Chapter 15 #3
‘Because I don’t want to make you late for work.’
‘I said you wouldn’t.’
‘I don’t want to dump all this hassle on you. It’s not fair.’
‘We’re a team, aren’t we? I live here now, so that means your hassles, Hilltop’s hassles, are mine too because they affect me either way.’
He said nothing in reply as he opened the gate and let her go through first.
Dawn hadn’t yet broken, but the sky over the hills was indigo where the sun waited to appear, thin ribbons of smudged clouds hovering around the shadowed peaks.
From every tree and hedgerow came the sounds of birds waking to greet it, and the grass beneath her feet was dusted with an overnight frost.
She took his silence to mean he’d given up arguing and so reached for his hand.
Despite a lack of resistance to the action, there was a tremor of emotion that ran through him so palpably she could feel it, like he didn’t really want her to.
His stress and impatience and worry was hers to absorb, and so she held on tight, hoping that somehow she could do that, even if he didn’t want it, because she was certain it was what he needed, whether he knew it or not.
He marched over the rough ground as if it was no obstacle, like a man who’d already walked this path so often he’d memorised where every tussock and divot lay, while it took Zoe more care and effort to keep up.
She was determined that she would, but when her foot caught and almost sent her flying, she couldn’t help but let out a little squeal.
She righted herself, but not before Alex had snapped out of whatever trance he’d been in.
‘Are you all right?’
Zoe gave a grateful nod, more grateful for that flash of the old Alex than his concern. She didn’t like the one who’d let her through the gate, who seemed impatient and irritated by her company.
‘We should have brought a torch,’ he continued. ‘I didn’t think it would be so dark.’
‘We can use our phones.’
‘Yes, but I always think it’s better to have something a bit more heavy duty out here.’
He switched his phone light on anyway and swept the ground ahead as they walked. Zoe got hers out to do the same, doubling their field of vision.
‘I don’t even know where to start looking,’ he said as the camping pods came into view. ‘I know it’s around here, but…’
‘Maybe you’ll have to come back when it’s light after all.’
‘I suppose so, but I thought it was better to have a look now, when there’s nobody to see me. If one of them clocks me investigating, I’m worried they might try to influence my judgement.’
‘In what way could they do that?’
‘I don’t know, but I don’t want to give anyone the chance… Hang on…’ He headed for the base of a tree. ‘Could that be it?’
Zoe followed him, the beam from his phone zigzagging all over as he picked up the pace. And then she went cold as she recognised where she was.
He stooped down to look at the hole Grizzle had made the day she’d tried to walk him. But as she shone her torch onto it, she frowned.
‘Someone’s dug this out to make it bigger.’
Alex looked up at her. ‘What do you mean? You’ve already seen it?’
‘It’s where the rabbits were, isn’t it?’ She flushed, glad he couldn’t see it in the gloom.
‘Rabbits don’t make holes this size,’ he said.
‘Why would someone dig it out? It doesn’t make any sense…
I wouldn’t have thought the burrow entrances themselves would have been big enough to get a foot stuck in, though I suppose one of the kids might turn an ankle or something, at a push, but not a grown man… ’
‘They dug it out after the accident to make it look worse because… Well, you said they wanted a reason to sue.’
‘I did, but I still don’t see how anyone would have got tangled up in the rabbit burrows as they were. It doesn’t make any sense.’
Zoe chewed on her lip and then cursed her decent upbringing. ‘I didn’t say anything before because… I didn’t think it was something that anyone needed to know, and I swear when I left this the other day, the hole wasn’t so big…’
Alex stood up. ‘What are you trying to tell me?’
‘Grizzle was trying to get at the rabbits when I walked him. I mean, I think that’s what he was doing because he was digging around here. But I managed to get him away, and I know for a fact the hole wasn’t this big.’
‘But it might have been big enough for someone to get caught in?’
Zoe gave a helpless shrug, and he put a hand to his head with an exasperated hiss.
‘But someone has definitely been at this,’ she replied.
‘We can’t prove that.’
‘They have!’ she insisted.
‘But it doesn’t matter! The damage has been done! Zoe, why didn’t you tell me? I’d have come over and checked it out right away!’
‘I’m sorry. There was so much going on, I forgot!’
He was angry – she could hear it in what he didn’t say rather than what he did. She could hear it in the silence as he stepped back and observed the mess that Grizzle had left, which had become so much more than a patch of disturbed earth. He didn’t want to blame her, but he did.
‘I’m telling you now, though,’ she added, almost defiantly because whatever guilt or responsibility she might feel, she wasn’t going to accept that what they’d found there this morning was entirely how she’d left it, ‘it wasn’t like that when I pulled Grizzle away.
I don’t know if this was how it got because the man was caught in it and they had to pull him out, or whether someone has been back to make it look worse for whatever reason, but it was not this bad. ’
‘I believe you,’ he said after a pause that was far too long for Zoe’s liking. ‘Maybe someone has been messing with it. I believe when you were last here it wasn’t this bad. I’m just not sure how much that helps us. We don’t have any proof.’
‘They don’t have any either,’ Zoe reminded him.
‘Well, they kinda do. They have the broken leg and the testimony of everyone who had to pull him out of the hole.’
‘But they can’t prove that the hole was big enough…’ Her argument dried up as she caught, even in the gloom, the scepticism in his expression. ‘OK,’ she said lamely. ‘So what do we do?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I suppose I come back when they’ve gone and take photos or something and then take it from there.’
‘Do you think they’ll have taken photos?’
‘Undoubtedly. It’s what I would have done if I’d been in their position.’
‘Before or after they’d dug it out to make it look worse…’
‘Much as I appreciate you trying to make us appear to be in the right, I’m not sure speculating about that helps.
We can’t prove it either way, so there’s no point in even bringing it up.
’ He pursed his lips as his gaze went back to the hole.
‘I should have got rid of those rabbits as soon as we knew they were here… I should have known something like this would happen.’
‘You’d never have done that because you’re too kind.’
‘And look where being too kind has got me. I should toughen up – kindness and successful businesses don’t mix.’
‘You don’t really mean that.’
‘No, but I bet it’s true.’
‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and have breakfast. You said yourself there’s nothing more you can do here until it’s light.’
‘You’re right. I can’t say I’ve got much of an appetite, but there’s no point in hanging around here staring at that mess.
’ He cast a glance towards the horizon, where the indigo of earlier was now a definite peachy lilac.
‘It’ll be light soon anyway, and the guests might be stirring.
I know I’ll have to face them sooner or later, but I’m not in the mood right now. ’
‘You’re angry?’ she asked as they began to walk.
‘Not with you, if that’s what you think. Angry at the situation. I mean, I do wish you’d said something to me earlier…’
‘Don’t you think I wish that too? If I could go back in time and change it, I would, but…’
‘I know. I don’t mean to take this out on you, and I’m sorry if it feels that way.’ He turned in the direction of Daffodil Farm. ‘I wonder if Victor is up yet.’
‘I bet he is, but what do you want him for?’
‘I might ask him about the rabbits. Whether it’s worth trying to get rid of them or, if not, whether it would be a problem if I filled in that hole.
I don’t know… Do they just go somewhere else to dig another one, or does it hurt them to lose one of their entrances…
?’ She was glad to detect a splinter of his usual humour in his next sentence.
‘I’ll be honest, all I know about rabbits comes from watching Watership Down as a kid, and I’m not watching that again – it took me ages to stop having nightmares about General Woundwort. ’
‘It’s probably a good idea to talk to Victor,’ Zoe agreed. ‘Even if it’s just to get his take on the whole situation. He might know a thing or two about the law concerning farmland too. If nothing else, he’ll have some words of wisdom that might make you feel more positive.’
‘True. I’ll have another cup of tea, give him a chance to have his breakfast and then go across. It’s at times like these you wish him and Corrine had a mobile phone between them.’
‘You could text, but sometimes there’s no substitution for a face-to-face chat.’
Zoe’s statement reminded her of the face-to-face chat she’d been trying to have with someone who would understand her predicament, attempts that had been fruitless so far.
One thing was certain: she wasn’t going to be sharing her concerns with Alex any time soon – not after this morning.
For one, he had enough to worry about, and secondly, despite his reassurances, she didn’t feel like his favourite person right now, not after admitting she’d let Grizzle dig up the burrow and hadn’t done anything to rectify it.
She’d forgotten, of course, because she’d had other things on her mind, things that had seemed far more important at the time.
It was another of those valuable life lessons about consequences that her mum or dad had yapped at her about as a kid, and it just went to show that you never stopped learning, no matter how old you were.