Chapter 20 #2
His car was parked on the drive in the sunshine with the doors all open and he had been leaning inside it.
Most likely inspecting the damp patches.
He rushed over when he spotted us and, without so much as looking at him, I handed his furious relative over and dashed off again.
I’d barely got the car back in gear before the sound of raised voices reached my ears and I thought I’d give it a while before I returned.
‘So, she’s really okay?’ Melody asked as I added a couple of packets of plain chocolate digestives to my basket, which was already filled with carb-based treats.
‘Bruised but nothing broken,’ I confirmed. ‘And now back at Fernside.’
‘I can’t believe I didn’t know she had a nephew,’ Melody continued. ‘And Rick told me nothing about him, other than that he’d randomly turned up. How awful that Constance should have an accident on the very day that he came to visit.’
‘Um,’ I said. I wasn’t going to tell her that it was mine and the nephew’s fault that it had happened. ‘I was in the dark about him until recently, too, and certainly wasn’t expecting to meet him.’
‘So, you were as surprised to see him as Constance, then?’
‘Probably more so,’ I said grimly, as I played out again the moment of recognition. ‘Did Rick say anything else?’
‘No,’ Melody shrugged. ‘He was too worried about Constance, but he did say that he didn’t think she was in any danger. He was right about that, wasn’t he?’
I was grateful that Rick had kept his word and the details of what I’d told him about James refusing to agree with Constance over selling the woods to himself.
Really, I shouldn’t have even mentioned it, but I put the indiscreet admission down to shock over both what had happened to Constance and the upset over finding out who James was.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Thankfully, no danger at all. I don’t suppose you’ve got any arnica, have you?’
‘Tilly!’ said Kaya, as she bounded in and dumped her basket of cleaning supplies on the chair Melody kept next to the counter for customers to sit on. ‘I was hoping to see you!’
‘Oh?’
‘You must have seen this famous nephew,’ she grinned. ‘So, tell us, how handsome is he exactly? Rumour has it—’
‘No gossiping please, Kaya,’ said Melody, as she headed to the small but well-stocked health section.
Kaya rolled her eyes. ‘Come on,’ she said to me. ‘Give me a clue, because I can’t get anything out of Rick.’
‘He’s a good-looking guy,’ I told her, because I knew she wouldn’t give up asking.
‘I knew it,’ Kaya clapped. ‘He’s bound to do for one of us.’
‘You’re not planning a strategy to bag him yourself?’ Melody teased.
‘Not until I’ve seen him,’ Kaya tutted. ‘He might not be my type.’
‘Well,’ I told her. ‘I wouldn’t go getting your hopes up about seeing him, because I don’t think he’s going to be staying.’
I then realised that if I didn’t get back to Fernside, James wouldn’t be able to leave, and if he was needed in Cambridge, my continued absence wouldn’t be appreciated.
I knew he’d said he was going to find a way to support his aunt himself, but as I was already available, I was the most obvious choice of carer slash companion. For the time being, at least.
‘I better go,’ I said and quickly lifted my basket onto the counter, so Melody could ring up my bill. ‘Constance will be wondering where I’ve got to.’
James was putting a holdall in the boot of his car when I arrived back, and when he straightened up, I could see his expression was strained. It didn’t take a genius to work out that Constance had told him what I’d said he’d said.
‘Now you’re back,’ was his opening comment, as I retrieved my bags from the passenger seat and set them on the drive, ‘I’m going to get going. Are you sure you don’t mind checking in with my aunt?’
‘Good morning to you, too,’ I sighed, rather heavily.
‘I did wave when you set off to the hospital, but it looked like you ignored me,’ he shrugged. ‘I was on a video call to my furious boss, which was why I sent you a text to say the hospital had been in touch, rather than call round in person.’
‘Oh right.’ I swallowed. ‘I assumed you didn’t want to talk to me.’
‘I did then,’ he said and ran a hand through his dark hair in the way that still annoyingly made my fingers yearn to be his, ‘but I’m not so keen now.’
‘I had to tell Constance what you’d said, James,’ I responded, guessing the reason why he didn’t now want to chat. ‘She’d already wheedled out of me what had occurred during my meeting about the woods in The Greenman—’
‘Your meeting?’ he interrupted. ‘Exactly how far has this sale gone?’
I realised I had made my informal chat with Helen sound both scheduled and official.
‘I’m sure your aunt has filled you in about that.’
‘That’s assuming she’s told me everything,’ he frowned.
‘Nothing official has happened.’
‘That’s all right then.’
‘For you perhaps,’ I countered. ‘James, we really do need to talk.’
‘I know we do,’ he said, sounding nettled. ‘But there’s no time now. I need to get Buddy to his sitter and I’m due in court this afternoon. I must refocus. My boss is already at the end of his rope with me.’
‘The boss you don’t really want to work for?’ I reminded him.
He looked at me and shook his head. ‘The boss who pays me enough of a salary to keep this place afloat.’
‘I thought you said Constance hasn’t spent any of your money?’ I said sneakily. ‘She seems to be managing without the top-up as far as I can tell.’
‘I wish I’d never told you that,’ he said, sounding even more rattled. ‘And that situation won’t last for ever. She’s going to need it when the weather changes in the autumn, if not before.’
‘Or,’ I suggested, ‘she could give you back what you’ve sent her and make use of the money I’m going to pay her for the sale of the woods.’
‘We’re not selling the woods—’ Buddy, who was loose in the garden, ran to the gate and started to bark. ‘And I really do have to go.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘But before you do, will you promise me that you’ll find some time for us to properly talk before you either get your own way or fall out with your aunt for ever because she’s got hers? Not only does your refusal to get on-board with the sale—’
‘You’re still talking as if you think it’s going ahead!’ he remonstrated loudly.
‘Not only does your refusal to get on-board jeopardise your relationship with Constance,’ I continued as if he hadn’t spoken, ‘it also takes away the professional future I’d started to map out here, and it threatens… us…’
Our eyes met and he was the first to look away.
‘We’re doomed already, aren’t we?’ he tutted.
He sounded more upset than angry then. The question hung unanswered in the air and as well as the increasingly loud cacophony Buddy was treating us to, James’s phone began to ring, too.
‘For pity’s sake!’ he groaned and cut the call off without answering it. ‘Right, I’m going. Are you sure you’re happy to look out for Aunt Constance?’
‘You know I am.’
‘And you won’t put pressure on her about selling the woods while I’m gone?’
‘Do you honestly think I’d do that?’
‘Because,’ he carried on without answering, ‘she needs to make up her own mind.’
‘Your aunt knows her own mind perfectly well,’ I declared as his phone bleated again.
‘Yes,’ he muttered, and strode off. ‘That’s very much what I’m afraid of.’