Chapter 34
Crouched on the rug, Nicola held her breath, watching and waiting.
The baby bird Trixie had brought in half-fluttered and half-hopped across the floorboards from its hiding place behind the sofa, heading towards the TV cabinet on the opposite wall.
As soon as the bird had reached the halfway point, Nicola made her move and leapt forward, cupping her hands around the fluffy feathers.
‘That’s it, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.’ She could feel the small beak pecking furiously against her skin. The poor thing must be petrified.
Opening her cupped hands ever so slightly, Nicola peered into the handmade cocoon. It was a house sparrow, a fledgling judging by the look of its feathers.
‘Oh, sweetheart, I bet you were just learning to fly when Trixiebell caught you off-guard.’ Nicola glared towards the hall door where she’d sent Trixie for some time out.
Trixie scratched against the door as she wailed, desperate to reach the prey she’d hunted down and brought in and baffled why she wasn’t getting to enjoy her prize.
‘Stop it, Trixie.’ Nicola sighed. ‘You’re in my bad, bad books. Not just my bad books, not today, Trixiebell. After getting through work without crying, all I wanted to do was curl up on the sofa, and yet, what do I come home to find? The big bad cat chasing this poor petrified baby around.’
She wasn’t sure how she’d got through the day.
Despite Laura’s desperate attempts to send her home, she’d stayed there until five.
She’d needed to. If she’d come home, all she’d have done was curl up and cry and, yes, that’s what she was planning on doing now, but she knew she couldn’t have spent the whole day doing so.
Just as she began to stand up, Trixie’s paw arched around the edge of the door and the cat sprang into action, racing across the floorboards towards her.
Startled, Nicola staggered to the side, reaching her hand automatically across to the sofa to save herself and in turn letting go of the fledgling.
With a loud hiss, Trixie jumped towards the baby bird, which darted beneath the sofa with only seconds to spare.
‘Trixie!’ After steadying herself, Nicola leaned down and grabbed Trixie, shoving her back out into the hallway and checking that the door was closed properly, twice this time.
Kneeling beside the sofa, she looked underneath. She couldn’t see the poor bird. It had probably scooted to the back and was hiding in the shadows, petrified it’d end up as Trixie’s dinner.
‘Fine. We’ll just wait it out. You can come out when you’re ready.
’ Nicola sat down heavily on the sofa. She didn’t have the energy to pull the sofa out and retrieve the poor bird.
Besides, it would only scare it even more.
No, she’d wait. It’d come out soon enough.
And Trixie could wait too. She could do with the time to realise her actions had consequences.
Slumping against the back of the sofa, Nicola pulled a cushion onto her lap and hugged it. She was so tired. She’d barely slept a few hours since Charlie had broken the news two evenings before. And she still couldn’t quite believe it. He was really gone. He’d left and returned to his old life.
She glanced at the carriage clock on the mantelpiece. It was half-past six. Charlie would have been in London for hours now, settling back into his apartment. Fetching groceries or cleaning the dust which would have inevitably covered his furniture in the months he’d been away.
Or maybe he had gone straight into work. He might be in a meeting right now, discussing the best strategies to be used to regain the lost client.
He might be booking his trip to New York, buying plane tickets, changing money from pounds to dollars. Packing.
She swiped at her eyes as fresh tears began to fall. Why had she let herself believe him when he’d reassured her? How hadn’t she realised quite how impossible their relationship had been?
How hadn’t he?
Nicola watched as the small bird ventured out from beneath the sofa and hopped across to the rug. It stood there, its tiny eyes darting around the room before taking a leap and flying up to the coffee table.
With a few little hops, the bird pecked at last night’s chip wrapper, the cold chips still sat in the pool of vinegar and salt, mostly untouched. Having bought them as she hadn’t had the will to cook, she not been able to stomach them after all. The bird was welcome to them.
As it grew in confidence, it pecked at the stale food, seemingly enjoying them more than Nicola had.
Holding her breath, Nicola leaned forward and, in one swift motion, cupped the bird between her hands again. This time, she stood up quickly and hurried to the back door, thankful that she’d left it open in the hopes the fledgling would find its own way out.
Once outside, she walked towards the back of the garden and placed the baby bird on the garden table. Looking bewildered to be back out in the open, the fledgling perched next to the citrus candle she kept outside.
Nicola looked at the two empty glasses still sitting on the table, the wine barely touched in either of them, the pizza box lying on the patio beneath, the abandoned pizza slices probably stolen by foxes or some other wildlife which ventured through the village gardens.
She picked up Charlie’s glass and ran the pad of her index finger around the rim.
Shaking her head, she took a sharp breath in, lowered the glass and shoved the pizza box beneath her arm before picking up the glasses again and carrying them across the lawn to the kitchen. Pausing in the doorway, she watched the bird, still a little dazed from its traumatic encounter with Trixie.
‘Fly, little one. Fly home.’
Closing the back door firmly behind her, she placed the glasses down and squashed the pizza box into the bin just as the doorbell sang its tune.
Freezing, she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. Was it Charlie? Did she want it to be Charlie?
Hurrying through to the living room, Nicola peered through the window and her breathing steadied.
It wasn’t Charlie. Of course it wasn’t. How could it have been? He wouldn’t have driven all the way to London just to visit her for an hour before travelling back.
It was Laura.
Opening the door into the hallway, Nicola jumped as Trixie zoomed past her, straight to the sofa, where she sat crouched down, her tail flicking side to side.
‘The baby bird isn’t there, Trixie. It’s outside and I’ve locked your cat flap. Let it muster enough energy to fly away before you go prowling again.’ Leaving her to it, Nicola pulled open the front door. ‘Hi, Laura.’
‘Hey, you okay?’ Laura shifted from foot to foot.
Nicola nodded and forced a smile. She didn’t want Laura to worry about her.
She should be at home with Jackson, not checking in on her employees.
‘Apart from having to rescue Trixie’s latest catch, I am.
I’m sorry about today. I know I hardly got anything done at all.
But I’ll be back to my usual self tomorrow. ’
‘Oh, that’s not why I’m here. I mean, yes, I’m here to see if you’re okay, but not because I’m worried about how much work you’re doing at the inn. I’m worried because you’re my friend and I care about you.’
Nicola pulled the door open further. ‘Well, thanks. Do you want to come in for a cuppa? It’s a bit of a mess and there are a few fledgling sparrow feathers here and there, but?—’
Holding her hand up, Laura grinned. ‘Another time. I’m here to go to the village meeting with you.’
‘The village meeting?’ Of course, how could she have forgotten?
She usually loved the meetings. The whole of the community huddled together in the village hall to have a natter about the goings-on in Meadowfield, but it was the last thing she wanted to do this evening.
She couldn’t think of anything worse than to spend the next couple of hours in the presence of so many happy couples, families… ‘I’m sorry, I’m not going today.’
Laura’s face fell. ‘Oh, you must. I mean, it’ll be good for you to get out.’
Nicola shook her head. ‘No, really. I can’t. Not this evening.’
‘Please, Nic. Please come.’
‘No.’ She raked her fingers through her hair. ‘I’m a mess, on the inside and on the outside. I can’t face sitting in a hall and listening to Miss Cooke ranting on for two or three hours. You go with Jackson.’
‘Uh, that’s the thing, Jackson, umm… He’s not coming, and I really, really don’t want to go on my own.’ Laura wrung her hands in front of her. ‘Please, Nic.’
Frowning, Nicola watched as Laura glanced over her shoulder as Nicola’s neighbours began leaving the street to head towards the village hall. ‘I thought Jackson usually went?’
‘He does, yes.’ Laura focused her attention back to Nicola. ‘But… umm… tonight he’s busy.’
‘You’ll be fine on your own. Jill will be there, and Rachel.
’ Nicola gripped hold of the door frame.
She couldn’t face the village residents, not tonight.
Not with her and Charlie’s break-up so raw.
As much as she adored village life, the downside was that everybody knew each other’s business.
Everyone would be gossiping about it, talking behind their hands, stealing glances towards her when they didn’t think she was looking.
‘Come with me, Nic? Please?’ Laura held her hands together and pleaded again.
Nicola looked at her and swallowed. It didn’t feel as though she had much of a choice. Laura had always been so supportive of her and if, for whatever reason, she was worried about going to the village meeting by herself, then Nicola would just have to go.