Chapter 5 #2
‘Oh, well if you need anything in the meantime, remember you can always ask us. I think Ann might have a few things she’s no more use for – we could ask her. You might find they suit your needs.’
‘Ann!’ Corrine called as they crossed from bright sunlight to the gloomy interior of Ann’s low-ceilinged kitchen. The soon to be ex-owner of Hilltop Farm, however, was nowhere to be seen. ‘We’ve another pair of hands if you want them? Ann?’
Then she appeared from a side door, her eyes red and puffy, sniffing hard. Corrine shook her head and dashed across the floor with open arms.
‘Love!’ she said, folding Ann into an embrace. ‘Don’t cry! It’s going to be fine.’
‘I-I know,’ Ann stuttered through fresh tears. ‘It’s just…it’s all going to change. And I feel so guilty leaving Hilltop behind when it’s all I have left of?—’
‘Of course you do!’ Corrine soothed. ‘It’s only natural.
You’re bound to be nervous and a bit afraid right now, but it’s going to be a good change, you wait and see.
You’ll have more time for Darryl without this big old place to worry about.
You’ve been saying for a long time what a burden it is, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about wanting an easier life, not one bit.
You don’t think your Jim would begrudge you that much, do you? ’
‘Of course not, but he worked so hard on this farm, and I’m giving it up, just like that.’
‘Not just like that. After trying very hard to make it work on your own. You’ve done all you can do – everyone says so. You’ve got a lovely new house to go to, and all your friends will be nearby, same as they are now.’
Ann pulled free of Corrine’s arms and gave a pleading look. ‘What about Darryl? Do you think he’ll hate me for taking him away from here? He loves this place so much, and he feels so safe, and I?—’
‘You didn’t think it would be easy, you said as much, but you wouldn’t be doing this if you didn’t feel, deep down, that it would eventually be the best thing for him, even if he doesn’t see it that way at the moment.
Anyone who knows you knows that you always put him first, and this is no different.
Come on – dry those eyes and crack on. Look’ – she gestured at Zoe, who was watching awkwardly, not acquainted with Ann well enough to offer her own words of comfort but desperate to hug her, as Corrine was doing – ‘we’ve got another pair of willing hands too.
Before you know it, you’ll be sitting in your new house with your feet up, watching Darryl settle in. ’
‘Oh…’ Ann offered a bemused smile to Zoe. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t?—’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ Zoe said. ‘I don’t know how much use I’ll be, but I’m at a loose end today so happy to help if you need me. Has it all got to be out by today?’
‘I was hoping it would be. I can’t really afford to hire the van for a second day.’
‘It will be,’ Corrine said. ‘You’re all packed and that’s the worst of it done – all we have to do now is load it all onto the van.’
Corrine watched her go. ‘Poor thing,’ she said.
‘Has she been here a long time?’ Zoe asked.
‘She has that,’ Victor said. ‘Since she got married, and she were only a slip of a girl then. She’s looked after this place through thick and thin, and it hasn’t been easy.’
‘Nobody blames her for finally having had enough,’ Corrine added. ‘Most of us are surprised she lasted this long after her husband died.’
‘Have you met the new owners yet?’ Zoe asked.
Corrine shook her head. ‘All we know is it’s a cash buyer who made up his mind pretty quick after he’d seen it. But Ann said she’d had it on the market on the quiet, didn’t want a big fuss until it was sold.’
‘I think some people knew,’ Zoe said, remembering that Flo, Ottilie’s almost grandmother-in-law had told them the first time Zoe had come to visit. She also recalled the recent referral to her for Billie Fitzgerald, who’d been registered at this address.
‘I expect they did, but only those who know her well. We knew,’ Corrine added, glancing at Victor, ‘but only because we’d be affected by Hilltop changing hands.’
‘So it’s another farmer taking it on?’ Zoe glanced between the couple and noted immediately the uncertainty.
‘We don’t know,’ Victor said. ‘But I expect we’ll find out soon enough.’
‘All we know is he’s a family man,’ Corrine chipped in.
‘At least one adult daughter because Ann said she came with him one of the times he came to look around.’ Corrine took in the kitchen, as if she approved of the idea, and then continued.
‘This house needs a big, happy family in it. Ann and Darryl have had some terrible luck, and you can feel it in the walls. The old place deserves a new start as much as they do. A lick of paint and some new blood – it’s exactly what Hilltop needs. ’
‘Ah, a bit of work on the land wouldn’t go amiss either,’ Victor agreed.
‘Yes, but…’ Corrine began, but then stopped whatever she’d been about to say as Ann came back in.
‘I’ll get the kettle on,’ she said, visibly cheerier than when Zoe had first arrived. ‘We all want tea, I’m sure?’
‘That sounds lovely,’ Corrine said.
‘Is there something I can be doing to help in the meantime?’ Zoe cast her gaze over a wall of boxes stacked in one corner of the room. ‘Perhaps I can take some of those to the van?’
‘They’ll be too heavy for you,’ Victor said. ‘Five foot and a feather there – most of those boxes are bigger than you are.’
‘You’d be surprised at what I can do,’ Zoe said. She wasn’t offended by his remark – she was used to people making fun of her stature, and even she had to admit she was a little challenged in the height department.
She took off her coat and hung it on a peg before going over and testing the weight of the nearest box.
‘Piece of cake,’ she said with a grin, taking it out.
Before she’d gone halfway across the yard, she was shaking with exertion, but there was no way she was going to put it down now, not when she absolutely knew that Victor was watching her from the window.