Chapter 19
On the day of Hector and Charlotte’s visit, Jade, Dawn, Ursula and Ben, who was at Duck Pond Rescue pretty much daily in the school holidays, gave the place an extra-special spruce-up.
This involved making sure the yard was swept especially clean and that the reception desk was tidy of papers and Hammy Hamster hadn’t tipped out any sawdust from his run onto the floor, which he was prone to doing.
‘Did Mum tell you we’re adopting Hammy Hamster after the wedding?’ Ben announced to Jade. ‘So I’ve put a reserved sign on his cage.’
‘Um, I’m not sure she’s made a final decision yet, has she?’ Jade said, taking it off again.
Ben just grinned and the next time Jade looked the reserved sign was back again. So this time she left it there. She was never going to win that kind of battle with Ben, that was for sure.
Finn helped out with the spruce-up by emptying all of the sanctuary bins into their main commercial bin and checking all the kennels stayed clean.
‘This reminds me of when my dad came to visit,’ he said to Jade when they bumped into each other in the yard.
‘We put little signs up everywhere so he knew where to go. Do you remember?’
‘I do. And for lunch we had a picnic down by the caravan and Aiden had a bee in his bonnet about something and he came storming up to us and then you two had an altercation.’
‘If you mean he came storming in and took a swing at me, then yes, I remember it well. And it was totally unprovoked, I might add.’ He clicked his tongue.
‘I wouldn’t have forgiven him so easily except that you played nurse to me afterwards.
Which made it all worthwhile. I seem to remember it was the first time we ever kissed. ’
‘It was.’ Jade felt a flicker of longing at the memory as they locked eyes, and she knew he felt it too.
He caught her hand and she was about to go in for a hug when they were rudely interrupted by Ben turning up with Chocko in tow and shouting, ‘Get a room,’ and laughing so loudly that Chocko joined in barking.
‘Your son is getting very cheeky,’ Jade said, glancing at the little boy with mock disapproval.
‘Yes, but at least he’s off Mr B’s swear words,’ Finn reminded her in a low voice, and they both laughed.
Everyone was happy, and it was a nice warm day, if a bit cloudy, and the sanctuary looked its best. Mickey was in his basket in reception, freshly brushed.
Buddy, also freshly brushed, was lying in his favourite sunny spot outside a stable, where he’d taken to sitting and watching the world go by.
Jade was feeling pleased with her decision to bring him in.
Older dogs didn’t do so well in kennels.
He was much happier free ranging in the yard, and Mickey had grudgingly accepted him in the house at night.
She’d also had Aiden in to prescribe him some tablets that would help to ease his arthritic joints.
As she worked through the routines of the day she felt herself relaxing.
Hector and Charlotte were due just before midday and the plan was to show them around the sanctuary and then take them to the Red Lion for lunch.
Jade had booked a table for five. OK, so it wouldn’t be the most orthodox first meeting, but she’d decided it didn’t matter.
Charlotte needed to meet Finn, and they might as well meet Ben too, which would make things easier at the wedding.
The blue Astra drew into the yard just before midday and Jade had to resist the temptation to go charging up the yard at top speed to meet it.
Ben had no such reservations. ‘They’re here, Auntie Jade, look. They’re here.’
‘You’d better catch him up,’ Finn told Jade with a smile. ‘Or he’ll have shown them around before we even get there.’
‘I will. Do I look OK? I haven’t got dirt on my face, have I? I meant to go and check before they arrived.’
‘You look great.’ He picked a piece of straw off her tee-shirt. ‘But that’s better. Don’t worry, they’re expecting the proprietor of an animal rescue, not a catwalk model. And you did say Charlotte likes animals, didn’t you?’
‘I did. Oh, God.’ Jade felt her stomach crunching with nerves as she followed Ben and Chocko up the yard, with Finn a few steps behind, and a curious Mickey, who sometimes greeted visitors if he thought they were interesting enough and might have treats.
Jade’s first impressions of Charlotte were of a tall, slim, straight-backed lady with grey-streaked dark hair and a beaming smile. She was smiling even as Hector helped her out of the car. ‘Thanks, love.’
Ben, suddenly overcome by shyness, hung back when he saw Charlotte emerging. And Jade, also feeling strangely shy, stepped forward slowly to meet her.
Charlotte’s warmth was brighter than sunshine. ‘Hello, you gorgeous girl. You won’t believe how many times I’ve longed for this moment.’
It was clear by her voice that she meant it, and this wasn’t some empty platitude she was trotting out.
Jade felt all of her reservations falling away.
She’d half expected a repeat of the awkwardness she’d felt when she’d first met Hector, but it was nothing like that.
All she felt now was an overwhelming aura of warmth, which was amplified tenfold when Charlotte, who’d been leaning on a stick, rested it against the car door and said, ‘Could we possibly have a hug?’
Jade moved forward into Charlotte’s now open arms and felt herself enveloped in warmth. It was the weirdest moment, meeting this stranger, who was not a stranger, but her unknown grandmother. Jade felt choked up and tongue tied.
Luckily Charlotte was not tongue tied. As they drew apart she grasped Jade’s hands, holding her now at arm’s length and said, ‘Let me look at you. Your photos don’t do you justice.
You’re beautiful. I think you’ve got Hector’s ears and his eyes.
Same colour. Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I’m talking too much.
I always do when I’m nervous. Thank you so much for inviting me.
I can’t tell you what this means to me.’
‘Me too.’ Jade blinked away tears. She might not have had the romantically idealistic father/daughter reunion with Hector she’d once longed for, but meeting this lovely woman who was her grandmother was making up for it big time.
They stared at each other for another long moment and Jade could see that Charlotte was moved beyond words too.
Her eyes were soft with emotion and she was swallowing rapidly, as if she too was only just holding it together.
Charlotte squeezed her hands tightly one more time before letting go and looking to Jade’s left at Finn and Ben, who were standing almost touching, Ben round eyed and Finn patient.
‘And who are these fine young men?’ Charlotte’s voice was so husky she had to clear her throat. ‘We must be introduced at once.’
Jade did the honours while Hector shot his mother an affectionate glance. ‘Am I all right to park here?’ he asked. ‘Or should I move the car outside the gate?’
‘You’re fine. You can leave it there. We’ve got a table booked at our local pub for lunch. Does anyone need to visit the bathroom? Or shall we take a tour of the sanctuary first?’ She glanced at Charlotte’s stick. ‘The ground’s a bit uneven in places.’
‘Let’s have a tour. I do love a tour.’ Charlotte’s eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. ‘Don’t worry about my stick. It’s mainly for show. Oh gosh, I used to dream of having an animal sanctuary when I was a child, but Hector tells me you’ve actually done it. How utterly fabulous.’
Charlotte was equally complimentary about all of the animals they visited. She proclaimed the horses to be magnificent beasts, the cats and dogs gorgeous creatures, and Hammy Hamster a regular cutie.
She was particularly impressed with the ducks and chickens.
‘How wonderful that they’re free to roam.
There can’t be many homes where they’d be better off than here, surely?
’ she said as they stood in the furthest away part of Jade’s land, with a backdrop of cloud-puffed sky and more green fields behind them.
‘Maybe not, but if we kept them all we wouldn’t have room for any other animals,’ Jade explained.
‘I can show you where we get the eggs if you like?’ Ben offered. He was clearly as enamoured with Charlotte as Jade was, especially when the old lady said she’d be delighted and declared there was nothing better than having a fresh brown egg laid by your own hens for breakfast.
She and Ben wandered over to the coops and Jade saw that she was leaning quite heavily on her stick. It clearly wasn’t just for show at all. She looked at Hector anxiously. ‘Is she OK?’
‘She’s having a wonderful time. And you won’t stop her from walking, even if she does pay for it later. She’s as stubborn as they come.’
‘Like her granddaughter,’ Finn quipped with a sideways glance at Jade. ‘It’s in the genes.’
Jade didn’t contradict him. Her mum had been stubborn too but it was a different kind of stubbornness than either hers or Charlotte’s.
She watched the old lady leaning in to listen to something Ben was saying, and a few moments later they were coming back towards them, both holding eggs.
‘Did Hector tell you we kept chickens when he was a child?’ Charlotte enquired, puffing slightly, as she reached them.
‘I don’t think he’s mentioned that yet.’ Jade glanced at Hector. Her father. Her actual father, wandering around her animal sanctuary – her favourite place on earth – with a big smile on his face.
It felt surreal. She was getting used to the idea of thinking of him as her father, although it felt weird to be hearing about his childhood from a relative she had never met. Weird but in a good way. As though she was rediscovering a long-ago memory but through someone else’s eyes.
That was something else she’d barely known about her mother. Her early years. Elizabeth hadn’t discussed the past very often. She’d once described her childhood as ‘satisfactory’ but had given no details.
‘We have a big enough garden to keep chickens, don’t we, Auntie Jade?’ Ben’s voice interrupted her thoughts. ‘I think Mum said we could have some chickens too. So we can have lots of eggs.’
‘And I think that you don’t need to keep your own chickens, son,’ Finn said evenly, ‘because you can have as many eggs as you like from ours.’
‘Yes, but they wouldn’t be as fresh as if we had our own, though, would they?’ Ben said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. ‘They’d be one day older.’
Jade and Finn swapped amused glances. ‘If all the animals that are here got moved to your back garden then you wouldn’t need to come and visit us so much,’ Jade pointed out. ‘And that wouldn’t be any good, would it?’
Ben frowned. ‘Hmmm, I suppose it wouldn’t. But Hammy Hamster would like it better at our house, wouldn’t he?’
‘We can speak to your mum about Hammy Hamster,’ Finn said. ‘But for now I think we might need to be thinking about lunch.’
Three-quarters of an hour later they were all seated at a table in the Red Lion, and Mike, the landlord, who was clearly curious about Jade’s visitors, was handing them menus.
She was in two minds about whether to tell him who they were. Mike was the biggest gossip in Arleston, but in the end she threw caution to the winds and said, ‘Mike, this is Hector, my father, and my grandmother, Charlotte. They’re up from Devon visiting for the day.’
She flushed as she said the unfamiliar titles and she was aware that Hector and Charlotte were exchanging glances. She knew they were pleased to be formally introduced.
And as for the landlord, Mike’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Jade saw with satisfaction that he was clearly dying to ask more. Because he knew like most of the locals that Jade had been brought up by a single mother who’d died suddenly and left her a chain of hotels.
Not that she had any intention of enlightening him just yet. It was going to take her a lot longer to get used to her new family before she was willing to share them.
‘I’ll come across and order when we’re ready, if you like, Mike?’ Jade added pointedly. ‘Save you waiting.’
‘All right. Yeah. Thanks. Sure.’ The big bushy-bearded man, who looked more like a salty sea dog than the landlord of a country pub, nodded and backed away.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mike lost for words,’ Finn said in low tones when he was out of earshot.
‘I know.’ Jade smiled at him. ‘I couldn’t resist.’
Finn squeezed her hand under the table. Maybe he’d been wrong about Jade and her adjustment to meeting her new family. She was taking it all in her stride. She was getting on a lot better than he had when it had happened to him.
They moved on to chatting about the wedding. Ben told Hector and Charlotte that he and Chocko had a starring role in the ceremony.
‘Nothing can happen without us because we’re bringing the rings,’ he said. ‘We’re the hushers.’
‘Ushers,’ Finn corrected, smiling.
‘No, the hushers,’ Ben argued. ‘Because everyone’s going to hush up when they see us coming up the aisle. Aren’t they, Auntie Jade?’
‘I’m sure they are,’ Jade agreed, laughing.
‘And after the wedding, I’m going to have two mums and two dads. I’m going to have Mum and Mum-Jade and Dad and Dad-Callum.’
Finn felt his throat close with emotion at the expression of excitement on his son’s face.
‘You certainly are, son,’ he agreed softly.
They could get into the semantics of extra grandparents and great-grandparents later, he thought. But he loved the fact that his son would be surrounded by a great big extended family. And by the beaming smile Jade was giving him, they were on exactly the same wavelength.