Chapter 17
17
Sarah was gratifyingly indignant when, back at reception, Jade told her the full story.
‘Flaming arrogant developers trampling over people. Just because they’ve got deep pockets.’ Her freckled face coloured up. A sure sign her emotions were running high.
‘Although this one does seem pretty reasonable, as it turns out,’ Jade said quickly. ‘He came over the day after I went to see him and he explained all the ins and outs of everything, and he’s promised he’ll do his best to get them to change the access routes so the entrance to the proposed development could still be in the same place, but then the road will curve back round on itself, which means I can still buy my bit of the land.’
‘He hasn’t got back to you though, has he? So he might just have been paying lip service to it all.’ Sarah drumrolled her fingers on the reception desk.
‘I don’t think he was. He seemed pretty genuine.’
‘Huh. He might seem genuine, but I wouldn’t bank on it. Bank being the operative word. You should work on the assumption that’ – she pointed a finger at Jade – ‘you are a lovely, generous animal-loving good person. And he’ – she frowned – ‘is a ruthless, grasping, property-developing baddie. I bet he’s got a black car, hasn’t he?’
‘Black Range Rover.’
‘I rest my case. What did Finn say?’
‘I haven’t had the chance to tell him yet. We’ve only had a couple of short phone calls since he’s been away. He doesn’t want to be speaking to me for hours – not when he’s with Ray and Dorrie,’ she added quickly in explanation.
Before Sarah could comment, there was another knock on the door.
‘Come in, you bugger,’ Mr Spock piped up, and Sarah shook her head. ‘Blimey, you’re going to have to gag that parrot. We’re definitely not mishearing anything!’
From the other side of the door came peals of laughter, and Thea and Ann-Marie, the teenagers who came in to look after the horses, strolled in, looking pleased with themselves.
‘I can’t believe he learned that so quickly,’ Thea said. ‘It’s hilarious.’
‘So it was you who taught him,’ Sarah berated them. ‘Flaming heck, I’ve just torn Ben off a right strip for teaching him bad words.’
‘Oh, no.’ Ann-Marie, who was the most sensible of the two, looked stricken. ‘Sorry. Yes, it was us. It was just a bit of a laugh. We didn’t expect him to pick it up so soon to be honest. That is one smart parrot.’
‘We’ll teach him something different,’ Thea promised. ‘He’ll soon forget he’s learned that.’
There was a little pause. Then, into the silence, Mr Spock yelled, ‘Come in, you bugger,’ at the top of his voice and cackled.
‘Good luck with that,’ Jade said.
There was another brief silence before Sarah broke it by laughing. ‘I suppose it is quite funny. But I’m going to have to apologise to Ben.’
* * *
Jade didn’t lock up until later than usual. Mostly because of the pond diggers who’d worked like troopers and finished not only digging the pond, but getting the liner in it too, just before dusk fell.
Filling it up with water was quite a job because although they had a field water supply, the hose wouldn’t quite reach so they used buckets and a chain of people to do the filling. Any volunteers left on site helped, and Jade saw to her surprise that Ursula Hargreaves was one of them. She and Dawn seemed to be getting on like a house on fire.
It was heartwarming, watching her join in with the others passing buckets of water along the chain to get the pond filled. As Jade glanced up towards the slight slope of the hen field, she saw a line of people of all shapes and sizes silhouetted in the sunset across her land. And all because two geese needed a home. She swallowed a lump in her throat. People were so amazing.
Jade knew even before Zack asked her again that she was going to say yes to whatever geese were still left at the school. It would have seemed crazy not to say yes after they’d done all this work. It would be a push if they didn’t have room – but fingers crossed they would get the extra space and then there would be plenty of room.
By eight thirty, everyone, including an absolutely filthy Ben and Sarah, who’d also joined in, had finally gone home. Jade was just locking up the main gates when a black Range Rover Sport drew up outside them and parked.
She paused. She only knew one person with a car that flash, and sure enough, a few seconds later, Declan climbed out.
‘Hi, sorry to call so late. But I’m really glad I caught you. I’ve got news and I wanted to tell you as soon as I could.’
‘Thanks – that’s kind of you.’ Jade felt her heart do a little jump of hope. He didn’t have a bad news face on.
‘Is it OK to come in? Were you just going out?’
‘No, I was just finishing up here.’ Jade started to unbolt the gates.
‘I’ll wait for you,’ Declan said. ‘I don’t want to interrupt.’
‘It’s fine. I don’t have anything else on. Apart from getting some supper. I’m starving.’
‘Tell you what. Why don’t I stand you some supper? I’ve only just finished work too. I want to show you some proposals and it’ll take a little while. But if we do it over supper then we can kill two birds with one stone. Sorry – bad metaphor for an animal rescue.’
Jade was about to refuse. But then Declan smiled at her disarmingly. ‘Bring your partner along too. We can all chat it through.’
‘He’s not here at the moment.’ She hesitated. Oh, why not? Declan seemed harmless enough and he knew she had a partner. And he was right, it would kill two birds with one stone. However inappropriate the metaphor was.
‘Give me ten minutes to get changed,’ she told Declan, ‘and I’ll take you up on that.’
Declan gave her another smile and headed back to his car before she could have second thoughts and change her mind.
Another ten minutes wouldn’t hurt. He’d been waiting for three quarters of an hour already up the road. He’d seen the chain of people in the field and then he’d waited for them all to go again, before he’d stopped ‘casually’ by.
He’d sat in his Range Rover, flicking idly through the paperwork. He’d produced a set of drawings himself, and he was working on getting them past his father, which wouldn’t be that straightforward because it would be considerably more expensive than the company’s original plan.
His plan as far as Jade went was to get her to believe he was totally on her side, and happy to fight her case with his family, even though it was going to result in a level of extra expense. That he was prepared to put himself out for her, because he liked her.
All of these things were true. He was on her side, and he did like her. And it might be possible to sway his old man, although his grandfather would be the real stumbling block. Grandpa Nick was a hard-headed businessman and he hadn’t built up a very successful development company by wasting money and pussy-footing around upset neighbours.
Declan would need to put in a lot of legwork, and he needed to make that clear to Jade too. He could do it, but he wanted something in return. There was no sign of a live-in boyfriend either. Maybe that was just a line Jade used to stop people thinking she lived alone out here. Maybe that was why she wore the ring too. Declan hadn’t given up on making their relationship a bit more personal.
He smiled to himself as he saw Jade come out of the front door of her cottage and head towards the gates. She’d got changed, as she’d said, and was now wearing skinny jeans and a smart jacket. She’d let her hair down, and my God, she had gorgeous hair.
He jumped down from the driving seat and went to meet her.
‘Shall we go in my car? Save you getting yours out.’ He saw the hesitation in her eyes. ‘It’s up to you, but I don’t drive like a madman, and I’m not a total weirdo.’ He grinned. ‘At least I don’t think I am. You’d have to ask my friends to be sure.’
She laughed then, and he knew he’d passed stage one of her trust test anyway. That was good. He was very much looking forward to spending the evening in her company. He hadn’t expected she’d agree to dinner, but now she had it was the icing on the cake. A much more appropriate metaphor.
* * *
In Nottingham, Finn, Ray and Dorrie had just finished eating supper, ham hock and leek pie and mash, made and served up by Dorrie. Despite the fact Finn knew Jade had been jolted by his news, he was glad he’d made the decision to stay. Now Ray had finally decided to break the years of silence, it seemed he couldn’t stop talking, and Dorrie, bless her, was being endlessly supportive, even though a lot of the story must be difficult for her to hear.
‘I met your mother at the goose fair in 1990,’ Ray was saying now. ‘She was working on one of the rides. Her family were something to do with the fair – I think it may have been an uncle who part owned the ride – I forget the details, but that’s where we met.’ He looked at his hands. ‘Bridie was everything I was not. Exciting, streetwise, very clever, even though she’d missed out on a lot of formal education. She was a wild child. She always said exactly what was in her head, even if it caused offence. Whereas I was Mr Boring. I took after my father. I was a plodder, happy to toe the line, happy with my lot, happy to work in the mine like my dad had done before me, and his dad before that. They say opposites attract.’ He glanced briefly at Finn, but he didn’t meet Dorrie’s eyes.
‘I guess it wasn’t just Bridie I fell for. It was the whole package. The excitement of the fair, the glamour of her. She was very pretty, and I was flattered because she’d singled me out over all my mates. I couldn’t believe she’d chosen me. We lived in such different worlds.’ His eyes misted and it was a while before he continued.
‘When I look back, I think she fell for me because I was so unlike anyone she’d ever met. I wasn’t bad looking back then. I was older than her, of course, and I had money to spare.’ He blew out a breath. ‘The goose fair was the highlight of our year.’
‘I remember lads talking about it when I was at school,’ Finn said. ‘We all had theories about why it was called the goose fair. Wasn’t it something to do with geese being sold there back in the mists of time?’
‘Aye, I think so.’
‘It was,’ Dorrie murmured. ‘If you go back a few hundred years, thousands of geese were driven to Nottingham from the Lincolnshire fens in the east of England – they used to protect their feet with a mixture of tar and sand so they could do the fifty-mile journey. The chicks from the spring were ready for the pot for Michaelmas Day.’
‘Aye, that sounds familiar,’ Ray said, looking at her with respect. ‘That must have been a sight – all those geese milling about.’
‘But we never went to the goose fair when I was a boy, Dad. You said you preferred Skegness. I always wondered about that because Skeggy was so much smaller.’
‘And now you know why. The place held too many memories.’
Finn nodded. He’d never questioned it when he’d been small. He’d never questioned any of his father’s choices. He suspected this was because he was cut from the same cloth as his father – until he’d moved down to Arleston and fallen in love with Jade, he’d always done pretty much what life and society had expected of him. He’d never stepped outside of the straight tracks his family had trodden.
It was strange hearing that his mother hadn’t been like that at all. That she’d been part of a showman’s family, someone who’d travelled around the countryside with one of the biggest fairs in the world. Although Finn had romanticised her as a child, reinventing her as some beautiful princess, he’d never imagined her as what she actually was. Being a showman still felt romantic somehow. Knowing he had showman’s blood running through his veins, even though before tonight he hadn’t known that, both unnerved and excited him.
‘I’ll make us another pot of tea,’ Dorrie said, getting up from the sofa. ‘Or would you boys like something stronger? I think there’s some cans of Guinness.’
‘Tea’s fine,’ Ray said, and Finn nodded his agreement.
‘Did you ever go back to the goose fair after Bridie had left us?’ Finn asked when Dorrie was out of the room.
‘I went once, the year after she left. But she wasn’t there. I didn’t really expect her to be. Like I said, back then I believed she’d gone back to Belfast anyway.’ He paused. ‘When she phoned me up that time, wanting to see you, when she told me she’d left us because she was pregnant, I asked her about the childhood sweetheart. I thought it must be an Irishman, because she was brought up in Belfast. But it wasn’t, Finn. The guy was English. Apparently his father had worked in Belfast in the seventies and Bridie and the lad went to school together. Bridie was in love with an Englishman. Or should I say an English boy. They were both fourteen when his family took him back to England.
‘I think maybe Bridie had a thing for Englishmen. I think that’s why she fell for me. I think maybe I reminded her of him in some way.’
‘Did you ever know his name?’
‘No. She wouldn’t tell me. She probably thought I’d want to settle a score. After all, he had stolen her from me – from us…’ He blew out a long sigh. ‘I should stop talking about it. It’s giving me a headache. And it’s not fair on Dorrie.’
‘I’m fine with you talking about it, my love.’ Dorrie came back into the room with a tray. ‘Your boy deserves to know his heritage, his birthright. Every man does.’
She put the tray on the table and as she did so, Ray put his hand on her arm.
‘Thanks.’ His voice was husky. ‘I don’t deserve you.’
‘Oh, yes, you do.’ She perched on the arm of the sofa where he sat. ‘You deserve the best of the best, Ray McTaggart. You’re a good man.’
‘I’ve got the best. I’ve got you.’
That was something he was completely in agreement with, Finn thought as he watched the look of love that passed between them. Dorrie was the best thing that had ever happened to his father. And he was so glad of it.