Chapter 11
Both Jenna and Mac settled in at the pub fairly easily. Mac needed a bit more guidance when it came to pulling pints, but Jenna had remembered her time behind the student bar very well, and Sam was impressed.
‘I still can’t believe you’re both here,’ he told Mac one afternoon. ‘It was so kind of you and Jenna to help me. I honestly don’t know what I’d have done without you.’
‘It’s no trouble,’ Mac assured him with a grin. ‘It’s got me out of sorting those shepherd’s huts anyway, so I’m perfectly happy.’
‘I heard they’d arrived. I was in town getting Mrs Lambert’s prescription and some shopping for the Wilmots, but everyone was talking about your big delivery when I got back.’
Weren’t they just! Everyone in the village knew that Mac had purchased three shepherd’s huts and planned to hire them out to people wanting to reconnect with nature and with each other.
The builders and plumbers were currently hard at work on the utility room in the annexe at Watersmeet, making a shower and toilet block for guests with access from the field.
‘They look smashing,’ Mac explained to him as they got the pub ready for opening. ‘Timber framed with corrugated iron cladding. Two are blue and one’s green.’
‘And they’re completely off grid?’
Mac nodded. ‘They’re double glazed, insulated, and they have wood-burning stoves with little chimneys, so people will be warm enough even in the coldest weather.
We’re kitting them out with battery-operated fairy lights and candles, battery-powered sensor lights and rechargeable cordless lamps, so they’ll definitely be able to see all right, even without mains electricity.
We’ll be charging the lamps up during the day in our house, obviously, so they’re fully powered at night.
And we’ve situated the huts close to the shower and toilet block, so they won’t have far to walk when nature calls, and there’ll be solar lights to guide the way. It’ll look grand when it’s finished.’
‘What needs doing to the huts?’ Sam asked, curious. He’d never seen a shepherd’s hut in real life before.
‘Mainly just fitting out with furniture and soft furnishings. I’m useless at that stuff, honestly.
Well, if you’d seen Watersmeet before Alison moved in, you’d know what I mean.
My bedroom – I blush when I think about it.
I don’t know how I dared let her see it.
She’s completely transformed it, as well as the guest rooms, and she can’t wait to get cracking on the huts.
She’s picking out beds and drawer units and duvet covers and curtains as we speak. ’
Sam laughed. ‘Good job she’s so interested then, if you’re useless.’
‘Too right.’ Mac smiled. ‘They arrived completely empty except for the wood burners. Alison wanted them like that, though. She’s got lots of ideas for them.
The two blue ones have got doors at the end with steps leading up to them – they look a bit like old-fashioned Romany caravans, you know?
Then the green one – it’s a bit bigger, and it’s got a stable door in the middle of the hut.
Alison’s already got plans to fix window boxes and hanging baskets up and give them little garden areas. Well, you can imagine.’
‘Do you think the guests will cope without televisions and the Internet? Not to mention not being able to charge up their mobile phones.’
‘But that’s what it’s about! That will be the key selling point.
It’s to give people who haven’t really spoken to each other, or spent any meaningful time together, the chance to put down their laptops and phones, and spend time in actual conversation.
Connecting with each other instead of to devices.
I think it will be great for couples who are going through a rough patch, or for parents who are estranged from their children. Weekend dads – that sort of thing.’
‘What about their meals? There won’t be any cooking facilities at all?’
‘No, but we’ll provide them with breakfasts, picnic lunches and cooked dinners if they want them, and there’s always the pub.’ He grinned. ‘You might make quite a bit of money from our guests. You never know. We should charge commission.’
Sam tried but failed to smile back.
‘I was only joking!’ Mac reassured him, laughing. ‘I won’t really charge you.’
Sam sighed. ‘If I tell you something, can you keep it to yourself? At least for now.’
‘Okay,’ Mac said slowly. ‘I’m intrigued. What’s going on?’
Feeling thoroughly ashamed of himself, Sam briefly told Mac about the pub going up for sale.
‘I really thought Dad would change his mind when he heard I was going back to work for Luke, but he didn’t.
It’s like he really doesn’t care. And the thing is, Mac, I’m having to accept that it’s probably the case.
He doesn’t. Not any more.’ He gave Mac an anxious look.
‘You won’t say anything to anyone, will you? Not even Alison or Jenna. Not yet.’
Mac shook his head, clearly shocked that it had come to this. ‘Of course not. And you really think he’ll go through with it?’
‘I was having my doubts,’ Sam admitted, ‘but this morning he rang the estate agent. They’re sending someone round next week to get all the details. Looks like it’s really happening.’
‘But where will you live? Where will your dad live?’
Sam shrugged. ‘I’m already scouring the paper and the Internet for properties to rent nearby.’ He finally managed a wry smile. ‘If push comes to shove, at least I know where there are some shepherd’s huts me and Dad can rent.’
Mac clapped him on the back. ‘We won’t see you homeless, Sam, that’s for sure. I know what it’s like to be in that situation, and believe me, you and your dad will always have a bed at Watersmeet.’
‘Thanks, Mac, that’s reassuring. But hopefully it won’t come to that.
Dad should make a nice profit on this place, and I think he’ll buy himself a bungalow or something – probably at Millensea.
As for me – well, I’ll find something. Even if it’s just a bedsit for now.
Maybe it’s time I got myself a mortgage anyway. ’
‘You could buy one of those fancy houses you’re going to be building with Luke Ingledew,’ Mac said, only half joking.
‘You never know.’
‘So, no one else knows about this?’
‘Kenny knows it’s going to happen – I had to tell him.
He’d half guessed anyway – but he doesn’t know Dad’s already set the ball rolling.
As for the rest of the staff, I suppose now it’s definite, they need to know.
’ His mouth tightened in sudden determination.
‘But Dad can break it to them. He’s the one who wants to sell, not me.
I think I’ve done enough for him over the last few years. Time he took some responsibility.’
‘I think you’re right,’ Mac said seriously.
‘Your dad needs to get back in the real world, not hide away upstairs the way he has been doing. He needs to connect with people again. Be reminded that life is going on all around him and he’s missing out.
We’re in our sixties now. There’s no time to waste any more.
It breaks my heart to think of him rotting away like this when he used to be such a laugh, and such a good man.
Would it be all right if I went up to see him, do you think? ’
‘I think that would be great,’ Sam said gratefully. ‘You could tell him you’re making me a cup of tea.’
‘Does that mean you want a cup of tea?’ Mac asked, his blue eyes twinkling.
‘How kind of you to offer,’ Sam said.
Mac shook his head. ‘Walked into that one, didn’t I? All right, cup of tea coming up. But I’ll have a bit of a chat with your dad first – if he’ll entertain me, that is. Wish me luck.’
Sam did, but he wasn’t convinced Mac would have any more success than he’d had. His dad had refused to see Mac on many occasions previously and had simply shrugged when Sam had passed on Mac’s invitation to visit Watersmeet any time he wanted.
‘What would be the point?’ he’d asked. ‘Nothing much to say, is there?’
When Mac finally came downstairs, carrying two mugs of tea, Sam raised an eyebrow, more in hope than expectation.
‘You were quite a while,’ he said. ‘Does that mean he spoke to you?’
‘He did,’ Mac agreed. ‘Grudgingly at first but I wouldn’t let him get away with that. I’m fed up of all this tiptoeing around him. It’s not doing him any good. I asked him, straight out, if he was sure about selling up.’
‘You did? What did he say to that?’
‘Well, he was a bit shocked that you’d told me, to be honest. He didn’t see why I should know about it, but I said that, as I was staff now, I had every right, and so did the rest of them, and that if he was really going to sell up then he had better call a staff meeting and break the news to them all. ’
‘Blimey! How did he react?’
Mac grinned. ‘Went a bit pale at the thought, actually. Doesn’t like facing up to things does he, your dad? Anyway, he said he’d get round to it before the estate agent arrived, so I’m going to hold him to that, and you should too.’
‘But he still seems intent on going through with it?’
Mac sighed. ‘It would appear that way. He didn’t seem particularly happy about it, but then again, he didn’t seem too upset either. I think he’s just going with whatever. It’s like he has no real wants or needs of his own.’
‘Apart from sitting in his armchair watching the soaps,’ Sam said bitterly.
‘Well there’s that,’ Mac agreed. ‘Families, eh? Always something to worry about.’ He hesitated. ‘Alison’s a bit worried about Jenna, as it goes,’ he said finally.
‘Jenna?’
‘Yeah.’ Mac looked awkward, as if he wasn’t sure how much he should tell Sam.
‘She’s not herself. Look, I don’t really know her that well to be honest, but Alison’s convinced there’s something going on with her, and I have to agree that her behaviour’s been a bit strange.
I mean, just turning up out of the blue for the entire summer holidays without any warning or discussion.
It’s a bit weird, isn’t it? Especially without the husband. ’
‘You don’t like having them at Watersmeet?’ Sam asked.
‘Oh, God, no! It’s not that at all! She’s a nice kid, and the twins are smashing.
I have no problem with them being there.
It’s just – odd. And why doesn’t that Joel bloke ever come to see her?
He doesn’t even call her, as far as I know.
The twins have never mentioned speaking to him on the phone.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but Alison seems to be fretting about her, and you’ve got to admit, Jenna looks a bit peaky. ’
‘She does,’ Sam agreed. ‘I thought, that very first night when she turned up at the pub, that she looked so… so fragile and sad. Something’s wrong, somewhere. Poor Jenna.’
Mac eyed him for a moment then nodded. ‘You’ll go easy on her then?’ He held up his hands and added, ‘Sorry, Sam, but I promised Alison that I’d ask you to do that. I know you will anyway, but a promise is a promise, after all.’
‘I know, and don’t worry, I will.’ Sam rolled his eyes. ‘Like you said, families. Always something to worry about, eh? Who’d have them?’
Mac gave him a sad smile, and Sam could have kicked himself. Everyone knew that Mac was estranged from his own two children, and although his daughter had written to him a couple of times there’d been no contact from his son, and no sign of either of them visiting Watersmeet.
Sam had got it from Briar, who’d got it from her mum, who’d got it from her neighbour, who’d heard it from Rosie – never the most discreet of people, even though her heart was in the right place and she’d probably only been expressing sympathy for Mac’s plight.
That was how things worked in Kelsea Sands.
God only knows what they said about the goings-on at The North Star.
He wondered suddenly if rumours had already started circulating about the pub’s future.
It would only take one careless comment by the estate agent to someone who knew someone in Kelsea Sands…
He sighed. This village was a nightmare if you wanted to keep a secret. But even so, he knew that, when the time came to leave, he would miss it desperately.