The Midnight Bakery

Chapter 31

31

Tam

Tam arrived at the bakery earlier than planned, but he’d found it hard to sleep, again. It had been good to talk last night about what had happened, but as soon as he was back in his car and left alone with his thoughts, the reality of his situation crowded in. He had no job, no home, and no money coming in now either, and yes, he might find another position but there was still the small matter of the last of his debts to finish paying off. Miss those and problems multiplied; he knew that from bitter experience. Even if he found something straight away, with all the checks that needed to be done it could be weeks, even a month or two before he’d be earning again. A lot could happen in that time. His only saving grace was that, with work on the farm and the odd bit of help in the bakery, he had the means to keep himself busy.

He was about to knock on the door when he paused, arrested by the scene through the window. William and Frankie were seated on opposite sides of the table, their bent heads almost touching, with Frankie’s slender hand lying over William’s considerably bigger one. The morning was still dark but the bright overhead lights in the bakery lit every line of their features, and Tam was moved by what he saw. They both looked unbelievably tired and he was reminded of how fragile Frankie’s situation was too, but there was something else written on their faces. Something warm and…solid, steadfast. And he smiled, pleased. Good for them.

He moved into the shadow of the doorway and coughed, scuffing his feet a little on the cobbles before sounding a cheerful rat-a-tat-tat. Obviously, he had seen nothing.

‘Reporting for duty, ma’am,’ he said as Frankie opened the door.

She grinned. ‘And just in time for breakfast, too.’ She pulled the door wider to invite him in. ‘I’m sorry, it looks as if a bomb has gone off in here. We were racing against time to get everything finished, and with me next to useless,’ – she lifted her sling to make the point – ‘there’s still quite a lot left to do.’

‘No problem,’ said Tam. ‘I am here to do your bidding.’

Frankie winced. ‘The washing-up? We’ve got an hour before the shop opens but we’ve still got the cinnamon swirls to ice and the sticky toffee blondies to cut up.’

‘Oh, is that what they’re called?’ William rolled his eyes. ‘I’ve just made twenty-four of the little darlings and had no idea what they were. It’s all a bit of a blur.’

‘Is that okay, Tam?’ added Frankie. ‘Sorry, it’s the worst job of them all.’

‘Just point me at the Marigolds,’ said Tam, holding up his hands and waggling his fingers.

‘ Thank you…I don’t know what I would have done without you two. The sooner I’m back in action, the better.’ She glanced at William, colouring slightly. ‘I’ve been working this poor man’s fingers to the bone. We were just having a little pause for breath.’

Tam gave a bright smile that he hoped would communicate that he hadn’t seen their pause for breath at all. ‘Excellent,’ he said. ‘To the pausing for breath thing, not the other, obviously…’ He cleared his throat. ‘Right, washing-up it is.’

The chatter fell silent for a while as everyone got on with their tasks, and twenty minutes later, the room looked much improved.

‘That’s so much better,’ said Frankie, coming out of the storeroom where she’d been one-handedly putting things away. ‘I can’t think straight when everything is in such a muddle. If we get the shelves set up ready in the shop, I think we’ve just got time for a cup of tea and a bite to eat. And, rather fortuitously, there are some millionaire’s tarts which fell apart when I took them out of the trays, all gooey with caramel.’ She grinned. ‘I’m so cack-handed at the moment, it’s terrible.’

Tam was about to reply when there was a tap at the window. It was Beth, her nose squished up against the glass, and mouth in a wide grin. She rubbed at the mark it left with her sleeve, mouthing an apology. She virtually bounced through the door as Frankie opened it.

‘Sorry,’ she said, beaming. ‘I wasn’t thinking.’

Frankie laughed. ‘I keep the inside clean, the outside…not so much. But someone looks happy…’

Beth’s response was to throw her arms around Frankie before pulling away and practically dancing on the spot. ‘I’ve just come from work,’ she said. ‘But I had to call in here first before going home.’ Her smile grew even wider. ‘I’ve kept my job!’ she exclaimed. ‘Oh God, I’m so happy.’

Tam stepped forward, opening his arms as Beth reached for a hug. ‘That’s bloody brilliant news,’ he said. ‘I’m so pleased for you. And Jack, too…’ He felt unaccountably emotional at her good fortune, suddenly realising how much he cared about them both. ‘This is it, Beth. It’s all going to happen now.’

She grinned at him, eyes shining. ‘Oh, I hope so. I’m just so relieved. I don’t have all the details yet because they’re still finalising them with senior staff, but they wanted to let me know as soon as possible, and I’ve been told that Matron will be in touch soon. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done, and Frankie, for keeping me sane and…’ She flashed Frankie a huge smile before moving to embrace William, who was hanging back a little. ‘Thank you too,’ she said. ‘For everything you’ve done.’

‘Me?’ he replied.

‘Yes, for helping Frankie, and Tam, making sure they’re okay, being a friend. It’s important.’ She pulled a face. ‘Sorry, I’m gabbling, but I’m so happy. Did I say that before?’ Her eyes sparkled with joy.

‘We were just about to have some millionaire’s tarts,’ said Frankie. ‘Would you like one, to celebrate?’

Beth looked torn. ‘Oooh, I would, but…I really want to get home, to Jack.’

Frankie flapped her hands as if to shoo her away. ‘Yes, of course you do. Go on, go…I’ll wrap a couple to take with you, but we need to have a proper celebration at some point.’ She wagged her finger in amusement. ‘And that’s an order.’

Beth whirled around. ‘I promise,’ she said, grinning at them all. ‘And now that we know my job’s safe, Jack will be itching to get stuff done on the farm. Shall I ask him to give you a call, Tam? If you’ve got any free time, we’d love to see you.’

‘Actually, I had thought I might pop over this morning, but perhaps I’ll give you a head start, so you and Jack have some time to celebrate on your own.’ He gave her a teasing look.

‘Good idea,’ she said, flashing Frankie a coy smile. ‘But do come over. I don’t feel much like sleeping at the moment, but I will have to at some point. Are you sure that’s okay? What about work?’

‘Oh…day off,’ said Tam, swallowing his lie.

‘Great, well, that’s settled then. See you later!’

And with that, Beth was gone, rushing out at just the same speed as she’d rushed in. Tam felt quite breathless.

‘Well, now I’m really tired,’ said Frankie, laughing. ‘But what lovely news, I’m so happy for her.’ Her eyes drifted to the side where the rest of the millionaire’s tarts lay waiting.

‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ said Tam.

By the time he reached the farmhouse a couple of hours later, the kitchen table was covered with a multitude of stuff: several notebooks, an iPad, two mugs, pens, pencils, a packet of biscuits, a glass of water and sheets of paper of varying sizes. As he drew closer, Tam could see they held a series of scribbled drawings.

‘Someone’s been busy,’ he remarked.

Jack grinned. ‘I’m knackered and my arse is black and blue but, bizarrely, I’ve got far more energy than ever.’

Tam, who hadn’t, wondered if he would be able to keep up with the pace of Jack’s excitement, but he nodded.

‘What have you been working on?’ he asked, studying a couple of the sheets of paper and trying to work out what he was looking at. ‘Is this the hen house?’

Jack nodded, wheeling himself closer. ‘I’d never be able to get into the current coop, even if it wasn’t falling down. So, I thought about what I might be able to achieve and started to redesign it. Except that led me down another rabbit hole and got me thinking about transport as well.’

Tam took a seat. ‘Okay…where do you want to start?’

‘The transport? I think that might be trickier to put into place. More expensive certainly, and while the quad bike is brilliant?—’

‘For a first attempt…’

‘Yes, brilliant for a first attempt but, ultimately, I need something I can use independently, and preferably something a trailer can be hitched to…’

‘A trailer?’ Tam searched his brain for a solution, mentally adding another set of equations to those already in his head.

‘Yes, because I have no means of carrying anything at the moment. But I might be able to get what I need into a trailer and then pull it to wherever I need to go.’

‘So, an all-terrain wheelchair then?’

Jack winced. ‘Ideally, but they’re hideously expensive. We virtually had to take out a mortgage to afford this one.’ He looked down at the wheels beneath his seat. ‘Is there any way we could adapt this? Or the manual one we keep for emergencies?’

Tam thought for a moment. ‘Don’t know…but leave it with me. There must be a way. Or maybe some further modifications could be made to the quad bike…’

‘I thought that, but I find it difficult to balance now, hence why I’m black and blue. Even if we could somehow alter it so I could drive, I’d get thrown about all over the place.’

Tam’s eyes narrowed. ‘We need to lower your centre of gravity then. Make something you sit in rather than sit on .’ Jack was nodding. ‘I want to say a go-cart type of thing but that’s probably ridiculous. In any case, we’re rather putting said cart before the horse. What we need to do first is make areas accessible to you, as many as we can. The ones closest to the house are easiest, so…’ He caught the amused look in Jack’s eye. ‘Ah…which is exactly why you were thinking about the hen house.’ He tapped his forehead as if to say, idiot …‘Okay, no pun intended, but let’s park the transport issue for a minute. Tell me about your designs.’

Jack slid one of the pieces of paper towards him. ‘First and foremost, I need to be realistic. What I’ll be capable of achieving here is very limited. It’s not going to be as I planned or dreamed of all those years ago. In all likelihood the vast majority of work here will have to be undertaken by someone else and?—’

Tam leaned forward. ‘ However …’

‘ However …there are some things I can do. Extremely slowly and with modification, but I reckoned the hen house could be the place to start.’ He tapped the paper. ‘The problem with the old coop is that the door into the run isn’t wheelchair accessible, and then the house itself follows a traditional layout – meaning that the nesting boxes are raised off the ground. The chickens prefer it that way, but it makes the boxes too high for me to collect the eggs. I’d probably also struggle with the lids. So, with a bit of lateral thinking, and some internet trawling, I’ve come up with a way to potentially install the nesting boxes on the outside of the main house, using runners. The chickens would still access them from inside, and if I rigged up a pulley system, I could raise or lower them. What do you think?’

What Tam actually thought was how brave Jack was. How very restricted his life was to the extent that even the simplest tasks required detailed thought if he was to accomplish them. He nodded. ‘A bit like those lifts in big old houses – dumb waiters, I think they’re called. And that way you could collect any eggs, and presumably clean the boxes too. But what about food? And water? And whatever else chickens need?’

‘Ah, that’s where the trailer comes in,’ replied Jack. ‘They’ll be free-range during the day, so in summer, apart from a bit of grain, that’s pretty much it. I can take care of that, provided I can get the grain there. Same for their winter feed. There’s already a standpipe for water, and I should be able to find something to transfer that into their hoppers. What I really need is a way to reliably get from the house to the coop so I can shut them in at night and let them out after laying.’

‘And by reliable, you mean independent?’

‘I guess I do, yes.’

Jack was silent, ostensibly looking at the plans in front of him, but Tam could tell they weren’t the focus of his thoughts.

‘Can I just say something, Tam, before we go any further?’ His expression had grown suddenly serious. ‘I’m very aware how simple I’m making these things sound, when the reality would be anything but. I have to try, though. I have to do something, however small, however pointless-seeming or…’ He broke off. ‘I just have to.’

Tam held his look. ‘I know.’

‘And the other point is that none of this will ever work without my having someone with me. I’ve fucked up my life once already by doing something I shouldn’t have – doing something on my own when it was a two-person job. If I did it again, Beth would kill me. I mean, she might not have to, but you get the gist…’

Tam nodded.

‘And whoever that person is would be doing ninety-nine per cent of all the work, while I’d still consider this my farm. And I’ll still be the one having the final say on decisions and that probably doesn’t seem fair, but…’

‘It’s exactly how it should be. Maybe not the division of labour…’ He grinned. ‘But circumstances are what they are. So, it’s not a problem.’

‘No?’

Tam shook his head. ‘Nope.’ He paused a moment, looking back down at the drawings. ‘Shall we go and look at the hen house?’ He eyed the chair next to him on which a plump cushion lay. He picked it up. ‘You might want to take this,’ he added. ‘For a bit of extra padding.’

Beth’s expression was so fierce, Tam felt like a naughty schoolboy in front of the headmistress. He stared at the floor and the rapidly growing pool of water.

‘Are you two going to make a habit of getting wet?’ she asked. ‘Only there are such things as coats, hats, brollies…’

‘Um…’ Jack looked as if he was crying, rivulets of water dripping from his hair to track down his cheeks. ‘In our defence, it didn’t look like it was going to rain when we went out. And then it just sort of came down.’

Tam nodded in agreement. ‘One minute fine, and then the next…’ He mimed a cloudburst with his hands which, he conceded, might have looked more like a bomb exploding. ‘And the trouble is that we’d wandered a bit further than we thought, so getting back here quickly wasn’t really an option…’ He shifted his feet slightly, his boots squelching with mud. ‘Sorry. I’ll clear up the mess.’

Beth pursed her lips, silence lengthening as she glared at them, but then, like the wind, her expression changed and she laughed. ‘You should see the look on your faces, but honestly, what are you two like?’ And then she gave a coy smile. ‘Just as well I’m in such a good mood,’ she added, looking directly at Jack. ‘You should go and get changed, you’re absolutely soaking. Get out of those wet things before you catch your death.’ She looked at Tam. ‘I’m not sure what we do about yours, but I can dry them and, in the meantime, you’ll have to borrow some old clothes of Jack’s again.’ She stopped. ‘What?’

Tam smiled. ‘I have some other clothes in the car. I can easily get changed into those.’

Beth’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Oh God, you have, haven’t you? Tam, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking, I…’

‘It’s fine,’ he replied, shaking his head at her horrified look. ‘And you have to admit, carrying all your possessions with you comes in pretty handy sometimes.’

She gave him a look. One which acknowledged the light-heartedness of his comment, but one which also let him know how much she cared.

‘Then the very least I can do is wash and dry them for you. Unless you have a tumble dryer stashed in your car I know nothing about.’

Tam grinned. ‘Nope, so thank you. Damp clothes in a car aren’t great. They kind of stay damp, and then everything else…It’s a bit like camping holidays when you were a kid.’

‘Good. Whip those off while I help Jack get changed and I’ll get a wash on. It shouldn’t take too long.’ She glanced at the clock on the wall and then at the falling darkness outside the window. ‘What am I saying? Tam, this is crazy. Why don’t you stay here tonight? It’s filthy out there now and getting colder by the minute. Plus, it’ll be at least an hour and a half to get your things sorted. Possibly longer, you know what jeans are like for drying. And in any case, it will be gone dinnertime by then, and you’ll have had nothing to eat either. So, it makes far more sense to eat with us, and then just stay…You can have a shower too, if you like and?—’

‘Beth,’ said Tam softly. ‘I don’t need persuading. Thank you, I’d really like that.’

Which is how, several hours later, Tam came to be preparing for sleep. Only for the first time in a long while, in a bed, within an actual bedroom, with a proper duvet (even if it did have pink flowers all over it) and crisp white sheets. His car lay outside on Beth and Jack’s driveway, now just a vehicle.

He folded up his freshly laundered clothes and was about to put them back in his rucksack when he stopped and, instead, laid them over a chair which stood in one corner of the room. And now that the idea was in his head, he set about removing all his other clothes from his bag and, feeling somewhat sheepish at the liberty he was taking, placed them in the chest of drawers opposite the bed. It wouldn’t hurt for just one night.

He took out his small travel clock, placing it on the bedside table before fishing out his library book from the bottom of the bag. His head was whirling with thoughts – nice ones for a change – but he knew that he’d never sleep unless he could persuade some of them to calm down. He and Jack had spent the evening considering how they might go about rebuilding the hen house and had already drawn up a to-do list of the steps they needed to take. It was a lengthy list, much of which wouldn’t, or rather couldn’t, be tackled for a while yet, but it didn’t matter. Tam would wake up in the morning warm, without stiff and aching limbs, and actually be looking forward to his day.

He climbed under the duvet, sliding his legs back and forth across the sheets, revelling in their smooth expanse. A soft fleecy throw lay across the bottom of the bed in case he grew cold in the night, and he pushed his toes beneath it, sighing with pleasure at the warm weight of it. He reached behind to plump his pillows and, library book in hand, he lay back, marvelling at the soft give of the mattress beneath him.

It was as he opened the book that the letter fell out. He stared at it, curiously at first, wondering where it had come from, and then he remembered it had been given to him by Chris. He was about to cast it aside, not wishing to sour his mood by thinking of their last encounter, when he realised the letter had a stamp on it. An actual stamp, and an embossed logo he didn’t recognise. It certainly wasn’t the junk mail he had first assumed it to be. He laid down his book and picked up the letter, peering at it more closely before sliding a finger under the seal to open it.

After that, despite the luxury of his surroundings, and the deep, enfolding comfort of his bed, Tam hardly slept at all.