Chapter 25 #2
‘Aye, well, the sandwiches are a good-enough reason by themselves,’ Victor agreed with a fond look at Corrine, who puffed out a breath and rolled her eyes before going back inside, with a secret look of flattered pride that didn’t escape Zoe.
‘I’ll see you both in a few hours,’ she said before closing the door. ‘You’ll be coming in for tea when you’re done, won’t you, Zoe?’
It didn’t matter what Zoe’s reply was because Corrine wouldn’t have heard it, and so Zoe supposed it was an order rather than an enquiry.
Not that she minded in the least. Today, standing here with a sweeping view of wildflower-strewn hills in every direction, fat clouds against a cornflower sky and the glittering basin of the lake nestled behind a curtain of trees down below, life looked bright and hopeful again.
Whatever was coming, she could weather it – hadn’t the last few weeks already proved that?
Yes, she decided as she followed Victor to the gate to look out for their guests, jogging to keep up with his brisk strides.
Life was what you made it, and Zoe was going to make it good again or go down in flames trying.
When the families arrived and emerged from their cars, Zoe was vaguely perplexed to see that the four children – three girls and a boy all between the ages of around six and ten – looked nothing alike.
She’d assumed she’d be meeting two couples with two children each, but there was no way these ones could be natural siblings.
The only boy had thick black hair and dark eyes, while the girl who got out of the same car had bright ginger hair and freckles peppered across her nose.
The two girls in the other car were as dissimilar to one another and to the adults with them too.
Perhaps someone had noticed her staring – and she’d realised afterwards that it had hardly been appropriate, but the situation had caught her by surprise.
Victor, on the other hand, didn’t seem fazed at all, and only gave a sage nod as the explanation came, addressed specifically to Zoe.
‘We foster,’ one of the men said, shooting a brief smile at the woman by his side, who returned it with a warmth that made it obvious they were an item.
‘This is Iris…’ He lightly patted the freckled girl on the shoulders, and the girl gave Zoe a shy acknowledgement.
‘She’s been with us for about eighteen months.
And then, a few months ago, Joseph came to live with us. Say hello, Joseph.’
The boy grinned, but before Zoe could greet him, he dashed off to chase a brightly patterned butterfly. The man rolled his eyes. ‘His attention is like gold dust, but we get there eventually.’
The woman of the other couple added to the explanation. ‘Us too. In fact, we met Alan and Linda through the fostering support network, and we all became really good friends. ‘We’ve had Kiera for about a year and Daffodil for six months.’
‘Daffodil?’ Victor gave a gruff smile as he kneeled to speak to the little girl. ‘That’s a good name. Like my farm – Daffodil Farm.’
The little girl grinned in delight while Alan chased down Joseph and persuaded him to rejoin the party with gentle words of encouragement and promises of imminent alpaca introductions.
There were more polite exchanges where Zoe introduced herself and explained that she was only helping for the day, and then Victor gave the signal for them to follow him to the alpaca enclosure.
When they got there, he assigned one to each of them, instructing the children with careful patience on the best way to hold the rope and how to lead, though in reality none of his girls needed leading – they’d happily trot along and follow where Victor went.
Zoe brought up the rear, her job to keep an eye on things from behind and make sure the alpacas behaved and that the children were coping, though she felt rather redundant because she was certain their foster parents would be doing the same, despite having an animal of their own to walk with.
She didn’t mind – she was simply happy to be out in the fresh air and fragrant fields, getting to know people she was finding interesting and pleasant.
She was intrigued by their lives, the decisions that had led them to fostering, and there were so many questions buzzing around her head she didn’t know where to start.
There were some she felt were perhaps too invasive as well, and so she tried to frame the one that would be the easiest place to start to Linda, who was walking ahead of her.
‘I have to take my hat off to you – it must be a lot of work and dedication to foster.’
Linda turned briefly and offered a polite smile. ‘People always say that to me. I think what they really mean is how can you take care of a child who isn’t yours? And sometimes they really want to know whether we foster as a replacement for children we can’t have.’
Zoe flushed, though Linda had turned her gaze back to the fields ahead and so didn’t see it. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…’
‘It’s all right,’ Linda said amiably. ‘I can see why people are so curious. It’s not a decision anyone would take lightly, and we were just the same.
It’s true, we can’t have children, but we have room in our house, and we love what we do, and since Iris and Joseph came into our lives, we don’t mind that so much.
In fact, I sometimes wonder if it was meant to be, so that we’d be able to offer Iris and Joseph a home. ’
‘Don’t you worry about when they leave? They don’t stay with you forever, do they? I mean, if there’s a chance they could go back to their families, they go, don’t they?’ Zoe lowered her voice. ‘Sorry, am I supposed to talk about that with them so…?’
‘We don’t hide anything from them,’ Linda said. ‘We believe it’s important that they understand their circumstances, though we also make sure they know that even if they leave us, they’ll always be a part of our family and they can contact us any time.’
‘It’s hard to give them back, though? Are they your first?’
‘No, we had Jayden for about two years. We still get emails from him, but not so many these days. But that’s good – it means things have settled for him with his mother…
At least we hope so. We can be fairly confident that social services check every now and again, and we’ve made it clear we would always have him back if he needed us.
’ She nodded towards the two girls, who were walking ahead with the other couple.
‘Mandy and Dave are in the process of adopting Kiera. Her mother died shortly after they took her in, and her father isn’t in a place to have her back, so…
they’re hopeful it will go through because they absolutely adore her.
I’m sure it will – they’re great parents, and she loves living with them. ’
‘What about Daffodil?’
‘Her situation is all up in the air – I’m not sure anyone knows how it will pan out. She’s a sweet girl, and they’ve become very fond of her too. I bet they’d adopt her if they could. Who knows? Time will tell, as they say.’
The line came to a sudden halt as Joseph’s alpaca decided she liked the look of a clump of tall grass poking from a hedgerow and started to chew on it. Joseph giggled as he ripped off some more and began to wave it around in front of her face.
‘Give her a minute,’ Victor said, grinning from behind his beard. ‘You can’t come between Alice and her snacks.’
‘She won’t bite his fingers?’ Linda asked.
Victor laughed. ‘Oh no… she doesn’t like the taste of fingers at all.
She’s right gentle – she’d make sure what she got in her mouth was leaves before she started to chew.
But…’ He went over and took some grass and showed Joseph how to hold it so he didn’t get nipped by accident as he fed it to Alice.
Joseph watched as she chewed, eyes wide with delight.
Iris dropped the rope she was holding, leaving her alpaca standing alone as she raced over. ‘Let me try!’
‘Here…’ Victor took some of the alpacas’ favourite treats from his pockets and led her back to her own animal. ‘Why don’t you give Ottilie some of these? It’s not fair if only one of them has snacks, is it?’
Once again, he showed her how to do it without getting nipped, and the little girl let out a peal of laughter as Ottilie began to hoover the treats from her open palm.
‘It tickles!’
When she was done, Alan dashed over with some sanitiser to clean her and Joseph’s hands.
Victor watched but said nothing, even though Zoe could hazard a guess that he might consider it overkill.
But then, Victor was a grizzled old farmer who’d probably built an immunity to all sorts of germs during his life working with animals – he wasn’t built like everyone else, who probably ought to take a few more precautions.
‘Come on then.’ Victor clicked at the nearest alpaca. ‘Let’s get moving again – got to earn your keep, right Alice?’
Alice’s dark, docile eyes fixed on him for a moment as if in answer, and then she began to walk once more, keeping a steady, gentle pace with the rest of them.
Linda helped Joseph take hold of the reins again, and all the time he walked at her side, he barely moved his eyes from the creature’s face, as if entranced. Zoe fully expected him to ask if he could keep her once they’d finished their trek.