Chapter 13 #2
The sound of the sitting room door creaking open was followed by Nigel’s voice calling, “You can stop hiding in the kitchen now, you two, we’re all good in here. Although we might need more biscuits!”
Casey carried in the tray of sustenance and Vern followed behind with plates and cups, then went back out to the kitchen to fill the teapot. Nigel eyed her as she set the tray down. “You kept that quiet, didn’t you?” he remarked, nodding his head toward Jared.
“Wasn’t mine to tell,” Casey said, earning herself an almost-smile from Jared, who was sitting in her window seat watching Clara and Mildred, the pygmy goats, with suspicion as they taunted the sheep in the field next door. “Everything all right, though?” she asked, glancing between Ajay and Nigel.
“All good,” said Nigel.
“Nigel’s been more than fair,” said Ajay, smiling at her. “We’re very grateful that he isn’t going to pursue the matter further, aren’t we, Jared?”
Jared mumbled, “Yeah,” before pushing his earbuds into his ears and playing music on his phone that even from across the room sounded heavy on the bass.
Ajay watched his nephew for a moment and then turned away, sighing, “I wish you’d let us make it up to you somehow, Nigel. I can’t help feeling that there ought to be some kind of consequence for his actions.”
Nigel waved the suggestion away, but Casey had an idea. “Why doesn’t Jared help Vern with the animals and the vegetable garden while you’re out of action?” she suggested. “That way you don’t have to worry about Vern doing too much and Jared will be kept busy until he starts college in January.”
“That’s a great idea,” Nigel said, smiling at her. “It really is too much for Vern to do alone and it’ll make me feel like less of a bind while I’m laid up. I hate that he’s been doing it all by himself, and he never complains, well, not much anyway.”
Ajay chewed the inside of his cheek as he watched his nephew. “It’s a good idea,” he said, sounding unsure. “It’s just that, Jared’s never had anything to do with animals and I’m not sure how much help he’ll be…”
“Vern’s an excellent teacher,” Nigel reassured him. “And any help is gratefully received at the moment. We’ll pay him for his time, of course; I wouldn’t expect him to work for free.”
Ajay still looked dubious. “It isn’t that; I just wouldn’t want him to let you down, more than he already has.”
“He won’t,” said Nigel with the assured optimism that Casey loved so much about him.
“Look at it this way,” said Casey. “If he hates it, then he’ll have had his consequence, but he might love it and either way he’s going to have learned some new life skills and earned a bit of cash.”
“You’re right,” said Ajay, smiling now he’d warmed to the idea. “Would you like to tell him the good news?”
“God no!” she exclaimed, and they all laughed. Jared turned to look at them, scowling.
“Jared’s going to help you around the farm while I’m out of action,” said Nigel when Vern arrived with a large teapot covered in a knitted rainbow cozy.
“Fabulous!” said Vern, pouring the tea into the waiting cups. “I’ve got a crop of spuds waiting to be dug that I haven’t had time to lift yet and there’s a hole in the sheep enclosure fence that’s a two-man job.”
“We haven’t told him he’s going to be your little helper yet,” Nigel remarked, looking uneasily between Ajay and Jared.
“No?” asked Vern.
“We’re not sure how he’ll take it,” said Casey.
Vern stood with his hands on his hips. “Jared!” he barked.
Jared jumped at the sound of his name and took out his earbuds. “Yeah?” he asked with the disgruntled air that only a teenager could achieve.
“You’re going to be my apprentice farmhand while Nigel recuperates. You can help me with the animals and the garden, and in return you’ll have all the veg you can eat, a sense of deep satisfaction for your hard graft, and some cash in your pocket. What do you say?”
Jared’s countenance suggested he’d like to say a lot and that none of it would be pleasant.
“Problem?” Vern asked, one eyebrow raised in challenge.
Jared looked at Ajay, who nodded at him with an expression of warning on his face. Seeing that he wasn’t going to get any help from his uncle, the teen swallowed hard and then, shrugging with a feigned nonchalance, said, “Yeah, whatever.”
Nigel clapped his hands in delight and said, “Why don’t you two stay for dinner as well?”
“Oh, I don’t know…” Ajay cast a glance at Jared, whose frown was now so deep he’d given himself a monobrow.
Casey saw one side of Vern’s mouth quirk up into a sly smile and he winked at her; he knew as well as she did that Nigel was playing matchmaker.
“Come on!” Nigel goaded. “Casey’s brother and the children are coming up; Vern’s been looking for an excuse to fire up the pizza oven in the garden, haven’t you, love?” he said as Vern handed him a fresh cup of tea.
“I do love playing with fire,” Vern replied. “The kiddiewinks can help me with the pizza toppings.”
“You see!” Nigel went on enthusiastically. “We’ll chuck on a Christmas movie. It’ll be fun! Tell him he has to stay, Casey.”
Casey sighed inwardly, wondering if Ajay realized that they were being set up. “You should stay. If you’re not busy this evening…” she began diplomatically. She didn’t want anybody to be getting the wrong impression.
“Do you mind if we crash your evening?” Ajay asked her.
“Not at all.” She gave him a reassuring smile. They were friends, after all.
Vern insisted that Ajay and Jared check out his pizza oven. “Nige and I built it together out of the bricks left over after we’d demolished the old pig sheds,” he said, drawing them out of the sitting room.
“You cook in a place made from where pigs used to shit?” Jared balked.
Ajay sucked in a sharp intake of breath. “Jared, for god’s sake!”
But Vern only laughed. “You’re in the countryside now, darling—there’s shit everywhere. Come on, I’ll teach you how to make fire,” he said, with a devilish gleam in his eye.
The last thing she saw before Vern closed the door was Ajay rubbing his hand over his stubble in consternation. She felt a bit sorry for him. He was clearly embarrassed by his nephew’s attitude and maybe just a little concerned that Vern was about to teach him how to burn stuff.
“Since when have you carried a slingshot?” Nigel asked when they were alone again.
“What?” she asked absently.
“Jared said you exploded a brick with a slingshot.”
“Oh, huh, that was Margo.” The second she said it, she realized what she’d done. She felt herself get hot. Bugger!
“Who’s Margo?”
“Umm, one of the maintenance crew?”
Nigel frowned. “Is she new? Jared didn’t mention that there was anyone with you.”
“There wasn’t,” she said quickly, and then added stiltedly, “Margo is a new member of the team,” like she was testing out how the lie sounded as she told it. “She left her slingshot behind? And I borrowed it?”
Now his brows had practically raised themselves off his forehead. “Why does she need a slingshot?”
Casey looked around the room as though it might give her a clue. Outside the window two pigeons were monopolizing the bird feeder. “Pigeons!” she said triumphantly. “There’s a pigeon infestation in the loading bay; she used the slingshot to ping dried peas at them.”
“Huh,” said Nigel, looking utterly unconvinced. “You don’t say.”
Brilliant! she thought. She could now add “lying to her best friend” to her list of “things she’d never done before meeting Margo.
” Managing one secret life was hard enough, but now she was leading a second, concurrent secret life with the Spirit of Christmas Present.
Flipping heck, I’m like Batman with baubles!