Chapter 7 #4
‘That is true, Roxie,’ Ciaran said seriously. ‘I take back every reproach I uttered.’
‘We do have an ulterior motive in giving you a gift token, and making it from all three of us,’ Jenny said, ignoring Ciaran and unaware of Roxie’s blushes.
Roxie protested softly. ‘No motive could cost so much.’
‘Remember I asked if you had brought an evening dress with you?’ Jenny asked.
‘Ye-es, I think you did.’
‘You said you had left most of your clothes at home for that sort of entertainment.’
‘That’s true. I left a wardrobe full of clothes until I knew what the job entailed. Remember, I had no idea what to expect.’
‘I know, but, you see, Don and Ciaran have tickets for the four of us for the New Year dinner dance. I was shopping for a new dress for myself as mine are all too tight. I saw this lovely dress in deep-blue satin and it is in our size — well, your size now. I asked the shop assistant if she would reserve it until after Christmas so that I could take you in to try it on. We have to go the day after Boxing Day in case you prefer a different one and she needs to put the blue one back on display.’
‘B-but . . . it’s truly kind and generous of you all but — but I can’t accept so much. In any case I couldn’t possibly go to a dinner dance and leave Amy here on her own for the whole evening—’
‘Of course you can, my dear child,’ Amy said.
‘You have never even had a day all to yourself, even less a weekend off since you arrived. Jenny and Ciaran both asked for my opinion before they got the tickets. If you make me my meal and set it on the table beside my chair in the room, I promise not to stir all evening until I go to bed. You can even put my electric blanket on at low so that I simply need to get into my nightdress and into bed. I will leave the night light on and you can look in to make sure I’m asleep if that will stop you worrying.
Everything is planned. I want you to go with Jenny and buy yourself whichever dress you like.
Then I want you to enjoy the dinner dance and see that Ciaran enjoys it too before he becomes a crusty old bachelor.
’ She chuckled at Ciaran’s indignant expression.
‘It is true, we certainly do want you to come with us,’ Donald said. ‘It will be far more fun if there are four of us.’
‘He’s right there.’ Ciaran nodded in agreement. ‘I’m not going to play gooseberry to this pair if you refuse to come.’
* * *
Roxie had changed into the jeans she had brought with her, but Ciaran insisted she wear one of the new waterproof smocks he always kept in the dairy cupboard at the milking parlour.
‘This parlour is not so very different to the one at home,’ she told him as she looked around.
‘I see the feeding is done by the computer reading the cow numbers as they come into the stalls. That makes things easier, especially for a stranger, quicker too. I have sprayed and dried their udders. Can I have a go at putting the clusters on down this side?’
‘You certainly can,’ Ciaran said instantly. It was not long before Roxie got used to the slight differences in the milking machines and she was as quick at doing her side of the parlour as Ciaran was with his, but it didn’t stop her taking in details of the cows.
‘This is the kind of cow I like,’ she said, as she put the clusters on one. ‘We used to have beautifully square British Friesians and it took me a long time to learn to like the big bones of the Holsteins, even though they do give more milk.’
‘I know what you mean. That is one of my favourites too. I am grading up her progeny to pedigree, also this one at the end.’
‘I can almost tell which ones are already pedigree Holsteins,’ Roxie said with a laugh.
‘I know.’ Ciaran smiled ruefully. ‘It took me a while to make up my mind to change. I don’t think my father would have approved, but he would understand me needing to move with the times and get as much milk, as economically, as I can.’
‘That is exactly what my father would say,’ Roxie said with a sigh.
‘You miss him badly, eh?’ he said sympathetically.
‘I do, but I have been so lucky in finding a person as kind and generous as your mother.’
‘I reckon the feeling is mutual.’
They chatted easily as they got on with the milking, with Ciaran telling her a bit about his own father and how he missed his advice on many aspects of the arable side of the farming.
By the time young Vic, the general worker, arrived to start hosing down the concrete in the gathering area, he couldn’t believe they were already finished milking, or that Ciaran had a young woman and she was actually helping him.
Vic couldn’t wait to tell Billy, who believed he was the only one capable of milking cows.
* * *
Roxie genuinely felt the combined gift of an evening dress was far too much, but she went with Jenny to the shop as arranged.
The one Jenny had asked to be set aside was a perfect fit and she loved the colour.
Jenny insisted she cast an eye over the remaining dresses to make sure it was the one she would have chosen herself, but there was nothing she liked as much.
She bought herself a pair of navy patent court shoes with higher heels than she normally wore and she already had a small matching handbag that was adequate for evening.
She could now look forward to the New Year’s dinner dance with a lighter heart than she had had since the fateful day of Tommy’s wedding and her father’s accident.