Chapter 12
12
‘Auntie Jade, Diesel’s got a mousey,’ Ben yelled from the direction of the chicken run. ‘Quick, come and see.’
With visions of Ben getting upset if Diesel did his usual decapitating trick, Jade hurried across to the child, who was standing on top of the chicken run, waving his arms about. It was fun having Ben around, but it was also exhausting. There was a part of her that would be heartily relieved when half term was over. Hopefully Sarah would be back by then, but if she wasn’t, at least Ben would be at school. Trying to make sure he stayed out of trouble, was safe and kept reasonably clean was a Herculean task. She’d abandoned the reasonably clean bit after the first couple of days and just piled all his clothes into the washing machine every night.
‘Look, Auntie Jade, he’s very naughty.’
Ben pointed and Jade realised with a jolt of horror that Ben hadn’t said mousey, he’d said Masie, which was the name of one of the ex-battery hens. Diesel was inside the chicken run, black tail swishing furiously – although when she got closer she could see that he hadn’t got Masie at all. It was more the other way round. The hens had surrounded the black cat and had edged him into a corner and every so often one of them darted in for an experimental peck.
‘How did he get in there?’ she gasped, swinging open the latch on the front of the run and trying to avoid the big cat’s flailing claws as he fled past her, pursued by several hens.
‘He wanted to go in,’ Ben said, widening his eyes innocently. ‘He was scratching on the door.’
‘So, you let him in. Oh, Ben, sweetie, I don’t think that was a very good idea. He could have hurt them.’
Although, right now, she had to admit the opposite was probably more likely. Diesel gave one last affronted yowl of annoyance, hurtled away from his pursuers, and shot up the tree and on to the stable block roof, where he sat glaring at her accusingly.
Jade caught hold of Ben’s hand. ‘How about we go and take a dog out together.’
‘I’m bored of dogs. Can we go and see the buzzard? I want to paint him for school.’
‘How about painting some puppies? Bertie Buzzard’s still not feeling too well – it’s probably best if we leave him in peace and quiet today.’
The pups were in reception where she could keep an eye on Ben and also answer the phone. Dawn had been doing it while she tore round in circles trying to keep Ben out of trouble, and she was feeling guilty because Dawn – like everyone else who helped her out apart from Finn – was an unpaid volunteer.
‘He’s not doing my blood pressure any good at all,’ she told Finn later that night when Ben was safely tucked up in bed, having just had a long Zoom call with his mum, which happened every night. ‘I don’t know how full-time mums cope.’
‘Me neither.’ Finn raised his eyebrows and smiled at her from the armchair by the fire where he was looking at something on his phone. ‘Kids that age are hard work.’
He sounded as though he was speaking from experience and Jade glanced at him curiously, but before she could pursue this, the smoke alarm went off in the kitchen and she remembered the tripe she’d put on for the dogs.
‘What the hell is that stink?’ Finn said, coming in behind her. ‘Ughh, I don’t know how you can go near that stuff, it’s disgusting.’
‘I’m cooking it, not eating it,’ she said crossly, rescuing the smouldering pan from the cooker and dumping it in the sink.
‘Burning it, more like.’ Finn shook his head in disbelief and opened several windows, fanning away the fumes from the smoke alarm. By the time peace had been resumed, Jade had forgotten his throwaway comment and she didn’t remember it until the next morning when she moved a pile of paperwork off the kitchen table and knocked Finn’s wallet on the floor.
He must have left it there last night, she realised as a handful of pound coins, a mixture of business cards and some credit cards slid out of various compartments. She knelt to pick them up. A couple of credit cards, a kidney donor card and a business card from a shop called Gedling Artwork. She was gathering up the pound coins when she found the photograph lying face down on the floor near the fridge.
It was a passport-sized photo of a child, a little boy with brown hair and blue eyes who didn’t look much older than Ben.
Jade felt her heart thud uncomfortably. Finn hadn’t mentioned any younger relatives – not that there was any reason he should, she supposed. She stared hard at the photo. The boy looked nothing like Finn, but that didn’t mean they weren’t related. Perhaps he was a nephew, although hadn’t Finn said he didn’t have any brothers or sisters? Well, whoever he was, Finn must be fond of him to carry his photo in his wallet. She slid it back, hoping she’d put it in the right place. She didn’t want him to think she’d been nosing through his things. Despite Aiden’s clumsy warnings, she liked Finn. She certainly wasn’t going to pry into his private life, however curious she was. Jade put the photo out of her head, which actually wasn’t difficult, as worrying about Ben took up most of her thoughts.
She was counting down the hours to the end of half term. It was looking likely that Sarah and Callum might stay in Dundee an extra few days. But at least Ben would be back at school. There was just today and the weekend to get through.
Jade broke the ice on the water trough the next morning and watched Ashley grazing with a sense of relief. He was much calmer now Rosanna was off his radar. Aiden had done the blood test to see if he was a rig, and they were waiting for the results. She had a few calls to make but she didn’t want to get too distracted because of Ben.
‘Ben can come and give me a hand if you need to make some phone calls,’ Finn offered when he found out what she was worrying about. ‘I’m replacing the rotten fencing in the top field – it’s nice and mucky, he’ll love it, and I’ll make sure he doesn’t come to any harm.’
‘All right, thanks,’ she said, after a moment’s hesitation. Ben liked Finn and Finn was brilliant with him, endlessly patient with Ben’s endless questions about painting. She trusted Finn instinctively – she had since the moment she’d met him, she realised, remembering when he’d stopped to help with the red kite.
The proud predator had healed beautifully and Jade had released it in a field close to where she’d found it. She still saw it occasionally, circling high above the smallholding. It warmed her heart.
Later that morning when she was about to go and check in on Ben and Finn, Aiden’s jeep drew into the yard. Hoping for some news on Ashley, she went to greet him.
‘Hi, Aiden.’
‘Morning. I’m afraid this isn’t a social call.’ He inclined his head towards his vehicle. ‘Sorry to spring this on you, but I thought you might be able to squeeze in a little one.’
‘Always room for a little one,’ Jade quipped, looking into his kind brown eyes. ‘What have you got?’
‘Jack Russell. Or to be more accurate, Jack Russell – ish.’
They went out into the yard and Aiden opened up the back. In the dog transporter Jade could see the outline of a little dog, mostly white.
‘Hello, sweetie,’ she murmured, holding out her hand.
The dog lunged at the bars, and Jade glanced at Aiden.
‘Prosecution case. Sorry.’
The bitch stared at them, her lip curled in warning. Jade stared back, taking in the skeletal rib cage, the dark circular marks on the dirty coat. ‘What happened to her?’
‘You don’t want to know. But she won’t be going back. She’s still young. I think she’ll settle down in time. They have an enormous capacity for forgiveness, don’t they?’
Jade swallowed. This was the worst part of her job and she didn’t think she’d ever harden up. She didn’t know how Aiden coped. If she’d met the little dog’s owners, then prosecution or not, she knew she wouldn’t have been responsible for her actions. She gestured for him to bring the transporter to the kennels and they walked up the yard in silence.
Diesel was sitting on top of the chicken run.
‘I thought you’d gone off chickens since your close encounter,’ she said, pausing to stroke the big black cat.
He arched his back and spat at her and she withdrew her fingers just in time. ‘There’s gratitude for you. Tell me why I’m doing this again, Aiden.’
‘Because you couldn’t bear to do anything else,’ he murmured, and she glanced at him in surprise.
‘Is it that obvious?’
‘It is to me.’
‘The only reason I keep Diesel is because no one else would put up with him,’ she said, which wasn’t true, but was preferable to having Aiden think she was soft.
He gave her a disbelieving look and they carried on up the yard. By the kennels, a group of volunteer dog walkers were talking to some prospective owners. Some of them came from miles around to walk the dogs. Without their help, life would be much harder. And they were all here for the love of it. She gestured Aiden towards the quarantine block and went across to thank them, which she knew she didn’t do nearly enough.
‘No probs, love,’ said one of the younger mums, who usually came in at school holiday time. ‘Wears my kids out a treat, coming here. Don’t hear a peep out of them when we get home. How you doing with Ben?’
‘I think he’s wearing me out more than I’m wearing him out,’ Jade confessed, and they all laughed.
She caught up with Aiden at the quarantine block, which was empty, opened up a run at the very end because she had a feeling this little dog ought to be kept as far away as possible from the general public, and tossed a handful of doggie treats towards the inner sleeping compartment. Aiden unlatched the front of the transporter and put it inside the door.
‘How’s it going, Jade? New employee settled in all right?’
‘I don’t see that much of him.’ This wasn’t true either, but she didn’t want to start Aiden off on another lecture about the recklessness of sharing her cottage with a stranger.
‘Do the RSPCA know you brought her to me?’ she asked as the Jack Russell, deciding it was worth the risk for a biscuit, crept out on her stomach.
‘No.’ His face shadowed and he didn’t elaborate. They both knew where the dog was supposed to be. In a black bag by now, having been painlessly destroyed at Aiden’s surgery – maybe the only pain-free thing that would have happened to her in her short life, Jade thought with a shiver.
Aiden edged the transporter back out again, but the dog ignored them. She was wolfing down another biscuit. They left her to it and went out into the brightness of the day.
‘I’ll pop in Monday lunchtime when she’s had a chance to settle and see how she is,’ Aiden said. ‘She’s not going to be easy, that one, and you’ve got enough on your plate.’