Chapter 16 #2
‘It’s not inconvenient at all.’ He smiled broadly.
‘Anything but. It’s extremely serendipitous.
I’ve got to go out – not far, just to Newport to deliver something – and Tasha’s here with Erin.
Alastair dropped her off earlier which was a bit of a surprise.
Thought it might do her good to get away from the farm for a couple of hours.
Obviously, the girls don’t need babysitting, but Tasha’s still upset and I was a bit concerned about leaving them both.
If you’re in the studio…’ He paused, his eyes glancing at the basket.
‘I presume that’s why you’re here and not for my scintillating company? ’
‘Yes, I mean, no. My mother made me come.’
She sounded totally pathetic. He raised an eyebrow.
‘I’ve had some brush-offs in my time, but that’s a first,’ he said with a rich laugh. ‘I presume the plan was to walk straight back to the cottage and that seemed easier than doing battle with her earlier?’
She looked up at him sheepishly.
‘She’s not an easy woman to negotiate with at the best of times and I just didn’t have the energy…’
He came over and took the basket from her hand.
‘Would you let me pour you a glass of wine and sit you in the studio with whatever it is you have in here while I nip to Newport? As soon as I get back you can either walk home, or I’ll take you in the car.’ He placed his palms together. ‘You’d be doing me a huge favour.’
She nodded and with the lightest of touches he brushed her shoulder in thanks.
‘You’ll have to come around the back. The café’s locked now so I get into the studio from the garden.’
She followed him through the gate at the side, across the patio that led from the kitchen, and through open double doors into the studio.
‘Make yourself at home,’ he said, turning on his heel and heading back towards the house.
Immediately Jules felt a sense of calm. The evening light spun patterns of gold on the whitewashed walls, and the whole place was bathed in stillness. She perched on one of the wooden stools at the workbench and took Tasha’s jug from the basket.
‘Rosé okay?’ he said, reappearing with a glass in hand. ‘I’ve got something else if you’d prefer it. Homemade elderflower cordial?’
‘No, this is lovely. Thank you.’
‘And I’d just made some bruschetta for the girls, topped with a broad bean dip.’
He placed an irregularly shaped plate in front of her with toasted bread topped with a coarse pate decorated with fronds of chervil.
‘I thought you might like some to keep you going.’
‘Thank you. That’s so kind.’ She blinked. ‘I’m sorry. I get emotional when anyone is nice to me.’
‘I shan’t be too nice then,’ he said seriously. He looked at the jug. ‘And this definitely is not nice!’
‘I thought it was beyond repair and then my mother mentioned Kintsugi, but perhaps it’s too far gone.’
He leaned over and spread the pieces out in front of her. He smelled good, like freshly cut grass. She tried not to shrink away. She must not get into the habit of locking herself in when anyone got too close.
‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘I have something here which you can use to glue the pieces back together and then when that has dried you can gild it. I’ll find what you need and tell the girls you’re here. Then I’ll get off.’
Jules was pleased with the way she’d been able to piece the jug back together and already she could see how the gilding would create something unconventionally beautiful.
She placed it safely on a shelf to allow it to dry and wandered out into the garden.
Bees and butterflies were still busy in the borders, and she followed Morwenna towards the little pond where the cat settled on a large flat stone at the edge and studied the darting fish.
Jules perched next to her and kicked off her flip-flops.
‘Hi, Jules.’
Erin leaned out of a bedroom window and waved.
She waved back.
‘Are you both okay up there?’
‘Fine. Are you staying for supper? Dad’s going to pick up some crab from his customer.’
‘I don’t think so,’ she called, ‘but thank you for asking.’
‘Another time then,’ Erin said, seemingly unfazed. ‘You could feed the fish, though, if you don’t mind. There’s a container in the shed.’
‘What about Morwenna?’
‘You don’t need to worry about her. She just likes to watch them. She couldn’t catch a cold.’
Jules wandered down to the shed at the bottom of the garden and found the fish food.
She was crouching by the pond sprinkling granules on to the water when Christabel appeared through the side gate.
She was immaculately dressed in a pale pink shirt dress and large, dangly gold earrings which sparkled in the early evening light.
She stood stock still as if gathering herself.
‘Don’t you look as if you’ve made yourself at home,’ she said.
Jules stood up and scrunched her bare feet into the grass.
‘Hello, Christabel. I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Jules.’
Jules held out a hand while Christabel kept hers deliberately down by her side.
‘How is Rita?’
Christabel blinked and twirled her sunglasses between her finger and thumb.
‘Not good, I’m afraid.’
‘Oh no! I thought the operation went well?’
Christabel shrugged.
‘At her age it’s difficult to say how she’ll recover. One thing’s for sure, she won’t be as mobile as she used to be.’
‘She’ll have some physio in due course,’ Jules said, ‘and be given exercises to do at home so there’s no reason to be too pessimistic.’
‘The accident has completely sapped her confidence, and she’s been a bit confused, bless her. Talked about George catching her as she fell off the ladder.’
‘It could be the anaesthetic and the shock. It does that to some people.’
‘Or it could be the start of cognitive decline,’ Christabel said with a sigh. ‘Poor Rita. She’s very low. She seems to have aged overnight.’
‘If she’s up to visitors tomorrow I can stop by the hospital and try to cheer her up.’
Christabel shook her head, her glossy dark brown hair rippling across her shoulders.
‘How kind,’ she said, drawing out the words, ‘but we wouldn’t want to disturb your stay any more than it has been already.’
She fixed Jules with a stare. Goodness, this woman could have done a PhD in putting you on edge.
‘This is a family matter and the family have it covered.’
That’s told me, Jules thought. She placed the lid back on the fish food container and headed back towards the shed.
‘Should you really have done that?’ Christabel asked. ‘Aren’t you putting the fish at risk from that cat?’
‘Apparently not.’
This had felt like a really happy place until Christabel arrived. She seemed to carry discontent with her.
‘Where is Lance? Does he know you’re here?’
Christabel had followed her and was invading her space.
Jules banged her arm on the shed door, rubbed her elbow and smiled ruefully.
Her mother would say the elbow was linked to adaptability and flexibility and that knocking it was a reminder of how she was letting go of resistance.
Goodness, Jules thought, I may not believe in all this stuff, but I’ve absorbed it over the years.
‘Yes, he does, and he’s nipped out to make a delivery.’ Lucky for him, she thought.
‘Will he be long?’
‘I’m not sure.’
He’d said less than an hour, but she wasn’t going to tell Christabel that.
‘And he’s left you in charge?’
‘It seems I’m deemed capable of supervising fish.’
‘And the girls.’
‘Not really needed. They’re pretty sensible.’
‘I’m here to collect Tasha who, as we both know, is less than sensible.’
Don’t react, Jules said to herself. There’s a lot you could say, but it’s not your place.
‘I think they’re upstairs chilling out.’
‘You think? You don’t know?’
‘I haven’t got trackers on them although I don’t think Tasha is expecting you.’
‘No, she’s not, but it’s time she came home. She’s been here all afternoon. A bit like you, by the looks of things.’
‘I haven’t been here long at all.’
She really didn’t need to explain herself. Why had she said that?
‘Of course you haven’t,’ Christabel replied with a not-so-sweet smile. ‘Did you walk? I didn’t notice a car. I can give you a ride back if you like.’
‘My mother dropped me off and is picking me up later.’
Christabel wasn’t to know that only half of that sentence was true. She glanced down at the pond where the fish were still scuffling over the last crumbs of food and Morwenna was washing her face.
‘Lance built that pond for Sarah, you know.’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘There’s a lot you don’t know about Lance.’
Jules squared her shoulders. This was becoming tiresome.
‘I expect there is. We’ve only just met.’
‘Sarah used to sit by this pond when she was ill. She was the love of Lance’s life. He’ll never remarry.’ She cast Jules a sly glance. ‘May have the odd bit of fun. I mean, you can’t expect him to be completely celibate, can you?’
Jules didn’t deign that comment with a reply. She wanted to reach out and touch the back of one of those solid garden chairs for support, but they were too far away.
‘He’s that rare specimen – a one-woman man in the long term. And Sarah, lucky thing, was that woman.’
‘Not that lucky,’ Jules shot back, ‘because she died.’
‘No, obviously that was unfortunate.’
Jules felt a torrent of anger rise inside her.
‘I think it was more than unfortunate. It was tragic. She left two small children.’
Christabel looked taken aback by Jules’s ferocity.
‘Perhaps I didn’t express myself as well as I could have done.’
‘Christabel, I think you pick your words very carefully and are capable of expressing yourself more than adequately if you choose. What is the point you’re trying to make here?’
Christabel lifted her chin.
‘There’s no need to be so antagonistic. I’m only thinking of you.
A lot of women come to the pottery and end up swooning over Lance.
A woman likes a man who is creative, doesn’t she?
’ She sent Jules a conspiratorial glance as if they were in league together.
‘I was just trying to warn you that if you have any designs…’
‘I don’t. I’m here mending something. That’s all.’
The words came out with such force that all the fish plunged from sight.
‘Not that it’s any of your business, but at this very moment another relationship is inconceivable.’
Christabel studied her for a few moments.
‘That’s such a relief,’ she finally cooed. ‘I wouldn’t have wanted you to get hurt, Jules. We women need to stick together. And now that little matter is sorted, I’ll go and retrieve my daughter, wherever she may be.’
Jules watched her go and raked her hands through her hair. That woman really was a piece of work.