Chapter Twenty #2
‘Yes, thank you,’ added Ella placing her money more carefully into the container.
Audrey stepped in front of her, making direct eye contact. Next to Ella, Bets let out a low groan.
‘I’m so glad you could both make it. Always good to have some younger blood at these things.
’ She shot an amused look at Doris’s retreating figure.
‘I don’t suppose either of you are first aid trained.
I really must talk to the Village Hall Committee about perhaps fundraising for a defibrillator.
Which reminds me,’ she flashed a charming, shark-going-in-for-the-kill smile at Ella, ‘I know you’ve agreed to do our little talk at the WI and Bets says you’ve agreed to donate a picture for the hall roof fund raiser but I wondered if you’d give us a pair.
’ With an encouraging smile she carried on, completely oblivious to Bets trying to sidle away.
Ella nodded but didn’t manage to get a word in before Audrey was off again.
‘And I shall see you both at the Spring Fayre. My gosh, we’re going to miss your godmother this year.
We’re going to need something really spectacular decoration-wise for the Chiltern Bake Off, but that’s a month away, so we’ll worry about that after the Fayre.
’ Audrey gave a plaintive sigh. ‘No one bakes cakes quite like Magda. I daresay the cake stall will manage.’
She whipped out her notebook. ‘Now, Bets, you said you’d manage the dog agility competition, so I’ve left you to do that.
’ She turned to Ella and with a shrewd assessing look gave her up a quick up and down.
‘Hmm, I think it will have to be the tombola stall for you. Shall I put you down for the ten till twelve slot?’
Ella looked helplessly at Bets.
‘Excellent. Now all we need is good weather on the day.’ With a bird-like tilt of her head, Audrey spotted a new victim. ‘Ah, Judith. Glad I caught you. Now with Magda away . . . ’
Devon watched the two women as they approached the table he’d snagged in the pub, Bets throwing back her head and laughing and Ella’s grave face softening before they both burst into giggles.
Thinking back to the woebegone creature he’d first seen up in the woods, the transformation on Ella’s face was nothing short of a miracle.
With her flushed cheeks and glittering eyes, she looked like a different person.
‘I take it salsa was a hit.’
‘So much fun,’ enthused Ella, demonstrating with a few quick steps, still wearing her red shoes. ‘I loved it.’
Bets dropped her bottle on the table in front of him. ‘Old snake hips. What a laugh. You’ve got to hand it to her, Audrey gets some good things organised, although I could do without the blinking dog agility thing.’
‘Hmm,’ said Devon dubiously. ‘I’m doing my best to keep my head down, but I think she’s starting to ramp up her campaign. I’ve tried to lay it on thick about how busy I am.’
‘What does dog agility entail?’ asked Ella, taking a long slug of beer. Devon watched the smooth column of her neck as she chugged straight from the bottle with evident enjoyment. It was as if someone had a lit a candle inside her; she glowed.
Ella turned to Bets. ‘I’ve got visions of aerobics for dogs. Seriously?’
‘No, I build a course of jumps and tunnels and gates. The dogs have to go through the course. Except they often get a bit excited by the crowd and other dogs, so don’t behave, run off, go the wrong way around the course.
It would be hilarious, except I’m supposed to keep some sort of score, and lots of the kids enter and then I get irate parents challenging the result. Tiger moms.’
‘I think I might have got off lightly. Apparently I’m doing the tombola.’
‘Lucky you,’ said Bets. ‘I’d love to do the tombola. Dead easy. And what’s this about a talk to the WI?’
Ella suddenly frowned. ‘I was hoping to get out of that, and to be honest I’d forgotten. She collared me in the hospital when I was visiting George.’ An expression of sheer panic suddenly blossomed in her eyes. ‘How does she do that?’
‘It’s called the Audrey Factor,’ said Devon fondly. ‘She’s an irresistible force of nature that you just don’t mess with. And I should know, I’ve had to put up with it all my life.’
Bets shot an apologetic glance his way before saying, ‘With Audrey there’s no getting out of anything, you’re committed now.’
‘That’s what I was afraid of. What the hell am I going to talk about for an hour? I’ve got nothing to say.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Devon chipped in. ‘Of course you have. How did you get started? How do you come up with the ideas? You can talk about the flamenco pictures.’ He winked, reminding her of how he’d caught her dancing.
She rolled her eyes at him.
‘You can talk about how you work? You know draw, dance, draw.’
Ignoring his teasing, she worried at a loose thread at the bottom of her shirt. ‘I’m not sure that it’s going to be terribly interesting.’
‘Rubbish. If you talk with enthusiasm and passion, you can make anything interesting.’
‘But standing there talking is a bit dull.’
‘You could give them a demonstration. Do a dance.’
Bets raised an intrigued eyebrow. ‘What’s with the dancing?’
‘It’s a long story,’ said Ella glaring at him, although there was a twinkle in her eye. ‘Will you shut up with the dancing. You caught me once. I don’t normally work like that.’
‘You should. It looked like fun.’ He sobered. ‘Seriously. You drew that sketch in the pub pretty quickly, as I recall. Make it interactive.’
Ella paused. That might be fun.
‘I’ve got an idea!’ She grabbed a beer mat and fished a pen out of her bag. ‘Think of a hat.’
‘What?’ Devon and Bets looked at each other, puzzled.
‘A hat.’
‘Cowboy hat,’ said Bets.
‘Perfect.’ With quick deft strokes, she sketched Cuthbert wearing one looped around his neck.
‘Wow, that’s amazing. You’ve even captured the John Wayne bow-legged look.’
Ella beamed. ‘That’s what I’ll do. I’ll get the audience to suggest different hats.
And it will give me plenty of material for the future.
And I could display some of my pictures – I’ve got loads in storage.
And seven of them are already framed. I’ll need to get a couple more done, so that I can do a bit of a display.
I can probably buy a few nice frames with mounts, although time’s a bit tight. ’
‘Bets and I could pitch in to help. If you just bought a job lot of frames in IKEA, they wouldn’t be expensive.’
‘That’s a brilliant idea. The original illustrations can be cut down easily to fit as they’re all on A4 cartridge paper.’ Ella frowned. ‘Although I’m not sure how I’ll get them out here. I don’t fancy taking Magda’s car into London and I can’t carry them on the train.’
‘That’s easy,’ said Devon. ‘I’m going into London on Tuesday. You’d get them all in the Volvo. Where’s your storage?’
‘It’s just off the North Circular in London.’
‘Perfect. I can drive you there and park the car and then get a Tube into central London. I’m going to see a vet friend of mine. You can come and meet him. Nice chap. We could grab some lunch together.’
‘Thanks. That would be great.’
‘OK. We’ll need to leave earlyish. I expect we could persuade Bets to have both dogs for the day.’ He flashed Bets a smile, knowing it was a rare day she turned down a chance for a dog fix. ‘Shall I pick you up about eight? Then we’ll miss the worst of the traffic in town.’