Chapter 9 #2
‘I’m staying in the county temporarily,’ I tried again, having taken a breath. ‘But with a view to a permanent move to the Suffolk countryside if certain things happen as I hope they will.’
‘I see,’ he said. ‘Or I sort of do, and I know I’m biased because I grew up here, but you couldn’t have picked a more beautiful place to move to.’
‘You’re a fan?’
‘Die hard,’ he smiled. ‘I love it. Though I don’t get to visit as often as I’d like to, which is a shame because I find the countryside you’re hoping to settle in a real tonic.’
He didn’t say what it was he needed a tonic for.
‘It is beautiful,’ I agreed, thinking of Willowell woods, Fernside, the river and beyond.
‘So,’ he asked next. ‘What is it that you’re hoping will work out?’
‘Oh. It’s too complicated to get into,’ I said, waving the opportunity to explain away. ‘Why don’t we start with something simpler?’
‘Okay,’ he agreed.
‘I’m Matilda,’ I told him, finally getting around to the basics. ‘Though everyone calls me, Tilly.’
‘That was my favourite Roald Dahl book,’ he said, sounding wistful. ‘And film. The Trunchbull used to terrify me though.’
‘Me too,’ I agreed. ‘Though my parents were nothing like the Wormwoods. If anything,’ I continued, my tone sounding as reflective as his, ‘Mum was more Miss Honey.’
‘Was?’
‘Yes,’ I said, as I reined in the emotion that thoughts of Mum reading the book to me at bedtime had stirred. ‘She died when I was ten.’
‘Oh crikey, Tilly,’ he said. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Thank you.’ I swallowed.
‘I lost my mum when I was eighteen and that was tough enough to negotiate, I can’t imagine what it was like at ten.’
‘In that case, I’m sorry for you, too.’ I sighed. ‘My dad was the greatest support, and my brother, who’s a few years older than me, was amazing, too.’
‘That must have helped.’
‘It really did. Though we lost Dad too, a short while ago. What about you? Do you still have your dad?’
‘I never knew him,’ he said. ‘But I do still have a Miss Honey of my own. Or a similar version of her…’
‘Lucky you,’ I smiled. ‘About having a Miss Honey, I mean.’
‘I am lucky. Or I have been. Unfortunately, she’s had a bit of a personality change of late and has morphed into something more akin to The Trunchbull.’
‘Oh dear.’ I grimaced.
‘Oh, ignore me,’ he said and sat up straighter. ‘I’m just being dramatic. She’s not that bad. Just a bit stubborn and set in her ways, I suppose.’
‘I know someone like that,’ I said, thinking of Constance.
From what I’d experienced of her so far, her personality was a blend of the two, too. Miss Honey had invited me to stay at Fernside and The Trunchbull had seen off Miss Lyons! I hoped she wasn’t going to only show that side of herself to me now that I’d upset her.
‘And I’m James, by the way,’ the guy said, striking his forehead. ‘I’ve just realised I didn’t say. I got sidetracked talking about favourite childhood books.’
There were far worse things to be absorbed by and I could already feel myself being captivated by this guy.
‘As in James and the Giant Peach?’ I ventured and he laughed.
‘Yes, I suppose so. We’ve both got our names in the titles of Dahl’s books, how funny is that?’
‘It is a coincidence,’ I said, biting my lip. ‘But our upbringings don’t seem to have been anything like our namesakes’.’
‘Quite so,’ he grinned.
He looked right at me and I felt my insides melting faster than the ice cream we were about to eat.
‘So,’ said James, as we tucked in. ‘You’re staying in the area with a view to moving permanently to beautiful Suffolk, your car is currently off the road and you have impeccable taste in hats, or your mum did. Tell me more?’
He really had been paying attention if he’d remembered the hat he’d rescued had belonged to Mum. He got even more Brownie points for that.
‘The car isn’t really off the road,’ I explained. ‘It’s just having the air con sorted.’
James rolled his eyes. ‘I meant tell me more about you, not your car. Tell me, what makes Tilly tick?’
That felt like a rather intimate question, but then we’d kicked things off with explaining that we both no longer had our parents, so…
‘You’re very inquisitive for a stranger.’ I pretended to frown with disapproval.
‘I’m a barrister.’ He shrugged and licked his spoon, which made my tummy feel a bit funny again. ‘It’s my business to get into your business.’
‘A barrister who conducts his business in a pub?’
‘Not all my business,’ he smiled. ‘Today was an exception. It was a meeting about a new pro bono case I’m considering taking on. Coming here for an informal chat worked best for the client and I was happy to oblige.’
‘Pro bono?’
‘Free,’ he explained. ‘Pro bono work is stuff I do for free.’
‘A barrister who works for free.’
‘You sound amazed,’ he laughed.
It was true I had made certain assumptions about him based on the way he looked and the car he drove, but I was quickly recalibrating those now. The shift in opinion made me like him even more.
‘I am a bit,’ I admitted. ‘Do you work for free very often?’
‘More than my boss wants me to,’ he told me. ‘Far less than I’d like to, but the details can wait for another day.’ I was delighted there might be one. ‘I believe everyone should be entitled to the best legal representation, no matter what their income,’ he said. ‘Don’t you?’
‘Of course,’ I agreed.
Swoon!
‘So, come on,’ he nodded in encouragement. ‘Tell me what’s tempted you to my beloved home county. Assuming it isn’t also yours?’
‘It isn’t where I grew up, but I’m following a childhood dream which came about thanks to holidays spent here,’ I told him. ‘It’s something I lost sight of for a long time but when Dad died, I started to make my way back towards it and now I’m inching closer to potentially achieving it.’
Or I would be if Constance could forgive me.
‘That sounds amazing.’
‘It is,’ I smiled. ‘I’ve given up my job, put my possessions in storage and returned to the place where my heart has always felt at home… to…’ I hesitated to say the words.
‘To?’
‘To find myself, I suppose. And I know that’s a total cliché—’
‘No,’ James cut me off. ‘No, it isn’t. Well, it is in the sense that the phrase has been overused and misapplied, but I can tell that’s not what you’re doing, Tilly. You’re taking the time to truly discover what makes you you and that should be a part of everyone’s life journey, shouldn’t it?’
‘You don’t think I’m mad then?’ I asked.
‘I think you’re amazing,’ he said, pinning me again with his beautiful brown eyes. ‘I envy you.’
‘You envy me?’ I echoed.
As far as I was concerned – and granted my deductions were based on the time it took to eat two scoops of ice cream – James seemed to have life licked.
He was professional, compassionate, kind and a great listener.
But then I remembered how long I’d been masking my way through life, doing a job I despised and sticking with a relationship I felt no passion for.
It wasn’t all that long ago I’d been in turmoil, but no one around me had a clue.
Other than Zack, but that was because I’d outright told him. Was James in turmoil?
‘Why do you envy—’ My phone started to ring, and I reached for my bag. ‘Okay, that’s great,’ I said, when I answered the call. ‘I’ll start walking back now.’
‘Car sorted?’ James asked as he pulled out his wallet and then a bank card.
‘It is,’ I told him. ‘And I’ll get this. Your ice cream’s on me.’
‘Well, thank you,’ he said, treating me to another full wattage smile. ‘That’s very kind. I’ll give you a lift to the garage if you like.’
‘Don’t you need to get back to work?’
‘Not until I’ve seen you safely back to your car and we’ve exchanged numbers,’ he grinned.
‘Oh really?’ I smiled back.
‘Because I mean,’ he said, ‘if you don’t yet know anyone around here and you have car trouble on the way home, who are you going to call?’
‘It was an air con fix.’
‘Even so,’ he shrugged. ‘Who would you ring if disaster struck?’
‘My breakdown provider?’
‘Oh dear,’ he said, wrinkling his nose. ‘Have I pushed my luck?’
‘That depends,’ I told him, thinking it was a bit late to bring it up, but at least I hadn’t entirely forgotten. ‘The first time we met, you had a passenger in your car…’
‘A work colleague,’ he said, looking me dead in the eye. ‘Who hasn’t got a hat to her name, which was why she was so grumpy.’
‘Right,’ I laughed. ‘But just for clarity’s sake, are you single, James?’
‘Absolutely.’ He smiled. ‘Very much so. Have been for ages. You?’
‘Absolutely.’ I grinned and held out my hand for his phone. ‘Very much so. Have been for a while and suffered no heartbreak in the break-up.’
His smile grew even wider. ‘Yet another story for another day,’ he laughed.
‘I’m not sure it is,’ I also laughed. I didn’t think I’d want to talk to him about Lee. ‘I’m sorry that you have to work with a grumpy, non-hat-wearing colleague.’
‘So am I,’ he grimaced. ‘But if anyone asks, I didn’t say that.’
Once we’d exchanged numbers, I quickly paid, and we walked out to the car park and James made for a vehicle I didn’t recognise.
‘This is my car,’ he told me. ‘The fancy one you’ve seen me in before belongs to my boss.’
‘Ah, right.’
‘I could never spend what he does on cars,’ he tutted as he pressed the fob, and I found myself liking him even more. ‘My money goes to a far more worthwhile cause.’
‘Which is?’
A loud blast from a car horn behind me cut our conversation off.
‘I got held up!’ It was Cath, the mechanic’s mum. ‘I can give you a lift back to the garage if that’s where you’re heading now?’
I looked from her to James.
‘That’s the garage owners’ mum,’ I explained. ‘As she’s here, I might as well go back with her.’
James looked disappointed and I felt it too, but it would be silly to turn her down and then drive the distance to pick up my car right behind her.
‘Sure?’
‘It would be rude not to, wouldn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘I suppose it would. Can I message you?’
‘Message, call, whatever you like,’ I said, as I went to walk away. ‘You’ve got my number now.’
‘It was very nice bumping into you again,’ James smiled.
‘It was very nice bumping into you again, too,’ I smiled back.
‘Friend of yours?’ Cath asked as I slid into the passenger seat.
‘You know what,’ I said, as I waved out of the window and James waved back. ‘He might just be.’