Chapter 10
It began like any other Saturday when Ben was staying. They all got up at the crack of dawn to see to the animals.
Jade loved this time of year. It wasn’t yet a month since the longest day so the dawn still came early and the dusk still came late.
There was still wall-to-wall sunshine too and the school holidays hadn’t yet begun, which meant they didn’t have an influx of children.
Not that Jade had anything against the influx of children, because she insisted they didn’t come unsupervised, but it was still harder to keep an eye on things when there were a lot of younger people about.
The keener of her weekend volunteers arrived about seven to help out. Most of them were teenage girls, attracted by the animals, but some like Ursula were retirees, who loved being at Duck Pond Rescue and without whose help Jade would have found it all a lot harder.
Jade was talking to Ursula in reception about the best place to leave her two greyhounds today while she helped with the kennel cleaning when a blue Astra pulled in through the main gates.
They were open because Jade was expecting a pet food delivery and she frowned when the Astra pulled up directly outside.
Most people knew to leave the space outside reception free for emergencies or deliveries.
Something flickered in the back of her mind. Hadn’t Dawn mentioned a blue Astra once before? She watched as a man got out of the driver’s side, carefully locked up the door and then stood for a second looking towards reception.
Their eyes met and Jade felt a frisson of curiosity. There was nothing familiar about him. He was dressed in a tweed jacket and old brown cords, and could have been one of the dozens of farmers she and Finn saw in the Red Lion up the road.
Maybe he was a farmer. He looked pleasant enough. ‘Excuse me a minute, Ursula.’ Jade stood up from her position behind the desk. ‘I think I’d better go and see who this is.’
‘Sure thing, honey. I’ll leave you to it. I’ll stick Milo and Candy in a stable for now.’ Ursula left with her two dogs and Jade was about to follow her out when the man walked towards reception and then hesitated in the doorway.
Jade gave him a beaming smile. ‘Can I help you with anything? I’m Jade Foster, proprietor.’
Hopefully he wasn’t about to complain although she noticed his face had stiffened a little when she told him her name.
‘This is, erm, a little awkward.’ He came fully into the building and Jade wished she hadn’t been so forthcoming. So maybe he was going to complain. She waited. Experience had taught her that if people did have a gripe it was best to let them get it out of their systems.
After a few seconds he continued quietly. ‘My name is Hector Foster. I believe you wrote to me last year.’
Jade’s head spun in shock and she felt her heart thump very fast in response to his words.
She put out a hand to steady herself and made contact with the wooden reception desk.
She leaned against it, grateful for its solidness.
She felt as though all of the wind had been knocked out of her and she urgently needed to sit down.
She didn’t sit down though because she didn’t want him to know how terribly shocked she was.
He continued in the same even tone of voice. ‘I know this is most probably a shock. I was – er – I was going to write before. But I’m not good at letters so I thought I’d come in person.’ His gaze dropped away from hers and flicked around the room.
She realised he was as nervous as she was. No, he wasn’t. That would have been impossible. But at least he’d known what he was walking into. A father and daughter, meeting for the first time after twenty-nine years of silence. For Jade it had come totally out of the blue.
Except of course for the letter he’d mentioned in his introductory speech.
Jade said the first thing that came into her head. ‘I wrote to you months ago. Nearly a year. Why did you wait until now?’
She glanced out of the reception window.
Outside it was still a perfectly normal day.
A volunteer had just strolled across the yard with an armful of straw and she saw someone else carrying a bucket of water, but inside here – inside her – everything was trembling.
The room. Her insides, her legs, her hands.
She supposed all that was normal too when your father – the one you haven’t seen for your entire life – suddenly turns up and introduces himself without a bloody by your leave.
He wiped his hand across his head and she saw he was sweating. ‘I’ve been here before. But I couldn’t bring myself to come in. I had to work up to it. I’m sorry. Maybe this isn’t a good time.’
‘No, it bloody isn’t. I’m working. Saturday’s my busiest day.’ What she was saying sounded inane, even to her, but she couldn’t formulate anything more coherent.
He’d begun to back away. His hands outstretched in front of him, palms faced forwards.
‘Of course. Sorry. I’ll go.’ He acted as if he was being shoved back by the force of her words.
He’d backed up to the doorway again and he hit his elbow on the door jamb and winced before turning abruptly.
And Jade realised with a sickening little jolt that having him leave would be even worse than having him stay.
It would be far worse. She might never see him again.
This might be her one and only chance to meet him.
‘Wait, wait. Wait.’ Her own voice sounded strange. ‘You can’t. Just. Leave.’ Her words came out in staccato bursts.
He was outside now, and she was at the door. The yard was momentarily empty. Typical. Where was everyone when you needed them? Where was Finn? Where was Ben? Oh, God. She didn’t know what to do. Nothing in her twenty-nine years had prepared her for this.
Her thoughts were all whirring about in her head faster than if they’d been caught up in a tornado. And now the man… Hector… her father was at the door of the Astra again. Presumably about to get in and disappear. Possibly this time for good.
Jade took a couple of deep breaths in an effort to calm herself.
He’d paused and was looking at her expectantly and she saw that his roundish face looked pale in the bright morning sunshine and he was puffing.
‘I shouldn’t have just turned up like that,’ he murmured. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘It was a shock. But I don’t want you to go. Can we please… Can we please start again? But not here. We’ll go in the house.’
She grabbed the ‘back in five minutes’ sign from its place by the door, hung it up so it faced outwards and then shut the reception door.
Being in control of the situation, having a plan even if it was only a plan to take him into her cottage, helped.
Jade felt some of the spinning shock she’d had when he’d first introduced himself leaving, but her legs still felt rubbery as she gestured him to follow her past reception and on to the little back door of Duck Pond Cottage.
Her only remaining family. Oh, God. Why now? What had propelled him out into the wilds of Wiltshire to introduce himself today? She had to know.