with grief for his husband Paul, and she reminded herself how lucky she was that no one she loved dearly had died.
‘Okay then, oh Wise Woman,’ she said with a grin as she twisted the last wire into place and straightened up. ‘I’m not going to rush into anything, but I won’t rush in the other direction either. Is that good enough for you?’
Helen stood up too, rubbing her spine. ‘That’ll do nicely,’ she said.