Chapter 15 #2
‘But she’s gone on to do something so much more worthwhile. We’re all so proud of her. I wish her father had lived to see it, but of course he does know.’ She looked up at the sky. ‘He is looking down on her full of admiration for what she has achieved, for what she is giving back to the world.’
‘Mum!’
‘Darling!’
‘I’m going to put the kettle on and make a good strong cup of tea because I’m really surprised that you can’t see that my aura is nowhere near sea breeze, whatever that is, but is distinctly battleship grey.’
‘Oh, Julian…’ Beulah said, as Jules turned to make her way back to the house, ‘I’m so glad that the dreadful man, whose name we won’t mention – do you know about the awful man, Lance?’
‘Um…’ he replied.
‘Quite,’ Beulah said with a nod. ‘It’s absolutely marvellous, Juli… that he has not caused you to lose your sense of humour. She’s such a hoot, isn’t she, Lance?’
Jules felt herself beginning to seethe. Much more of this and she was going to retract her very generous offer of accommodation.
‘Indeed, she is,’ he said, raising one eyebrow in Jules’s direction.
‘And for an extra surprise the gorgeous Lance has brought you a present, Jules.’
She turned to look up into his flushed face. Perhaps he had caught the sun. No, he was definitely blushing.
‘Um, it’s not really a present and it’s not actually for you.’ He looked disproportionately apologetic. ‘It’s for the cottage. Carrie commissioned it and said to let her know when it was finished. She told me you’d be here and asked if I could drop it in.’
‘Oh, right, thank you.’
She held out her hands and took the parcel.
‘And now your hands are free, Lance,’ Beulah said with another of her winning smiles, ‘perhaps you could be so kind as to take my suitcase. At my age I really have to be careful with lifting.’
‘Mum, all of that yoga and Pilates has made you fitter than I am,’ Jules retorted, ‘and the suitcase is on wheels.’
‘I have a twinge, Julia.’ She placed her hand in the small of her back. ‘And I really don’t want to aggravate it.’
You have a twinge, Jules thought.
‘I’ll carry it in for you.’
‘I’m sure Lance would like to see his fruit bowl in situ.’
‘And I’m sure Lance has got better things to do. He has a pottery to run.’
‘I’ve been hearing all about it from Jo. Marvellous it sounds and you’ve been in attendance. So therapeutic. Just what you need.’
She turned to Lance who was shifting from one foot to another, obviously not sure whether he should leave or not.
‘She’s really very creative, you know. Always drawing and making things as a child.’
Lance just smiled. Beulah tilted the suitcase towards him.
‘Come along then, darling. What are you waiting for? Lead the way. I can’t wait to see inside this cottage I’ve heard so much about. Already I can tell that it has an extraordinary ambience.’
Jules sighed. Her mother really was the most infuriating woman.
‘You’ll have to come around the back,’ she said snappily. ‘Tradesmen’s entrance. The front door is locked.’
And off she marched, the rumble of the suitcase wheels behind her indicating that it was going to be a trying couple of days.
‘I’m sorry,’ Jules said as Lance appeared in the kitchen after having taken Beulah’s suitcase upstairs.
‘What for?’
‘My mother.’
‘She seems very nice.’
‘Would you like her to come and stay with you?’ she asked, leaning back against the work surface and raising an eyebrow.
His lips twitched. He had very nice lips, she thought.
‘I thought not. Tea?’
He nodded.
‘What have you done with her, by the way?’
‘She’s rearranging a few things to make the room more harmonious.’
‘Ye gods!’ Jules exclaimed, as thudding and scraping sounds came from upstairs. ‘She couldn’t lift a small suitcase, but she can shift furniture without a second thought for her twinge.’
She came and sat at the table and put her head in her hands.
‘I know this will sound overly dramatic,’ she murmured, ‘but I’m not sure how I’m going to survive.’
‘Tea might help a little,’ he said, moving over to the boiling kettle and tipping water into the readily prepared teapot.
‘Rita says that tea is a balm for most problems,’ she replied, as he put a mug in front of her.
‘That was another reason I called in,’ he said, ‘to ask how she is. I didn’t want to bother Alastair and it’s a bit difficult for me to call and speak to Christabel.’
‘All I know is they’re operating this afternoon.’
‘It sounded bad.’
‘She’s totally shattered her knee, I think, but it could have been worse.’
‘Erin told me that Tasha said you were amazing.’
‘Not really. I just did what I could, what I was trained to do.’
‘This could change everything for Rita,’ he said, pouring tea into her mug.
‘Scary, isn’t it, how one misstep can do that, and you don’t even have to be on a ladder?’
Lance cast a glance towards the hall where Beulah’s singing of ‘Oh! What a Beautiful Morning’ was now filtering down the stairs.
‘She does tend to churn up the atmosphere,’ Jules said.
‘I’d noticed. If you feel the need to get away you can always come to The Pottery for some creativity and calm.’
‘Creativity and calm, that sounds wonderful,’ Beulah said from the doorway, making both Lance and Jules jump. ‘You haven’t unwrapped the bowl. I would like to see Lance’s creative genius.’
‘I’m afraid you’re about to be disappointed,’ he said modestly as Beulah took the parcel from the island unit, placed it on the pine table, untied the string and peeled back the brown paper.
The bowl was oval and glazed in a pale sage green, decorated with illustrations of cow parsley and red campion.
‘I’m not disappointed at all,’ Beulah said. ‘That is very beautiful and made with such love. You are obviously extremely talented as well as handsome. I do like a man who’s good with his hands.’
‘Mum! You’re embarrassing Lance.’
‘Nonsense! I’m sure he’s used to adulation.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to…’ he protested.
‘If I was twenty years younger,’ Beulah continued, sending him a wink.
Jules closed her eyes.
‘But I’m not,’ she continued, ‘so I’ll just have to settle for a cup of tea poured by those manly hands of yours.’
There was one thing about Beulah, Jules thought. She certainly took your mind off any other problems you might be having. She became the problem.
‘Remember what I said,’ Lance said, as Jules showed him out. ‘You can visit The Pottery any time. Just come around to the back and let yourself into the studio.’
She looked behind her where Beulah was standing in the middle of the front lawn and saluting the sun.
‘Thank you,’ she murmured. ‘I might just do that.’
He smiled and she wondered for a moment if he was going to touch her. Strangely she really wanted him to.
‘Never a dull moment, hey?’
‘No,’ she said as he turned to go. ‘Never a dull moment.’
‘He’s lush, isn’t he?’ Beulah said, when Lance was barely out of earshot. ‘You could do worse, you know.’
‘Mum!’
She glanced over to where Lance was getting into his car, but if he’d heard he didn’t let on. Instead, he raised his hand and waved. Jules waved back tentatively while Beulah moved her arm backwards and forwards so energetically that her whole body swayed.
‘This whole place is just adorable,’ she said as Jules followed her back into the house, ‘like a picture postcard. It feels such a happy place and definitely a sanctuary.’
She stopped suddenly in the hall and lifted her face slightly, her eyes moving from one side to the other.
‘But there’s something else…’
Here we go, Jules thought. Beulah turned her eyes, locking on to Jules’s face.
‘There’s a sadness here.’
‘The cottage is over two hundred years old, Mum. I expect there have been sadnesses.’
‘It is well hidden,’ Beulah said. ‘It is a secret sadness.’
‘Loads of people are walking around with those,’ Jules said. ‘Come on, I’m going to see what we’ve got for supper.’
‘Have you spoken to the spirits, Julia?’
‘No, I have not because you know that I don’t believe in that sort of thing.’
‘You should speak to them, darling. I sense that they are trying to help you.’
Jules moved through to the sitting room.
‘Are you on or off cheese at the moment, because I might make a cheesy pasta bake?’
‘You know that I can eat cheese in the summer, but not in the winter because of my sensitive sinuses.’
‘I’d forgotten, but thank goodness it’s summer.’
‘I’ll come and help you,’ Beulah said. ‘We can cook together. That’s a bonding thing to do.’
Depends on who you’re cooking with, Jules murmured to herself. Perhaps she would speak to the spirits after all. Perhaps she would ask them to help her find patience.