‘Hi,’ I said, when we walked up to his table. ‘Drew, this is Izzy. Izzy, this is Drew.’ I watched as Drew stared at his daughter for the first time: he did a double take – there was no mistaking the fact he was her father.
Izzy actually held out her hand to him. ‘Hi,’ she said. I bit back a laugh, but Drew very solemnly shook it. ‘You have red hair like me,’ she said, looking up at it. I knew she had often wished for my colour hair, so she would be pleased to see where hers came from.
Drew ran a hand over his hair. ‘We can blame my grandfather for it,’ he replied, smiling at her.
We sat down and the waitress came over, so I ordered a strong coffee for myself and Izzy asked for a hot chocolate. Drew was already on his second coffee he said and I could see his knee bouncing against the table as he declined another one. The cafe was busy, and they were playing Christmas songs, so the short silence after the waitress left the table wasn’t too painful, but I knew that it needed to be filled.
‘So, Drew, tell us all about Boston. We’ve never been to America, have we, Iz?’ I said, taking a sip of my coffee and giving him an encouraging smile. She shook her head and fixed her gaze on Drew.
He cleared his throat. ‘Well, it’s very different from Glendale, that’s for sure,’ he replied. ‘When I first got there, I got really homesick. I still miss Scotland a lot, but I like the fact that summers get really hot there and I can go running every morning in the park by my apartment. I love baseball and try to go to as many games as I can, although my hours at the hospital make that tricky sometimes. It’s always busy and bustling there, which took some getting used to.’
‘Mum said you have a farm here?’ Izzy asked him then.
‘That’s right. My older brother, Rory, runs it. I miss winter mornings getting up in the darkness to feed the animals. And just the peace of all the open space here. You’re never alone in Boston.’
‘I’ve never been to a farm,’ Izzy said.
‘Well, you’ll have to come over and help us feed the animals. If you’d like to?’
Her eyes lit up. ‘Can I, Mum?’
I smiled. ‘Of course.’ I was pleased they were both talking about spending more time with one another.
‘What about you guys, Izzy? What’s life like in London?’
She licked some whipped cream off the top of her drink. ‘Well, it’s a bit like Boston I think. Really busy, and there’s always lots of noise and people everywhere. We live in a flat in south London, and I can’t believe how much space there is up here. I really like Scotland.’
‘And what about school? Your mum said you’re a big reader. Do you know what you’d like to do when you’re older?’
Izzy shook her head. ‘I just like reading and learning new things. We go to museums quite a lot, which are my favourite places in London. Mum prefers the parks though.’
‘When you let me walk in one,’ I replied. ‘Although you like the garden at the Hall, don’t you?’
‘It’s pretty, especially when it’s snowing,’ Izzy conceded. ‘We’ve never had a garden before.’
Drew looked at me in surprise. ‘You don’t have a garden in London?’
‘I can’t afford a place that has one,’ I told him ruefully. ‘So, it’s been great to get back into the one here, I must admit.’
‘You didn’t become a gardener then?’
‘I work at Izzy’s school, actually. Just office admin. It pays the bills,’ I replied, taking a sip of my coffee. ‘And it means I get weekends and holidays off to be with her. Which is why we were able come up here for Christmas.’
‘That makes sense,’ Drew said. ‘Although it’s a shame that you didn’t get to be a gardener like you wanted.’
I nodded and wondered why his words made me feel emotional all of a sudden. They started talking about the Science Museum, and as Izzy chatted, Drew watched her with a smile on his face. My heart swelled to see them finally together.
* * *
‘Drew needs to come back to the house with us,’ Izzy announced as we stepped out of the cafe an hour later. The sleet was coming down faster then, blurring our view. It was freezing and I was looking forward to the cosy warmth of the Hall.
I looked down at her. ‘Izzy, Drew might have things to do—’
‘It’s okay,’ Drew interrupted me, placing his hand on my arm for a moment. The contact silenced me instantly. ‘I don’t mind.’
‘I need to give him something, it’s important,’ Izzy insisted. I knew when she was like this, it was hard to persuade her from her course of action.
‘I’ll follow you back,’ Drew said with a smile.
‘Are you sure?’ I checked as Izzy skipped towards the car.
‘It’s fine. Izzy wants to give me a copy of the book I promised to read,’ he replied.
‘I hope you know what you’ve let yourself in for,’ I said with a smile. ‘See you back at the house then?’ I watched him duck his head to avoid the sleet and hurry over to his jeep. I went to our car and climbed in, turning on the heating straightaway.
‘He’s nice, isn’t he, Mum?’ Izzy asked as we started to drive home. She was smiling, and I was so relieved that their first meeting had gone so well.
‘He is, my love.’ I glanced in my rear-view mirror to see him driving behind us. He smiled as our eyes met. My cheeks turned a little pink and I wasn’t sure that I could blame it on the hot air blowing out from the vents.
Chapter Nineteen
When we walked into the Hall, shaking off the snow from our coats, Izzy pulled off her boots and raced off straight away to get the book. Drew watched her go in wonder. ‘I can’t believe that’s our daughter,’ he said. ‘She’s so grown up already,’ he added, glancing at me, a slight frown on his face.
Guilt settled in my chest again. ‘Thank you for today. I know… I can’t imagine what a shock all of this still is.’ I led him through to the living room where I had spent a lot of my time growing up. It was smaller and cosier than the formal drawing room with comfy chairs and a huge TV and a fire crackling merrily in the corner. The rest of the house was quiet. Mum and Sally were both out running errands they said, so there was a nurse upstairs with Gran. Dad was at work as usual.
‘It’s still hard to get my head around it all,’ Drew admitted as he followed me in. He looked around as if trying to remember everything about the place. It had been a long time since he had set foot in the house. He went to the armchair and settled in it, so I sat down on the sofa opposite him. ‘I’ve missed out on so much.’
‘I’m so sorry, Drew,’ I said, hating that I couldn’t give him back those ten years. ‘I know that doesn’t even begin to cover it though.’ I thought about my gran upstairs and her own apology to me. There had been so many mistakes made.
Drew sighed. ‘It’s hard seeing her and knowing that she grew up without me there to see it all. I mean, she seems like a great kid. And I can see myself in her. And you. So much of you, too.’
‘Really?’
‘Of course. Although you never got excited about books.’
‘That’s true. I was always trying to stop you studying. Wasn’t I?’
‘We got thrown out of the library on more than one occasion because of you talking.’ He smiled then and it was so good to see.
‘And that one time…’ I trailed off, my cheeks turning even pinker as Drew nodded, remembering along with me. We had been caught by one of the teachers kissing rather too amorously against a bookshelf. We had got into a lot of trouble over that.
‘Here it is,’ Izzy announced, coming back in. She went over to Drew to show him. ‘Now, do you know anything about Harry Potter?’ she asked, her face dead serious. I tried to bite back my laugh.
‘Well, I have seen a couple of the films, but I’ve never read the books. I’m willing to be educated,’ he said. ‘If you think I should read them then I will.’
Izzy beamed at him. ‘You will love it. It’s my favourite.’
‘And, why is that?’
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I stood up, knowing it would be a long conversation. ‘I’ll go and get us some drinks,’ I told them, heading out to the kitchen and letting them discuss all things Harry Potter together.
Waiting for the kettle to boil, I looked out into the garden. The sleet had left a white layer that looked like dust scattered across the grass. As you grew older, you stopped seeing snow as some magical thing but that was what it felt like in that moment to me. It was hard to believe that Izzy and Drew were in the next room. I had fantasised about the two of them meeting on and off for years, but I had decided it would always be just a fantasy. Yet there they were. Somehow the world had worked its magic and finally the three of us had been brought together.
Carrying in a tray with three mugs of hot chocolate, I paused outside the door as I tried to balance the tray and push it open without spilling them everywhere. I was about to call out for some help when I heard Izzy speaking.
‘I like them the best because they have red hair and they don’t seem to mind having it at all.’
‘You know, when I was at school,’ Drew said, ‘I was teased a lot for having red hair. It wasn’t cool for a boy to be a redhead.’
‘That’s what happens to me!’ Izzy cried. ‘They all call me carrot head or laugh because my skin goes red a lot. “Lobster Izzy” some of the boys called me the other day. I wish I was in Harry Potter so I could cast a spell on them and turn all their hair red, and then they couldn’t laugh at mine.’
I sagged against the door. I had worried that there was more to Izzy’s apathy towards spending time with the kids at her school than she let on. She had always told me everything was okay at school but I now knew she had been hiding the truth from me. Anger rose up like a flare in my chest that kids were picking on my lovely girl. There was no way I was going to put up with that.
‘I wish I had had a wand back then, too,’ Drew said. ‘But, you know what, the reason they all talk about your hair is because it’s so beautiful. They are jealous that they don’t have lovely coloured hair of their own. That’s why I think this family you like in the book all have red hair. They sound like a special bunch and so they needed to have special hair.’
Izzy was quiet for a moment. ‘You might be right about their hair. They are a special family. Do you really think that’s why our hair is red?’
‘I really do.’
I couldn’t hold the tray any longer, so I bustled in noisily to give them warning. When I walked in, Izzy was kneeling on the floor beside Drew, the book on his lap as she pointed things out to him. I wanted to gather them in my arms and tell them that they were both special, but instead I beamed, put the tray down and started babbling. ‘Right, here we go. I made your favourite, Iz. I hope you like still hot chocolate, Drew, otherwise we might not let you come back. Right, Iz?’
She giggled and came over to take one of the mugs.
‘Of course I do,’ Drew said, smiling as I passed him his mug. ‘And I really think I’m going to be a fan of this book once I start reading it. It sounds pretty awesome.’ He took a sip of his drink. ‘And this is awesome too!’
‘I honestly never thought I’d hear you say “awesome” so much,’ I replied with a laugh.
‘I couldn’t help pick up a few Americanisms, I’m afraid.’
‘Mum’s always telling me off for speaking like a Londoner,’ Izzy told him.
‘If we stay here much longer, I’ll definitely revert back to my Scottish accent,’ I said, sipping my drink.
‘I always pick it back up again when I come home,’ Drew agreed.
‘Teach me some of the American things you say,’ Izzy said, and they started talking about the different words they had for things. I leaned back and smiled as they debated sneakers versus trainers, rubbers versus erasers, and the time when Drew called something ‘bonnie’ and no one had a clue what he was talking about.
‘I did a presentation at school once about Hogmanay, none of my class had ever heard of New Year being called that,’ Izzy chipped in.
‘They are missing out then,’ Drew replied with a smile.
I wanted to freeze the moment and replay it over and over again.
* * *
When the sun began to set, Drew got up and said he should be getting back to the farm as he’d promised to help Rory with some things. My mum and Sally arrived back at the Hall then, and Izzy gave Drew a hug and rushed off to the kitchen to tell them about her day.
I showed Drew out. ‘I can’t thank you enough… she’s so happy,’ I said, as I opened the front door, letting in a blast of cold air.
‘I am too, to meet her, I mean. To know her. I just wish that I had known about her sooner,’ he replied.
‘Drew, I know that nothing can make up for the years you’ve missed…’ I began, feeling the lump in my throat return with a vengeance. ‘But I hope that you two can spend lots of time together while we’re up here.’
Drew nodded. ‘I would like that. I do need to think about everything, Beth. Everything has changed now. I know you never intentionally kept us apart, I know that things were hard, that you made the choice you thought you had to but… it’s still difficult to come to terms with.’
‘I understand,’ I said, softly. ‘I wish I could go back and change things; I wish I could make up for the time you lost; I wish I had tried again after that letter…’ I broke off, finding it hard to carry on.
‘I wish you had as well,’ he said, his own voice sounding emotional. He looked away from me. ‘I’d love to show her my farm, if I can? Will you bring her? Rory would love to meet her, too.’
‘Of course I will,’ I promised, hating that he was hurting so much. That I had caused it.
‘See you, Beth,’ he said, and the words shook me – it was how he always said goodbye to me.
‘See you, Drew.’ I closed the door and sagged against it. I wiped away a tear that had formed in the corner of my eye.
Chapter Twenty
Izzy and I walked into Glendale village with my mum the following morning, which had dawned bright and dry. I had wanted to draw Mum out of the Hall and show her the village, to see if I could get her onto my wavelength about how much of a shame it was to see it so changed. We had arranged to meet Heather for lunch as I thought we could try to get Mum interested in helping us to do something that might help the high street and the library.
There was a sharp breeze in the air and we were all wrapped up in coats and scarves. ‘Do you remember the cafe that used to be here?’ I asked as we walked to the library to pick up Heather for her break. ‘It was run by that couple who used to make the best sandwiches and cakes. I was always begging you to take me there on the way home from school.’
‘I wish there was still a cake shop,’ Izzy said, longingly. I knew just how she felt.
Mum looked around the high street as we walked down it, passing the two shops still open. ‘And there was that knick-knack shop where I got the fairy that sits on top of the Christmas tree,’ she said, thinking back. ‘And what else was there? The bakery and the butchers.’
‘And a bank,’ I said, screwing up my eyes as I thought back. ‘Blimey, it’s changed so much.’
Mum paused as we passed one of the open shops. There were no customers inside. ‘It was always busy here, wasn’t it? I walked into the village a lot when you were younger to get us both out the house, and we knew everyone here.’
‘People are now forced to shop elsewhere. If we could bring back good shops then surely people would come back? I bet the rents just got too high.’
‘I very much doubt the council would lower the rents though.’ She sighed as we started to walk towards the pub again.
‘Do you understand now why I’ve been so upset?’ I asked her. ‘It’s so different to how I remember it.’ We paused outside as Izzy went into the library to get Heather.
‘To be honest, after you went to London, we came here less and less,’ Mum replied. ‘I suppose I didn’t want to face people, knowing you’d left us,’
she said, quietly, so Izzy wouldn’t hear. ‘I knew everyone was talking about it. And I never got back into the habit of coming into the village, so I hadn’t noticed how much it had gone downhill. When your father started talking about redeveloping it, I thought that sounded like the best idea for everyone.’
‘Dad is only thinking of profit though. I’m sure the new flats would make us money but the place we live would lose its identity. I think people need this village, whether they realise it or not. Surely we should be fighting to keep it?’
Mum smiled then. ‘It’s nice to hear you being so passionate about Glendale.’
‘Hi, guys,’ Heather said, coming out with Izzy, her coat pulled tightly around her. ‘I’m starving.’
‘Let’s go to the pub then,’ I said, smiling at her. We set off for the Glendale Arms, the only place left in the village where you could get lunch. Pushing open the door, the warmth from their log fire greeted us and we found a corner table close to it. The pub was almost empty save for us, another reminder that things weren’t as they used to be in Glendale. ‘Why is the village so empty now?’
‘A vicious circle,’ Heather replied. ‘People started going into Glenmarshes or even to Inverness for shopping so what with that, and the high rents, the shops shut so there was nothing here, and then more people had to go elsewhere.’
‘It’s such a shame, there was always such a community here when we were younger. And those people must still be around?’
‘If only we could show the council that the community is still alive,’ Heather said. ‘But how?’
‘You need to bring everyone together,’ Izzy piped up as she looked at the menu. ‘So they can see the village is still a cool place to be.’
I looked at her. ‘You’re right but what can we do? Are the council set on this plan or can we persuade them to invest in the village again?’
Coming Home to Glendale Hall Page 11