Chapter 35
Sitting on one of the hard chairs, Nicola glanced around the hall and, sure enough, people were whispering behind their hands, their eyes on her.
Turning back to face the front, she slouched low in her seat, trying to shake the feeling of the eyes boring into her back.
Looking across at Laura, she hissed, ‘Everyone knows that me and Charlie have broken up, then.’
Looking around quickly, Laura shrugged. ‘I doubt it. News travels fast, but not that fast. It’s only been a couple of days.’
‘Oh, news does travel that fast. It only takes two hours on a slow day to reach the outskirts of Meadowfield.’
Laura shook her head. ‘So what if they do know?’
Nicola sighed. Laura had a point. People were bound to find out sooner or later.
Maybe it was best just to get the stares and the murmurs over and done with in one hit.
At least if everyone got the gossip out of their system tonight, then she’d be able to walk through the village without everyone looking at her and asking if she was okay.
Nicola straightened her back. ‘I guess you’re right.
They’ll have talked about me whether I had come tonight or not. ’
‘That’s the spirit.’ Laura grinned at her.
‘Hmm.’ Nicola watched as a new influx of people walked into the hall, the group splintering off to rush towards family members or to squeeze into chairs next to their friends. And was that Jackson? She frowned as he headed their way. Yes, it was. He wasn’t supposed to be coming.
She watched as he squeezed through the aisle towards them and it was only then that she noticed a spare chair next to Laura, her handbag sitting on top of it.
Had she known Jackson was coming after all?
Had it all been a ploy to get Nicola out of the house?
Did Laura think she’d just rot in her own pity?
Umm, to be fair, she probably would have, but she’d have felt more comfortable slumped on her sofa with a box of tissues and an open share bag of crisps on her lap than here in the village hall.
‘Hey.’ Laura lifted her handbag and placed it on the floor as Jackson sat down and kissed her before smiling across at Nicola.
‘Hi, Nic.’
Leaning across, Nicola frowned. ‘I thought you couldn’t make it tonight?’
Confusion swept across Jackson’s face as Laura nudged him. ‘Oh, er, change of plan.’
‘Right.’ Nicola flared her nostrils and slumped back in her chair.
Yep, Laura had just wanted to make sure she didn’t hole herself up in her cottage.
She relaxed her shoulders. She supposed she shouldn’t be angry with her.
She’d probably have done the same if the roles had been reversed.
Still, she couldn’t wait for this damn meeting to be over and done with so she could retreat to her sanctuary.
‘Sorry, I just…’ Laura whispered as Miss Cooke took to the stage.
Nicola shook her head. ‘Don’t worry. Thanks for caring.’
Smiling, Laura rubbed Nicola’s forearm before turning her attention to Miss Cooke.
‘Good evening, all, and welcome to this month’s village meeting. Thank you for taking the time to prise yourselves away from your barbecues and whatnots. I know it’s tempting to miss these meetings when we’re blessed with such nice weather.’ She looked pointedly at the few empty chairs.
‘Shocking that people don’t organise their holidays around the village meetings or travel home for a few hours, so they don’t miss them,’ Laura whispered.
Nicola smiled briefly. Miss Cooke had always been the same, having the expectation that all of Meadowfield’s residents should take these meetings as seriously as she did.
‘And what a glorious week we’ve had! Officer Duffey here has an exciting update on Meadowfield’s runaway sheep, Gertrude.’
The inevitable calling out of random names people had attributed to Claudette began and Nicola rolled her eyes. Any other time, this little ritual made her laugh, but tonight she just couldn’t find it in her to find anything amusing.
‘Florence!’
‘Cloudy!’
‘Claudette!’
‘Yes, yes.’ Miss Cooke held her hands up, palms forward, and shushed her audience before stepping away from the lectern and waving Officer Duffey forward.
Clearing his throat, the officer flicked through a small notebook before looking ahead. ‘Good evening. Yes, as Miss Cooke has mentioned, we have an interesting update on the missing sheep case.’
‘What’s that then?’ Neil Parsons called out from the front row. ‘Have you caught her?’
‘Er, no. The sheep has not yet been taken into custody…’
Nicola heard Laura stifle a laugh, whereas Jackson, not as quick to think to cover his mouth, tried to turn his chuckle into a cough.
‘…But we do have it on good authority that the sightings have decreased considerably.’ He flicked through his notebook again. ‘In fact, over the past two weeks, we have not had one sighting at all.’
‘Has she gone?’
‘Does that mean I can plant out my begonias now, then?’ Mrs Pierce asked.
‘I do believe she may well have moved on. Of her own accord.’ Officer Duffey closed his notebook and nodded towards Miss Cooke, who stepped forward again.
‘Fantastic news. Thank you, Officer Duffey. I’m sure the whole village will join me in congratulating you on a well-deserved victory on your part.’
Nicola sniggered. It was just as Charlie had predicted.
He’d said that the villagers would believe Claudette had left the vicinity and yet she was only up the road at his farm.
She slumped her shoulders as a wave of sadness washed over her.
If only he’d been here to witness his predictions coming true, to watch as Miss Cooke and the local police force took the credit for the lull in Claudette’s destructive activity.
She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.
If he was here, he’d be laughing right about now.
And she would be too. Heck, he’d probably stand up and correct them.
Tell them how it was. She wasn’t going to get over this, was she?
How was she supposed to just get on with her life as though nothing had happened when, all around her, the memories she’d made with him were lurking?
Standing up, she turned to make her way along the row of chairs towards the aisle running down by the wall. She shouldn’t have come. She didn’t want to be here.
‘Nic, what are you doing?’ Laura hissed as she tugged at her cardigan.
‘I’m going home, I can’t?—’
‘Please sit down, Miss Fields.’ Miss Cooke’s voice filled the hall as people began to turn and whisper.
Halting in her tracks, Nicola sank to her chair, her face quickly turning a bright scarlet.
She’d only wanted to leave. Miss Cooke couldn’t keep her captive.
She was a mayoress, not a headmistress. Nicola looked down at her clasped hands in her lap, trying to avoid seeing the hundreds of pairs of eyes all focused on her.
‘It’ll be okay.’ Laura reached over and rubbed her arm.
Nicola glanced quickly across at her. It wouldn’t be.
Not only had everyone been gossiping about her already, but now Miss Cooke had called her out and embarrassed her further.
She just wanted the ground to swallow her up, or, better still, a tunnel to her cottage appear by her feet.
But that wasn’t going to happen, was it?
‘I think now is a good time for another exciting announcement.’ Miss Cooke’s voice echoed in the large space again.
Nicola closed her eyes tightly shut. Yep, definitely time for an exciting announcement just after she’d reprimanded Nicola, a grown woman.
‘Today we welcome a new resident into the heart of our wonderful community. As you will only be too aware, the lovely Farmer Williams left us just at the beginning of the year.’
Murmuring rose through the hall.
Opening her eyes, Nicola twisted the hem of her cardigan between her fingers.
Surely she couldn’t be announcing the new farmer already?
Charlie had only left two days ago, and he hadn’t heard back from Miss Taunton about the interested party by then, so she very much doubted there could have been a viewing and the exchange of money and contracts all in two days. There couldn’t have been time.
Unless Charlie hadn’t been quite honest with her? Unless he’d been hiding the fact the farm had sold?
She swallowed. No, he wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t have lied to her. She knew him better than to think he would have lied. So how?
Maybe the new farmer was renting it from Charlie for the time being until the contracts were exchanged. That made sense.
She sniffed, determined not to let the tears fall again.
It was well and truly over. If the new farmer had indeed moved in, then that was that. Charlie wouldn’t be back.
She shifted in her chair. She knew he wouldn’t be, he’d told her, but there had always been that tiny sliver of hope. Now, with the new farmer in residence, that had gone. All gone.
It was over.
‘And so we welcome the new farmer who has taken up residence at Little Mead…’
Nicola looked up, her eyes focusing on Miss Cooke as she waved manically towards the door of the hall. Whoever the new farmer was must have been lurking outside.
Her breath caught in her throat as someone stepped inside the hall and made their way up to the stage. The familiar well-worn checked flannel shirt, the piercing blue eyes, the…
‘Charlie Williams.’
Nicola clamped her hand over her mouth as a small shriek escaped her throat. It was Charlie. Charlie had taken over Little Mead? Permanently? Was that what Miss Cooke was saying?
She watched as he made his way towards the middle of the stage and Miss Cooke signalled to the lectern and the microphone.
Stepping in front of it, Charlie adjusted the height of the microphone before speaking.
‘Thank you for such a warm welcome. If I may just have a moment of your time.’ He searched the sea of faces in front of him before continuing.
‘I’m really only here because of one person.
One person who showed me how special Little Mead, my uncle’s pride and joy, is.
One person who introduced me to Meadowfield and kept insisting that the charm of village living would rub off on me. ’
Nicola glanced across to Laura, who was grinning at her.
‘And it did. I fell in love with Little Mead, with Meadowfield, but more than anything else I fell in love with’ – Charlie scanned the audience again before locking eyes with Nicola and pointing to her – ‘with you, Nicola Fields.’
Gasps erupted all around her and she could definitely feel everyone’s eyes on her now, but she didn’t care. She kept her eyes locked with Charlie’s.
‘I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone before.’ He shifted on his feet. ‘And I’m standing up here begging you to take me back.’
‘Oh.’ The sound caught in her throat, resulting in a noise close to a gurgle and a cough. She watched as he jumped down from the stage and began walking down the aisle between the rows of chairs towards her.
‘Go on.’ Laura jabbed her in the side, signalling her to go towards him.
Without thinking twice, Nicola jumped out of her chair, squeezed along the row and ran down the aisle straight into his open arms.
Wrapping his arms around her, he spoke into her hair. ‘I love you, Nic.’
‘I love you too.’ Looking up at him, she searched his eyes. She needed to know if this was actually happening or whether it was some elaborate, cruel joke. ‘Are you really staying?’
‘I am.’
‘But why? How?’ She had so many questions whirring in her mind, she could hardly hear the applause surrounding them.
‘Come on, let’s go outside.’ Kissing the top of her head, Charlie took her hand in his and led the way out, thanking Miss Cooke as they hurried past the stage.
As she walked with him, she glanced quickly at Miss Cooke, half expecting her to demand they sit down and listen to the rest of the village meeting, not that she cared. Nothing would stop her spending this time with Charlie. Not even the quite fearsome Miss Cooke.
Once outside, Charlie closed the door on the meeting before turning to face her. ‘Nic, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left…’
She rubbed her hand over her face, trying to make some sort of sense of it all. ‘I don’t understand. You’d gone back to work, you’d moved back to London.’
Stepping towards her, he tucked her hair behind her ears.
‘I couldn’t do it. As soon as I stepped foot inside my office, I knew I’d made a mistake.
I realised what you’d been telling me all along, that my uncle’s farm was special, that it was his legacy, the legacy of all my family before him, too.
But, above all, I realised that I just didn’t want to be without you. ’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t want you moving back here just because of me. We can still visit each other, like you said. I?—’
‘Nic, I don’t want to be anywhere else. I want to be here, with you in my life.
Every single day, not just on a snatched weekend here and there.
I want to be with you. And I want to run my uncle’s farm.
I want to be part of the craziness that is the Meadowfield community.
I want Claudette in my life. All of it.’
‘You missed Claudette?’ She spluttered out a laugh. If this wasn’t some elaborate joke, then was it a dream? Had she finally dropped off to sleep?
‘Yes! I missed Claudette. Not as much as you though…’ He grinned.
‘I should hope not.’ She fiddled with her bracelet, twisting it around her wrist. ‘Are you sure, though? Are you sure you want to throw away your career, your life in the big city?’
He stepped closer and cupped his hands around her cheeks. ‘I haven’t been surer about anything in my whole entire life. I want you, Nic. Just you.’
Bringing her hands to the nape of his neck, she drew him towards her, her lips touching his.
This was real.
This was happening.