Chapter 17
Daisy sawed her toast and marmite in half, making the kitchen table shake and tea threaten to slop over the rim of her mug. Her lip curled as she muttered, ‘Sending kids out to work isn’t legal. It’s not Victorian bloody England anymore, is it?’
‘It was only a suggestion,’ said Beth, ‘and watch your language.’ Fortunately, Grace was busy chatting to her unicorn and tearing toast into little pieces to sneak under the table for Paddy and wasn’t listening.
Beth squinted as she tried to force the blade of the kitchen scissors into the tiny stitches on the hem of Jack’s school trousers. ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake! It shouldn’t be this difficult to let down a hem. Ah, there, got it.’ She snipped, releasing the fabric. ‘There, Jack. That’ll do for now, but try not to grow any more. These need to last until half term, at least.’
Jack’s mountain of muesli was high enough to rival the Alps. He looked up and removed an earbud. ‘What?’
Daisy huffed. ‘There’ll be proper stitch removers in that craft shop you’re so fond of.’
‘No doubt, but that’d cost money.’
‘Don’t be so tight,’ muttered Daisy.
‘Give it a rest, Dais,’ said Rose, stacking plates into the dishwasher. ‘Jack, thank Beth for sorting your trousers and go get dressed.’
Beth froze. Rose had never backed her up in a dispute with the younger children before.
‘Eh? Lemme finish eating first.’ Jack stuffed in a loaded spoonful and milk dribbled down his chin.
‘Do you ever finish?’ asked Rose, light exasperation in her voice, making Beth duck her head to hide a smile.
Daisy leaned towards her brother. ‘Did you hear, J?’
‘Hear what?’
‘She,’ Daisy pointed at Beth, ‘wants me to get a job.’
Jack raised an eyebrow. ‘Doing what?’
‘Craft shop in the village.’ Daisy got up to throw her uneaten toast in the bin.
Beth rummaged through the basket of clean underwear on the kitchen counter, looking for Grace’s second pink sock. ‘I just thought you might be interested. Forget I spoke.’
Jack leaned back, making his chair creak. ‘But, Dais, I thought you liked all that crafty cra… um, I mean… well, don’t you?’
‘That’s not the point. Mum would never say I had to get a job.’
‘Be fair. I didn’t say you had to—’
‘She’ll be sending Grace up chimneys next.’ Daisy waved at the ornate brickwork over the Aga.
Grace examined the chimney breast with interest.
‘No, I—’ Beth shut her eyes and counted to ten.
Rose leaned both hands on the back of a kitchen chair. ‘We’ve no idea what Mum would or wouldn’t do. She might think a craft job would work well with your art and textiles A levels.’
‘No one gets it, do they?’ Daisy huffed. She slammed her plate down and left the room. Grace scrambled to follow, her unicorn under one arm. Paddy glowered at Beth before dashing after them both.
‘Great,’ said Jack, scraping his chair back from the table as he stood up. ‘Well done. Now she’ll be a pain in the butt all day.’
‘That, brother dear,’ muttered Rose, ‘is the least of our problems.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Nothing.’
‘No, go on; out with it,’ insisted Jack.
Beth’s eyes flew to meet Rose’s.
‘Sorry,’ Rose mouthed, giving a small shrug.
Jack put his phone away. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Money is a bit tight,’ said Beth, her voice low.
He frowned. ‘How tight?’
‘Very tight. I’m spending this morning putting up that second-hand polytunnel I got from the free ads. Growing more veggies will cut down the food bill.’ Beth tried to sound jokey, but her voice shook. ‘I just have to figure out how to rebuild the damn thing without any instructions.’
‘Veggies? That’s what this is about?’
‘It’s more than that.’ Rose dried her hands on a tea towel and threw it on the table. ‘It’s like this. Dad—’
‘Rose, no.’ Beth shook her head. ‘Please.’
‘It’s been going around and around my head all night. If what you said yesterday is true, then we need to face this together. We agreed not to tell Daisy, yeah, and I get that, but Jack’s different. He’s solid. We should tell him.’
Jack growled in exasperation. ‘Tell me what?’
Beth sank into a chair. ‘Fine.’
‘Here’s the thing, Jack. Dad isn’t working abroad for a charity.’
‘Tell me something I don’t know. I’m not stupid. What’s he up to then?’
‘He’s left us. Like, for good. He’s not coming back.’
Jack blinked. He looked at Beth. She could see the exact moment he put two and two together. ‘You’re sending the postcards, aren’t you?’
Beth nudged a toast crumb along the table with one finger.
Jack gave a low whistle. ‘Fucking hell. I knew they were hinky. How? No, scratch that. Why?’
‘Thing is,’ said Rose. ‘Dad hasn’t just not been sending postcards. He hasn’t sent any money, either.’
Jack’s mouth hung open. ‘What? You’re kidding. No way!’
‘We’ve been living off money I inherited,’ said Beth. ‘Plus, a bit from whatever online work I’ve been able to scare up. It was enough to cover the basics.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘Show him the letter, Beth.’
‘No. I don’t want to read any fucking letter. You’re making this up.’
‘I’m not, I promise I’m not.’ Beth’s heart started to thump. It was hard to swallow.
‘Dad stole the money that Beth had ready for the roof and—’
‘No! No. Stop it, just stop.’ Jack slammed both hands down onto the table, making both Beth and Rose jump. ‘Fuck’s sake!’ He spun on his heel, his shoulders set, and stalked from the room.
Rose’s shoulders slumped. ‘I’m sorry. I thought he’d handle it better.’
Beth got to her feet and put a tentative arm around Rose, fully expecting her to shrug it off – surprised when she didn’t. ‘It’s fine. You’re right. He needs to know. The question is, will he tell Daisy?’
‘I hope not. She’ll go off the deep end.’
‘We’ll have to tell her some time. You’re right about facing this together. Let’s give Jack some time to process things. Hopefully he’ll come around.’ Beth went over to look out of the window. ‘I was going to ask him to take the llampaccas back over to the barn after school. It’s one thing taking them in when there is no one to care for them, but it’s another to keep paying for someone else’s animals. We can’t afford it anymore.’
Rose joined her at the window. ‘Let me do the school run this morning. I could have a chat with him. Not about Dad. About the herd.’
‘Would you? He’ll listen to you over me any day. Warn him to be careful of the guy next door, though. I… I don’t know what to think about him. And after I yelled at him, yesterday, a little distance might be a good thing.’
‘Sure. Anyway, listen. I had an idea. What about renting space in the field for camping? Lots of places do it. I saw some stuff on Freecycle, old tents and the like. We could charge more if we offer facilities. Look.’ She took out her phone and scrolled to images of tents.
‘You mean, this is all free?’
Rose nodded. ‘Stuff gets abandoned after festivals and things. You just go and pick it up before someone else does.’
‘That’s not a bad idea. Let me think about it.’
Rose grabbed the car keys from the side and called down the hall. ‘Time to go, you lot. Big sis is in charge of the school run, today. Get your lazy butts in the car. Grace, lose the wings. You know how Mrs Fintan feels about fairies.’
‘Oh, ship!’ muttered a small voice.
Beth followed the direction of the voice to the alcove under the stairs, where Grace was trying, and failing, to do her shoelaces. ‘Grace Louise Hope, did you just curse?’
Grace, all wide-eyed innocence, said, ‘I only said “ship”. You say “ship” all the time.’
‘I don’t.’
‘You do,’ insisted Grace. ‘You say “shipshipshipshipship”.’
Daisy stomped past. ‘Nah, Grace. She’s not saying “ship”. She’s saying “shi—”’
‘Daisy!’
‘Alright, alright. Keep your hair on.’ Daisy stomped outside, muttering what sounded suspiciously like, ‘Stupid cow!’
‘Fine,’ said Grace. ‘I’ll say “bucket”, instead. Like Jack. “Bucketbucketbucket”.’
Beth squatted down, leaning into the small space to help tie Grace’s laces. ‘Please don’t. No ships and no buckets. Especially not with Mrs Fintan or the children at preschool… or anyone. Promise?’
‘Whatever.’ Grace rolled her eyes and made her way out to the car.
Jack barged past, refusing to look at Beth.
Rose gave her a reassuring smile. ‘He’ll come around.’
But what if he doesn’t?