Chapter 29
29
POPPY
After Joel left, I struggled to drift back off to sleep so I got up and started working. I was used to rising early and found that, as long as I had a strong coffee to hand, I could race through tasks first thing. I’d therefore accomplished stacks before 9a.m. at which point it felt reasonable to start making phone calls. My priority was to ring Marnie because, if Dad had taken a turn for the worse, staying an extra night wasn’t an option. She assured me there was no need for me to rush back, especially when the break was doing exactly as intended – recharging my batteries. My next call was to Mary to confirm staying one more night, which was no problem. I rescheduled my client meeting for Wednesday and then FaceTimed Sharon.
‘You look and sound a lot brighter than you have in a long time,’ she said.
‘I feel it. You were so right to push me to get away. I think I was close to breaking point. I love it here, I’ve made some friends and I got to see Phil.’
‘I’ve spoken to him, and he said you were on good form. He said I was to ask you about the best man.’
My cheeks flushed as I told her about Joel and admitted that he was the reason for staying one more night.
‘I’m so pleased for you,’ she said, smiling. ‘But why don’t you stay until the end of the week?’
I shook my head. ‘I’ll fret too much about Dad and end up undoing all the good this past week has done me. I need to see him myself. I miss him and I need a hug.’
‘I can understand that. I had a couple of lovely visits with him. He showed me his Poppy bear.’
He might not remember me but the love he clearly had for the bear I’d given him swelled my heart.
‘I’ve made a big decision,’ I told Sharon. ‘I’m going to sell Dove Cottage. I know you and Ian have always loved it so, if you could see yourselves living there, you’d have first refusal. No offence taken if you’re not interested.’
‘Oh, gosh, honey. Selling up is huge.’
‘I know, but it’s the right thing to do. I need a fresh start and Dove Cottage needs somebody to love it again. Someone like you.’
‘It would be perfect for us. I’ll have a word with Ian and we can talk about it when you get back.’
When Sharon and I had finished catching up, I messaged Wilf to tell him I’d be back tomorrow. An hour later, a response came through and my stomach churned as I read it.
From Wilf
Damon was at your house again this morning. I went out and he demanded to know where you were. He was more wound up than I’ve seen him. I don’t like it. I think it’s time to call the police
To Wilf
I’m so sorry he keeps turning up. Do you really think I need to involve the police? You don’t think it’s worth me trying to speak to him tomorrow?
From Wilf
I have no problem telling him to clear off so no need to apologise. And yes to the police. If you think it’s worth one more try to get through to him, that’s your choice but it seems like you’ve given him plenty of chances already. Enjoy your last day and see you tomorrow. Benji says woof
I put my phone down with a sigh, wondering if Wilf was right. Damon hadn’t crossed my mind for days, which had been lovely, but now I felt a heaviness in my stomach knowing I was going to have to face him tomorrow. Was the situation serious enough to involve the police? If an ex-police officer was suggesting it, perhaps it was, but I still preferred the idea I’d discussed with Phil of getting his mum to have a word first.
Feeling restless after Wilf’s text, I drove to Bloomsberry’s to get something for lunch and some small gifts to thank Amber, Fizz, Natasha and Samantha for helping me with my wedding attire.
As I wandered through the extensive gift section, my eyes were drawn to a flash of something yellow in a clear plastic bag with a sale sticker on it. I looked closer and saw that it was a felt blue tit in a bag with felt versions of several other common garden birds – a great tit, goldfinch, chaffinch, bullfinch, house sparrow and robin. It seemed they were part of a mobile, but the hanging part was broken and the starling was missing so it had been reduced. I thought about Dad’s disappointment on wet days when he couldn’t see as many birds. If I bought some of those removable hanging strips, we could hang the felt birds in his bedroom and he could see garden birds every single day. I popped it in my basket and continued my search.
I found some scented candles for Fizz, Samantha and Natasha, and a wooden heart sculpture with tealights around the base for Amber. In the wedding section, I spotted some washi tape, sequins and stickers which I thought Imogen might like for the pages in her scrapbook so I couldn’t resist buying them for Joel to pass on to her. I wished I could see her one more time before I left. She was such a delight to be around, but it was time to return to Winchcote and put plans into place to get my life back on track.
My final stop was the food section for lunch. I paused by the fridge, smiling. Was it really only six days since I first saw Joel right here? So much had happened since then. Who knew that I’d meet the man of my dreams by a fridge full of ready meals?
I heard a car pull up outside around mid-afternoon and was surprised to see Fizz approaching the house with shopping bags in her hands.
‘Food delivery,’ she said when I opened the door.
‘For me?’
‘Courtesy of Chef Joel. I understand he’s making you a meal tonight.’
‘He sent you shopping?’
She laughed. ‘I offered. I was going anyway.’
I led her through to the kitchen.
‘You’re in for such a treat,’ she said as she placed several items in the fridge. ‘Joel’s an amazing chef. Such a shame he didn’t make a career of it after all.’
‘I thought he’d worked in the factory straight from college.’
‘Oh, he did, but he studied catering at college and…’ She shook her head. ‘Not my story to tell. Ask him about it later. When Grandma said you were staying an extra night, I wondered if he might have had something to do with it.’
‘He had everything to do with it,’ I admitted. ‘And if it wasn’t for my dad, I’d stay even longer. I don’t know what’s come over me, Fizz. I’m not the sort of person who throws her plans out the window for a man she’s only just met.’
Fizz smiled at me. ‘That’s because you hadn’t met someone worth doing that for and now you have. I’m so thrilled for you both. Joel’s a great bloke and I’ve never understood why he hasn’t been snapped up, but I do now. He was waiting for you to come along.’
It was such a lovely thought, and it gave me a warm glow inside.
‘Joel has had such a nightmare with women dismissing him as too nice and just wanting to be friends,’ Fizz said as we sat down in the lounge with mugs of tea. ‘How can someone be too nice ? I’ve never understood that. It’s as though nice equates to boring and Joel is not boring. He’s great fun.’
We discussed the friendship aspect of relationships and Fizz agreed that, for her, friendship was fundamental for making a relationship work.
‘Phoebe and I were friends first for a long time and we’re both convinced it’s why our relationship is so strong. You’re absolutely right that you can have passion and friendship.’
‘I think Joel’s lovely and I feel like a little schoolgirl going all gooey over him!’
‘It’s super cute to see and I know Joel will pull out all the stops to make the distance work for you both. I can tell you mean the world to him.’
‘It’s mutual.’
‘Good. Because I have something for you.’ She dipped into her bag and handed me an envelope. ‘An invitation to our wedding. It’s the last Saturday in May at Hedgehog Hollow.’
My throat tightened with emotion, a sense of belonging enveloping me. ‘Thank you so much! I’d love to come.’
‘Whatever happens with you and Joel, Phoebe and I want you there. But I don’t think we have anything to worry about with you two. I think this is it, isn’t it?’
Tears pricked my eyes and I nodded. ‘It feels like it.’
She clapped her hands together, squealing. ‘I’m so happy for you both. I wish I could find out more, but I’ve got to love you and leave you. Phoebe’s meeting me at Bumblebee Barn in ten minutes to finalise a few things with Natasha and Zara, our awesome wedding planners.’
I presented Fizz with a gift bag containing her sandals and the thank-you candle and asked her if she wouldn’t mind being delivery woman for the others. I’d also bought another bouquet of flowers for Mary and she said she’d deliver them too as her next stop after Bumblebee Barn was her grandma’s house. I followed her out to her car and placed the flowers across the back seat.
‘It’s been an absolute joy meeting you,’ she said. ‘Phoebe and I have both sent you friend requests on Facebook and followed you on Instagram. Our phone numbers and emails are on the invitation so there’s no escaping us. You’re one of us now, like it or not.’
‘I like it,’ I said, laughing. ‘Very much.’
She hugged me tightly and I had that sensation once more of having found something very special in Yorkshire. When she’d gone, I stood on the drive looking at the house for several minutes. It was so beautiful. I could definitely see myself living here and, more than that, I could imagine myself living here with Joel. Was it really possible to meet somebody and know within forty-eight hours that they were the person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with? Because that’s how I felt about Joel and I couldn’t wait to see him tonight.
My early start this morning had put me ahead with my work and I was able to stop at five but my excitement at seeing Joel meant I was quicker getting ready than usual, leaving way too much time before he arrived. I decided to distract myself with an episode of Darrington Detects but hadn’t got far into it before Wilf rang and my stomach lurched. Wilf texted – he never rang.
‘I’m so sorry to interrupt your holiday but Damon has just been to my house demanding to know what you’re doing in York and who all the people you’re with are.’
‘What? Where’s he got that from?’
‘I don’t know. Obviously I didn’t correct him about the location but wasn’t that wedding near York? Have you put something on social media?’
‘Nothing! I’ve been really careful not to…’ I closed my eyes and groaned. ‘My new friends connected with me on the socials. They might have tagged me in some photos.’
‘That’s probably it, then. You might want to check there’s nothing connecting you to the holiday cottage. I’m guessing there isn’t with it being York he mentioned.’
‘Thanks for the heads up and I’m so sorry he turned up at your house. I never wanted you to get involved.’
‘I can hold my own with him so don’t you worry. I’ll let you go so you can do whatever you need to do to make sure he has no access to your information. But please, Poppy, call the police. This isn’t normal.’
The second I disconnected, I opened up Facebook. As suspected, I’d been tagged in several photos but they were all wedding-related with no mention of Whisperwood Farmhouse. The privacy settings on them were for friends and family only so Damon could only have seen them if we were friends and we weren’t… were we? My stomach lurched again. Maybe we were! I had a vague recollection of him sending me a friend request when I first moved back home but he never posted anything himself and had never engaged with the few posts I shared so I’d forgotten about it. Sure enough, he was there on my friends list. I removed and blocked him before double checking that my privacy settings were for friends only, which they were. Fennington Hall being tagged wasn’t going to lead Damon to me even if he had been poking around on my socials to see where I was and what I was doing. He knew I was in Yorkshire, but it was an enormous area and there was no way he could track me down to Whisperwood Farmhouse. I could relax. For now. Returning to Dove Cottage tomorrow would be an entirely different matter.
When Joel arrived, I was so grateful to have his strong arms around me as I told him all about Damon.
‘He doesn’t sound stable,’ he said. ‘I agree with your neighbour. I think you should let the police know he’s stalking you.’
‘Stalking? But he’s never threatened me.’
‘I’m not sure he has to. Hang on.’
Joel tapped something into his phone and brought up a page from the police website and scrolled down to the definition of stalking. The words obsession and aggressive jumped out at me. Examples were given and several of them applied to Damon’s recent behaviour which Joel was quick to point out.
‘He’s repeatedly turned up at your home uninvited and he went to your dad’s care home knowing you’d be there. That’s not normal behaviour.’
Hearing him repeat Damon’s behaviour back to me made me view it differently. If a friend told me that someone had been doing all that to them, I’d have immediately called out stalking and urged them to go to the police. Why hadn’t I realised this before now?
Joel pointed to a section listing with the acronym FOUR for the four warning signs of stalking behaviour: Fixated , Obsessive , Unwanted , Repeated . Yes to all! I’d made excuses for Damon so far, heaping the blame on myself for not being clear enough with him, but how clear did I need to be? I’d said no more times than I cared to remember. I’d asked him to leave, I’d told him not to come to The Larks. Yes, he’d helped me and shown me kindness on one of the worst days of my life, but I didn’t owe him my life as a result.
‘I’ll call the police when I get back.’ I sighed heavily. ‘Stalking. I never thought… Or maybe deep down I did and I just didn’t have the headspace to deal with it.’
Joel hugged me. ‘You’ve got me and you’ve got Wilf. We’ll get it sorted.’
We moved into the kitchen to prepare the meal, but Joel said he had something to show me first. He handed me a letter he’d been given at work about the restructure.
I winced as I scanned down it. ‘That sounds harsh. I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t be, because I’m not. I’ve already told Eloise that I want to take the redundancy package and leave as soon as possible. It might take a while before she can get that confirmed, but I feel a whole lot lighter knowing I’m leaving.’
‘You sound really positive.’
‘I feel it. I’m thinking now that it’s the best thing that could have happened. It’s time for a change. I stayed way too long in something that was only ever meant to be a summer job while I decided what I wanted to do with my life.’
‘When Fizz dropped the food off, she mentioned that you were going to be a chef but she wouldn’t say anything more – said it was your tale to tell.’
Joel laughed. ‘That makes it sound exciting and it really wasn’t.’
He told me about studying catering at college and the intention to go into the family business but how working for his dad and uncle caused tension, so he ducked out to avoid a family rift.
‘Why didn’t you look for a job in a different restaurant?’
‘Looking back, it’s a stupid reason. The part that gave me a buzz and still does is experimenting. If my own dad was struggling to let me have free rein over dishes, what hope was there for me anywhere else? I’d have had to start right at the bottom and I couldn’t face it, so I ditched that career completely.’
‘Do you regret it?’
‘Occasionally.’ He smiled and shook his head. ‘Regularly. Every so often, I thought about it but the reality was that working in a restaurant would be no better for Imogen than working shifts. In fact, it would be worse because at least shifts gave me some time off on evenings and weekends. In a restaurant, they’re the hours I’d have been needed so I’d have never got to see her.’
While our meal was in the oven, we moved into the lounge and I showed him the felt birds I’d bought at Bloomsberry’s and how the staff must have thought I was a little mad when I’d stood by the fridge for a while, smiling at the ready meals.
‘Special place,’ he said. ‘Where dreams come true.’
My heart melted as he tenderly kissed me.
‘Look what Fizz gave me today.’ I reached for her wedding invite and waved it at Joel. ‘Looks like you’re stuck with me until at least the end of May.’
Joel frowned and counted on his fingers. ‘Oh, I dunno,’ he said, his voice teasing. ‘That’s a whole ten weeks away. It’s a lot to ask.’
‘Cheeky!’ I cried, playfully whacking him with a cushion.
He cupped my face between his hands and gently kissed me. ‘There’s another four weddings after that and I’d like you to be with me at all of them. And for any weddings, anniversaries and births that come along after that.’
‘Sounds perfect,’ I whispered.
‘Oh, my God! Joel! This is delicious!’ I forked in another mouthful, releasing a moan of pleasure. ‘If this is indicative of your skills in the kitchen, I’m never letting you go.’
‘It’s a deal,’ he said with a grin. ‘With my cooking and your first aid and stain removal abilities, we might achieve domestic perfection.’
Every mouthful was a delight with the flavours working so perfectly together. It was criminal that he’d never been able to showcase his abilities. I dropped my fork with a clatter as an idea struck me.
‘Everything okay?’ Joel asked looking concerned.
‘I’ve just had a thought. When Amber gave me a tour of the farm, she showed me the barn for the farm shop and there was another empty barn. I asked her what it was going to be and she said they didn’t know. What if you opened your own bistro there?’
‘On Barney’s farm?’
‘Yes! There’s a farm shop near where I live and it has a bistro next door where the chef makes meals using the local produce the shop sells. Most of the business is day trade with just two or three nights a week and it does brilliantly. You could do something like that. You’d need to work weekends at the start, but you could take on a weekend chef once it was up and running.’
Joel’s eyes lit up. ‘I know the barn you mean. It would be a good size for it.’
‘What do you think? Would something like that interest you?’
‘I’d love it.’
I could tell from his wide smile that he was already imagining what it might look like.
‘Do you think Amber and Barney would be interested?’
‘I think they’d love it too. We’d need to get planning permission, but it’s a working farm and it’s an existing building…’
We moved back into the lounge and spent the rest of the evening talking about how a bistro at Bumblebee Barn might work. I shared my little fantasy about opening an apiary on Barney’s farm, and supplying honey to the shop alongside my Honey Bee Hugs skincare range. The future sounded so idyllic. But a dose of reality suddenly hit me.
‘A shadow just crossed your face,’ Joel said. ‘What is it?’
‘What if Tilly does move to Scotland? I’m assuming you’d go too.’
He sighed heavily. ‘I can’t imagine moving away from this area and all my friends but, if that’s the only way I can see Imogen regularly, I won’t have a choice.’
‘When are you seeing your solicitor?’
‘Thursday morning.’
‘Let’s hope it’s good news and she can’t move Imogen without your agreement. If she can and you have to relocate, we’ll find a way to make it work. Not sure what, but…’
I tried to imagine me living here without him and it felt so wrong. I wanted this farmhouse but I wanted it to be ours rather than mine . I imagined dropping off honey at the Bumblebee Barn farm shop and seeing an empty barn instead of Joel waving at me from his bistro and it was so clear to me that, while I wanted my future to be here in this place with these people, I didn’t want it without Joel. I could find another house if Mary had already sold Whisperwood Farmhouse before I was ready to move, I could find somewhere else for my hives if Amber and Barney had already found a beekeeper, but being here without Joel was a dealbreaker. If he announced that he was moving to Australia, I’d be booking my ticket.
I took his hand in mine. This didn’t even feel brave – it felt right. ‘They have honey bees in the Highlands, right?’
‘Aren’t there bees everywhere?’ he asked, looking momentarily confused. And then a smile spread across his face as he evidently registered what I meant. ‘You’d come with me?’
I nodded. ‘I never thought I’d find someone like you and, now that I have, I don’t want to let you go. If your home needs to be in Scotland, then so does mine.’