CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The rain had finally stopped as I left Rhona back at the glamping site and drove over to join Mac at Bogg House.
I’d wanted Rhona to take the day off after her upsetting encounter with Mac (I couldn’t get used to thinking of him as ‘Joel’) but she’d insisted that working was always the best therapy, so I’d known there was no point in arguing the point.
I’d phoned Mac and spoken to him about the leak in the nursery, and he’d said he was already on his way over to Bogg House and that he’d look at it as soon as he got there and he’d get back to me.
It had been less than an hour later when he’d called to say that they’d located the leak. It was nothing serious and it would be fixed by the end of the day.
I breathed a sigh of relief. More rain was forecast for later that night, but I’d be able to sleep easy knowing that the nursery murals would be safe! But I wanted to see for myself the level of water damage that had taken place. Hopefully it would be fixable.
When I got to the house, the sound of drilling greeted me as I walked in. No one was about and the noise was coming from upstairs, so I ran up to the landing. The loft door was open and work was obviously going on in there so I left them to it and went to inspect the nursery.
As soon as I walked in and looked anxiously at the damp patch, I could tell it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. The water droplets I’d seen were gone. There was a slight bit of discolouration to the blue sky above the canopy of leaves in the corner, but that was all, and I breathed a sigh of relief. The beautiful murals had been saved!
The drilling was getting right inside my head now, so I escaped into the garden, glancing at the ladder that had been propped against the front of the house – probably Mac checking the roof earlier.
A thought occurred to me. The Bogg House sign over the door had been bugging me for ages and I kept forgetting to ask the guys to remove it. But if I wiggled the ladder along a bit, I could probably climb up just a few rungs and take it down myself. The sign looked as if it was almost dropping off anyway. How hard could it be?
I managed to inch the ladder along until it was resting against the wall over the front door. Then, trying not to think about what Zak would say if he saw me, I put my foot on the first rung and started to climb up.
It was further up than I thought and when I made the mistake of looking down, the ground seemed a long way down.
If only I was taller and my arms were longer!
I thought about being sensible and abandoning the idea – waiting until one of the guys came down from the loft – but I was almost there. The sign was tantalisingly close as I reached up as far as I could. Just one more rung and I’d be able to–
The ladder shifted sideways against the wall.
Horrified, I froze, as my insides clenched with fear.
It had probably moved only an inch or two, but that was enough to chill me to the bone. I was too high up. If the ladder fell, I could really hurt myself – and the baby!
Almost in tears now, I cursed myself for being so irresponsible. Why couldn’t I have just waited? Patience had never been my strongest quality. I was frightened to move even an inch now in case the precariously balanced ladder dislodged completely and I came down to earth with a crash.
I shouted for help, calling out the guys’ names in a panic, one by one. But the sound of the drilling from inside was drowning out my attempts at alerting them, no matter how loudly I shouted.
Deciding I couldn’t stay up there forever, I took one scary step down. But the ladder wobbled so much, I froze again, unable to go any further.
The drilling noise stopped so I seized my chance.
‘Help!’ I yelled at the top of my voice, terrified that at any moment a sudden gust of wind could bring me down.
No response. So I yelled again. And again.
Oh, Sprout, I’m so, so sorry for putting you in danger! I’ll never do anything as stupid as this ever again–
‘Woah! Hey, there.’
I looked down and was taken aback to see one of the quad bike teenagers standing there. It was the boy I’d seen running out of our garden that time. He was holding onto the ladder and peering up at me.
‘Do you need help?’ he asked.
‘Yes, please!’ Relief flooded through me. ‘If you could keep holding the ladder steady while I climb down?’
He nodded. ‘It’s fine. You’re okay. Er... just take it easy. No rush.’ Seeing my pregnancy bump up close seemed to have alarmed him a little, judging by his now rather wary expression!
Getting down, I was trembling but so relieved to feel my feet on solid ground again. ‘Thank you so much.’ My heart was bumping furiously against my ribcage. And just then, Mac and Barney came running out of the house.
‘What happened?’ shouted Mac.
‘We were upstairs in the loft when we heard your cries for help,’ said Danny.
‘She was stuck up the ladder,’ explained my rescuer, as I braced my hands on my thighs and took some deep breaths to try and calm down.
‘Are you okay, Ellie?’ asked an anxious Mac, rubbing my back gently.
I gave him a sheepish smile and straightened up. ‘I tried to climb up to get that sign down. Stupidly. I felt the ladder wobble and I thought I was going to fall.’
‘Let’s get you inside,’ said Danny. He glanced back at the house. ‘Um... I was going to say to sit down, but there’s no proper seats in there.’
‘How about you sit in the car?’ Mac pointed towards the lane where I was parked. ‘You can have a rest and I’ll bring you some water.’
‘Oh, no. Really. I’m fine.’ I waved away their kind concern. ‘It was just a shock, that’s all. I’m so sorry I dragged you all the way down from the loft.’
Danny grinned. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s a good excuse to put the kettle on and have a break.’
I laughed. ‘You builders and your tea breaks! No, honestly, I’m okay. I’ll head straight home, eat too many toasted teacakes with too much butter, have a lie down and I’ll be fine!’
‘Well, if you’re sure?’ said Mac, looking uncertain. ‘I could drive you back?’
‘No! Really, you get back to work – er, I mean your tea break.’ I smiled. ‘It was lovely of you to offer, though.’
I finally managed to convince them I was fine and I wasn’t about to give birth from shock right there in the garden. Danny went back into the house, calling to me to take care, and Mac walked me over to the gate.
I glanced curiously at him. He looked all right for a man who’d just recently discovered he had a daughter he never knew about. Not that I was going to mention his encounter with Rhona. It was none of my business. I wondered if Mac used work for therapy, just like Rhona did...
‘Take care of yourself and don’t climb any more ladders,’ he said.
‘I won’t,’ I said sheepishly, glancing around for my rescuer.
‘Chamomile tea! Hate the stuff myself but my daughter tells me it’s good for relaxation.’
‘Your daughter?’
‘Rihanna. She was worried about me living alone and not looking after myself, so she decided to move in for a while and cook me healthy meals!’
‘Lucky you.’
‘It’s been nice,’ he admitted. ‘But I’m a big boy. I think I can probably handle solo living.’
I smiled. I’d thought he must be living with a partner – but it was actually his daughter.
‘Oh. There he is.’ I suddenly spotted my rescuer walking up the lane. ‘I must go and thank him for helping me.’
I parted from Mac and he sprinted back into the house.
Then I started hurrying up the lane as fast as Sprout would let me...
*****
‘Hello?’ I called out, and he turned. ‘Can I just say thank you again? You might have saved my life back then!’
He paused where he was for a moment, so I kept going. And eventually he started walking over to meet me in the middle.
‘I honestly can’t thank you enough,’ I told him, laying my hand on my bump.
He shrugged. ‘It’s okay. It was nothing.’
‘Well, I disagree. It was very definitely something and I’m ever so grateful.’ I paused. ‘But... can I just ask you what you were doing in our garden the other day? Had you been inside the house?’
‘What?’ He stared at me. ‘No! We’d never trespass like that.’
I smiled. ‘Well, that’s good to hear.’
He frowned. ‘Look, sorry about my mates... the stupid whistling and everything. They were just having a laugh.’
‘It’s not funny for the person on the other end.’
‘No. I suppose not.’ He looked down at his feet awkwardly.
‘I’m Ellie, by the way. I’m going to be moving into the house with my husband, Zak, and my daughter Maisie. Do you live on the farm? Are we neighbours?’
He nodded. ‘I’m Kai. I live there with my mum and dad and a very annoying sister called Abby.’ He held out his hand and we shook solemnly. ‘And I wasn’t in your garden to steal anything, by the way. I was just...’
‘You were just?’
‘Cutting.’
‘You were cutting ?’ A vision of knives flashed into my head.
‘Yeah. Lavender. I was taking a cutting for my mum. It’s her birthday tomorrow so I thought she’d like it. As an extra present.’
‘Oh. Right.’ I laughed, feeling the wind taken right out of my sails. ‘That’s such a lovely thought.’
‘I know I should have asked you first, but you weren’t there. Old Mrs Baxter, who used to live in your house, was friends with Mum and she used to give her loads of cuttings for our garden when we first moved to the farm.’ He gave me a guilty look. ‘Sorry.’
I shook my head. ‘It’s all right. You’ll have to show me where the lavender is. I’d no idea we even had any.’
‘You’ve got lots of herbs in there if you look hard enough.’
I laughed. ‘Among the acres of weeds, you mean?’
‘Yeah.’ He grinned. ‘I used to cut Mrs Baxter’s lawns for her. That’s how I know.’
‘So are you at college? Or still at school?’
‘We left school last summer and we’re on a gap year.’ He nodded in the direction of the field so I assumed he was talking about his quad bike mates. ‘Dad got me a quad bike for doing well in my exams, and he’s already got one, so we’ve been... well, me and the boys have been messing around on them.’
I chuckled. ‘Yes, I’d noticed.’
‘Sorry about the noise. But we’re all going away to uni soon so you won’t have to put up with us after that.’
‘In September, you mean?’
He rubbed his nose. ‘I suppose that’s quite a long way off. I’ll make sure we keep the noise down till then.’
I smiled at him. ‘Thank you. But the noise is fine. It was the cheeky whistling and shouting I wasn’t keen on.’
‘That won’t happen again. I promise.’
A car was trundling along the lane towards us.
Kai grunted. ‘It’s Mum. I’m in trouble.’
The car came to a stop and a woman got out. ‘Kai? You said you’d be back ages ago.’ She walked over with a smile, not looking in the least annoyed. ‘Your gran’s here. She’s knitted you another jumper so just be nice about it, okay?’ She grimaced at me. ‘We’ve got a drawer full, bless her, but I haven’t the heart to tell her to stop.’ She held out her hand and smiled. ‘Hi. I’m Diana. Are you moving into Bogg House?’
‘We are. I’m Ellie. And can I just say, your son is a bit of a hero.’
‘Oh?’ Diana looked at Kai and tried to ruffle his hair, although he managed to squirm away in time.
‘He saved me from falling off a ladder. Not to be recommended when you’re in my state.’ I indicated my bump.
‘Oh. Are you all right?’ she asked.
‘I’m absolutely fine. Thanks to Kai.’
‘That’s good.’ She flashed him a fond smile. ‘I always knew he’d turn from a little monster into a human being eventually,’ she joked, while her son blushed and grinned.
‘Mothers, eh?’ I smiled at Kai. ‘They’re so embarrassing.’
‘But that’s our job!’ said Diana. ‘Anyway, we’d better not keep Granny waiting.’ She turned to me. ‘It was lovely to meet you, Ellie. Come over to the farm for a cuppa sometime and we can have a proper chat? It’ll be lovely to have neighbours again.’