Chapter 18 #2
Zoe thought about saying no thank you and going about her day.
But what would she be doing with it? Cleaning, ready for her visitor, and really, what would Ritchie care if her house was clean?
What did she care, even if he did have an opinion?
It was her home, not his, and she didn’t have to answer to anyone these days.
If she wanted to live in five feet of filth, she could and nobody could tell her not to.
It would be fun to go and see Victor’s alpaca, and maybe she’d even get an invite to watch him and Alex do their detecting.
It wasn’t the conventional way to spend a Saturday, but perhaps convention was overrated.
‘I’ll dash over and get my wellies on,’ she said. ‘And then I’d love to come and see the girls.’
‘You go and do that,’ Victor said cheerfully. ‘I’ll be here when you get back, don’t worry.’
A few minutes later, Zoe was trying to keep up with Victor as he strode across his land.
‘Five foot and a feather, remember?’ she panted. ‘Could you slow it down a bit for my little legs?’
Victor turned to her with a chuckle. ‘Sorry, flower, I forget. I’m so used to marching up and down these fields on my own.’
‘And I’m sure it’s kept you very fit over the years, but I’m not fit; I’m a lazy millennial with no stamina and a very short stride, so if you could just take your foot off the gas…’
‘Understood!’
Despite his promise, it didn’t seem to Zoe that they’d slowed the pace much at all. She was still out of breath by the time they reached the paddock where he kept his alpaca herd, wondering if she ought to join Stacey, Ottilie’s friend, on her current fitness kick.
‘Here we are…’ Victor started to undo the gate, and before he’d managed it, had already been noticed by at least four of his herd, who had started coming over.
‘See, they know it’s treat time,’ Victor said with a laugh. ‘All right there, Alice, Ottilie…calm down; I’ll be with you as soon as I can.’
‘It still makes me laugh that you called one of them Ottilie,’ Zoe said.
She reached a tentative hand out to pat one of them on the nose.
She didn’t think she’d ever be as comfortable around them as Victor was, and on first meeting she’d been a little nervous, but she was getting more used to them now.
‘Suits her,’ Victor said. ‘Next one we come by we’ll call Zoe – how’s that?’
‘I’m not sure. Obviously she’d be rubbish at trekking, and she’d be the one that kept going in the wrong direction all the time. Probably have short legs too.’
More of the alpaca came over, and Victor greeted them all.
‘Morning Daisy, Dorothy, Kitty.’ And then they followed him to the stables, Pied Piper style, because, as he pointed out to Zoe, they all knew where he kept the treats, locked up so they couldn’t break in and take them all while he wasn’t there.
While Zoe handed them out, he took the brief opportunity to check them all over. ‘Alice…look at the state of you,’ he grumbled. ‘What have you been rolling in? You’re going to need a bath, and I wasn’t planning on doing it this month.’
‘I could do it,’ Zoe said.
Victor gave her a patient smile. ‘I think you’d regret offering. Likely get a kick in the face if you don’t know what you’re doing. She wouldn’t mean it, mind, but might do it by accident. Better if I do it.’
‘Right. Well, is there anything else I can do?’
‘Not really, unless you fancy shovelling up some dung.’
‘I don’t mind doing that. Once you’ve been present at a birth or two, you can cope with any kind of bodily waste.’
Victor threw his head back in laughter. ‘I’ll have to remember that! No, I think I’ll fasten them in for now and come back up later. There’s nothing really urgent that needs doing.’
‘Ah, I see. You’re excited to start detecting?’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he replied with mock innocence, and it was now Zoe’s turn to laugh. ‘Do you mind if I walk to Hilltop with you?’
‘Want to join in, eh?’
‘I thought I might call in to see Billie – take the opportunity to see how she is.’
‘Just like young Ottilie – you never stop working, do you?’
‘I don’t know about that, but it doesn’t really feel like work to me. It’s only visiting one of my expectant mums for a chat. I’d call that a nice morning rather than work.’
‘Either way, you’re more than welcome to walk over with me.’ Victor locked up the box where he kept his treats and put it on a high shelf, and the minute he did, his herd started to wander off. ‘It’s a fickle kind of love,’ he said with a wry smile, ‘but I’ll take it over none.’
‘I don’t blame you.’ Zoe followed him out of the field and waited for a moment while he fastened the gate, her gaze on the dew-soaked hills rolling away towards the horizon. Below, somewhere in a hollow but unseen from this vantage, lay the village of Thimblebury.
‘Have you always lived here?’ she asked.
‘Man and boy,’ he said briskly. ‘Wouldn’t be anywhere else.’
‘I’m not surprised.’
‘What do you think?’ he asked her with a shrewd look. ‘Can you see yourself staying?’
‘I’m not sure yet. My head says to wait and see, but my heart…’
He gave a sage nod. ‘Fair enough. Come on – let’s get going. It’ll take us twice the time if we have to walk at half the speed for your little legs. If we’re not careful, we’ll be losing the daylight before we’ve started anything.’
‘Oi!’ Zoe squeaked with a grin. ‘I’m not having leg slander like that!’
‘Should have eaten your crusts as a girl then.’
‘I thought that gave you curly hair?’
‘Does it?’ Victor chuckled. ‘That’s put me right…’
It took them a good fifteen minutes to negotiate the fields and paths that led to Hilltop.
By the time they got to the neighbouring farm, Alex was already out at the front gate, scraping the mud from a shovel that was propped up against the garden wall.
Grizzle had his nose stuck around the base of a tree, presumably on the scent of something interesting.
The minute he sensed new arrivals, however, his head whipped up and he bounded towards the garden wall, tail wagging.
‘You been out already?’ Victor called, nodding at the shovel as he reached to fuss Grizzle.
‘I had an hour to kill so I had a poke around,’ Alex said, his attention diverting to Zoe with an unspoken question.
‘Find anything?’ Victor asked.
‘No. But there’s plenty of time, right? Morning, Zoe…’
‘I’ve come to see how Billie is,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t be crashing your party over on the fields.’
‘She’s still in bed. If I’d known you were coming, I’d have got her up.’
‘But she’s all right?’ Zoe asked pointedly and was satisfied that his response was relaxed enough.
‘Better, actually. Whatever you said to her seems to have had some effect. She said she was tired last night and went to bed early, but she wasn’t ill or anything, so I thought better to let her sleep as long as she needs.’
‘I think that’s probably the best idea.’ Zoe smiled up at Victor, patting Grizzle, who’d diverted his attention to her, absently. ‘I reckon I’ll get back then. Thanks for taking me to visit the girls.’
‘Girls?’ Alex looked from one to the other with interest.
‘My herd,’ Victor said. ‘They’re all girls, see.’
‘Ah, right. You know, I think I must be the only person around here not to have met them yet.’
‘That’s easily remedied,’ Victor said. ‘Say the word and I’ll happily take you over. Your lass too.’
‘Oh, I don’t think Billie should go,’ Zoe cut in. ‘Sorry,’ she added at Victor’s look of vague confusion. ‘It’s a germ thing…She’s pregnant, and she needs to be careful around livestock.’
‘Fair enough,’ he said with a shrug. ‘In a few months then.’
‘Sorry,’ Zoe said again, but Victor simply shrugged off the apology.
‘Not to worry. So what are you going to do with your morning now? Corrine’s home if you want some company.’
‘I don’t want to keep bothering her; I’m sure she’s got lots to do. I expect I’ll clean the house or something. I was meant to do that anyway.’
Alex glanced at Victor with raised eyebrows.
‘Couldn’t we use an assistant? If you wanted to come over to the pod site with us,’ he added, turning to Zoe.
‘It might not be very exciting if we don’t find anything, but you seemed interested the other day, and I don’t mind you tagging along if Victor doesn’t. ’
‘Of course not – you’re more than welcome,’ Victor said with a smile that Zoe could have sworn was a bit too knowing.
‘All right,’ she said after running every alternative scenario rapidly through her head and deciding that poking about on Alex’s land looking for treasure sounded far more fun. ‘I’ve already got my wellies on, so I’m ready to go when you are. If you’re sure I won’t be in the way.’
Alex called Grizzle over, opened the front door, ushered him inside and then shut it again.
‘He’d end up eating whatever we found, daft dog,’ he said before going over to a collection of tools standing next to his shovel and pulling a mud-splattered metal detector out.
‘There you go – you can be in charge of this.’
Zoe grinned as she took it. ‘You mean I get to do the beep-beeping?’
‘Why not? You’ve probably got more patience than me with it, if I’m honest. I think most people would have.’
‘I don’t know about that, but I’ll have a go.’
‘Right then. You take that and I’ll grab the other tools.’
‘Can you manage everything?’ Victor asked. ‘I can get the Land Rover if we need it.’
‘I’ve got it,’ Alex said, collecting his equipment. ‘No need to go all that way.’
‘I can carry something else,’ Zoe said, which made Alex grin and hand her a trowel.
‘There you go.’
‘Why does everyone think I’m a weakling?’ Zoe huffed but only pretending to be annoyed.
‘Because you’re…and I realise this might not be a very feminist thing to say, but I think the word is petite ,’ Alex said, making Victor laugh again.