‘You mustn’t be drunk on duty.’
‘It’s all right. I’m having a small drop in my tea for medicinal purposes only.’
‘Since when have you started taking your medicine?’
‘When I found I had something to live for,’ he says more seriously. ‘Now, you get along, Stevie. I have a job to do.’
‘So have I,’ I smile. ‘I’ve allocated myself my favourite area for the morning and I can’t wait.’
‘Where are you?’
‘At the coop.’ We call it the chicken coop, but it’s a long shed sectioned off into an area for the incubator, eggs and chicks and an area for the chickens. I love the chicks – some are yellow, some fawny brown, and they don’t bite, kick or scratch. They’re also very popular. Already, there are two families of five or six crowded around the incubator where the chicks are hatching.
‘Look, it’s making a hole in the shell,’ one of the mums says.
‘Which do you think came first, the chicken or the egg?’ her friend says.
‘Both,’ one of the children says.
‘Is that possible?’ the mum says.
‘One of them had to come first.’ The friend looks in my direction. ‘Perhaps the farmer knows. Let’s ask her.’
‘I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that question.’ I feel a little deficient in front of all the expectant faces. ‘I believe it has something to do with evolution, that maybe a chicken-like dinosaur came first.’
‘It’s still the same problem: which came first, the dinosaur or the egg?’ The mum smiles.
‘Can I hold a chick?’ says one of the children, a girl of about seven.
‘What’s the magic word?’ her mum asks her.
‘Yellow. I wanna hold a yellow one.’
‘How about please?’ her mum says.
‘Please, please, please,’ the girl says, bouncing on her toes.
I pick one out of the incubator. It’s soft, fluffy and warm. I place it very gently into the girl’s hands.
‘Wow,’ she breathes, staring at the chick. ‘It’s saying ‘pip, pip, pip.’
I watch her fingers tightening around its tiny body.
‘Be careful not to squeeze him too tightly,’ I say, smiling. It’s nerve-wracking to watch.
‘I’ve never held a chick before. Could I hold one?’ asks one of the mothers who joins us, along with another, filling the area with toddlers and buggies.
‘Of course.’ I pick out another one and another. The rest of the chicks cheep and make tiny pipping noises as they huddle together in the incubator, keeping warm. I check on the eggs too, clearing out the empty eggshells.
Time passes quickly and at eleven Cecil appears, pushing Holly in the pram.
‘Hey, have you looked at the rota?’ I ask lightly. ‘You aren’t supposed to be here until twelve.’
‘Young Holly had other ideas. Mary says she needs her mum, Stevie.’
‘She’s a girl who knows what she wants.’
‘Like her mother,’ Cecil grins, showing off his new false teeth. ‘Actually, Stevie, it would be a good idea for you to take Holly somewhere quieter. I didn’t realise it was so busy in here.’ His eyes are shining. He seems remarkably upbeat, as if something has fired him up. ‘Go and get yourself a cup of tea in the tearoom. The kettle’s on.’ Cecil shuffles over to the group of visitors and introduces himself as the dairyman. I hesitate for a moment, making sure he isn’t going to frighten the kids like my dad can, but they seem to like him and I judge it’s safe to leave.
I wash my hands and push Holly across to the Shed, parking the pram outside the tearoom under the awning.
‘Come on then, Holly-pops.’ I pick her up and carry her inside. It isn’t busy yet. Rosie is arranging fresh flowers on the tables and Mary is chatting to a man with his back to me. As the door swings closed behind me, jangling the bell, the man turns to face me and I almost drop the baby. It’s Leo.
‘Look who’s here, Stevie,’ Mary says, beaming, ‘all the way from New Zealand. Here, let me take Holly. I’ve got a pot of tea for you and a bottle warming up for her. Go and take the weight off your feet for a while.’
I kiss Holly on the top of her head as I pass her over to Mary.
‘Come on there, my little lamb. Come to Mary. Your mummy’s got some catching up to do.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I say as Leo moves towards me, lightly tanned, fresh-faced and as gorgeous as ever. ‘Has something happened? Is your sister all right?’
‘Everything’s fine, and even better now I’ve seen you.’ He draws close and kisses my cheek before holding out a chair for me. ‘How are you?’ He fixes his eyes on my face. ‘You look very … well, even better than you do via Skype.’
‘So what are you doing here?’ I ask, sitting down. I feel a sense of shock, as if I’ve seen a ghost.
‘I should have warned you I was coming.’ He bites his lip. ‘I’m sorry, I’m a bit on edge. When I was on the plane I couldn’t wait to see you, but now for some reason I’m really nervous.’
Leo keeps his gaze fixed on my face. Could it be that he’s come all the way from New Zealand especially to see me, I wonder, my heart beating fast, like a chick’s. Is it really possible?
Holly begins to cry. I overhear Mary trying to soothe her with a bottle and kind words, but Holly isn’t having any of it.
‘She wants her mum.’ Mary brings her to the table and passes her back to me. ‘She has a lot to say for herself.’
I hold my screaming bundle close and rub her back, at which she burps and ejects a string of baby sick down my sweatshirt.
‘Oops,’ I say, smiling.
‘She’ll feel better now,’ Mary says, handing me a tub of baby wipes.
Holly settles down and gives me a beatific smile. I glance at Leo.
‘She’s cute, isn’t she?’ he says awkwardly. ‘Oh dear, I’m not good at babies.’
‘Can you hold her for me?’ I ask. ‘I’m going to fetch another bottle.’
‘I’ll fetch it,’ he says, jumping up as if I’ve asked him to hold an unexploded bomb.
I feed Holly and put her back in her pram.
‘I’m going to have to get back to work, Leo,’ I tell him. ‘I can’t let everyone down. Will you stay? I know I’ve told you all about it, but I’d love to show you what we’ve done.’
He accompanies me around the farm as I point out the difficult donkeys, the ferocious guinea pig and angry rabbit.
‘You aren’t supposed to find our tribulations funny,’ I tell Leo, who can hardly stop laughing.
‘I’m glad I came back,’ he says suddenly. He looks down at Holly in the pram. ‘She looks like you.’
‘Except for the lack of worry lines,’ I smile.
‘Is Nick coming to see her again soon? You’ve rarely mentioned him in our conversations.’
‘He’s hardly seen Holly, for all his promises, but I’ve managed, as you can see, with a lot of help from Mary and Cecil, Dad and Jennie.’
‘I think you’re amazing,’ Leo says as we pause outside the goats’ enclosure. He takes my hand and pulls me to him, embracing me and hugging me tight. ‘Oh, I’ve missed you.’
‘I’ve missed you too. I’m so happy you’re here.’
‘I would have stayed if you’d said something. Why didn’t you ever say anything?’
‘When I did it was too late. You were about to leave for the airport, remember? You’d set your heart on New Zealand, and I didn’t want to tie you down.’ I hesitate. ‘Maybe if we’d still been in a relationship at the time I would have asked you to stay, but we’d split up, hadn’t we? Knowing what kind of man you are, I wouldn’t have wanted you to come to feel I’d trapped you in any way.’ I shrug resignedly. ‘I think we’ve made rather a mess of things.’
‘I admit that you being pregnant made it easier for me to walk away,’ he says. ‘It was a gift in a way, the gift of an excuse for me not to have to face up to my feelings.’
‘I genuinely
didn’t know I was pregnant until late on. You know that.’
‘But at the time …’ Leo takes a step back and picks an imaginary piece of fluff from his sweater. ‘This might be too soon – you might not be ready – but is there any chance that you and I could start afresh?’
‘As a couple, you mean?’ My pulse starts to throb with hope and anticipation. ‘I’d love to, Leo, but it isn’t just about me any longer. Holly and I are a package.’
‘I realise that,’ Leo says.
‘You are lucky to find me here,’ I go on. ‘Now the petting farm is up and running, I’ve been planning a trip to New Zealand.’
‘You mean you were planning a holiday?’
‘An open-ended trip,’ I say bravely.
‘You were going to sacrifice everything – your friends and the farm – for me?’
‘For us: for you, me and Holly.’ I take a deep breath. ‘So, as far as I can see, you have to make a choice, Leo. Either face up to your fears or walk away.’ I turn to push the pram on along the Nature Trail, following the path up through Steep Acres, forcing myself to smile at Holly as she chuckles and coos at me, trying to engage me in some baby talk.
‘Stevie.’ I hear Leo following behind me. I keep walking right to the top of the hill, stopping beside the pond where the ducks are waddling about at the edge, foraging through the mud for snails and algae. ‘Stevie, wait there! I have something to say.’
I stop, remembering to put the brake on the pram, turn and face him, squinting in the midday sunshine.
‘I’ve been on a long journey,’ he says. ‘It took a flight to New Zealand with the prospect of a new life to make me realise that my life should be here with you.’
I open my mouth to add ‘and Holly’ but he puts his finger to his lips.
‘Sh, let me speak. I’m not great at the touchy-feely stuff, and the self-analysis, but I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I’ve wasted a lot of time running away from situations instead of facing up to them. I’ve learned you can’t run away from memories, but you can focus on the good ones, instead of the bad.’ He reaches out and takes both my hands. ‘I don’t want to lose you again, Stevie. I’ll go and see Alex – I expect he’ll need a locum for the summer at least.’
It’s very quiet, apart from the fluttering of a bird, flying down from the trees on the ridge of the hill. I can feel the tension in Leo’s fingers, gripping mine.
‘Do you need somewhere to stay?’ I ask.
‘I’ll find somewhere. I noticed the mobile home has gone.’
‘I had it scrapped. It was an eyesore.’ And, if I’m honest, it was a painful reminder of Leo and happy times. Whenever I walked past it, I thought of him. ‘You can stay here – in the house, if you like.’
‘I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.’
‘There’s plenty of room – there’s only dad, Holly and me. You can have the spare room, or …’ I look at him and he holds my gaze for a long time and my mouth goes dry and my heart pumps harder.
‘Does the baby share your bed?’ he asks quietly.
‘Sometimes,’ I admit.
‘As well as the dog?’
‘Well, I’m quite a social sleeper.’
‘Is there room for one more?’
I cannot resist any longer. I want him, completely want him. He sets me on fire and makes me forget everything else, apart from Holly, of course.
Somehow, I’m in Leo’s arms again, and he’s holding me close as if he’ll never let me go, his fingers tangling in my hair, stroking the skin at the nape of my neck. ‘I love you, Stevie.’
‘Oh, Leo,’ I sigh. ‘I love you too.’ I lean up, tilting my face towards his, and he presses his lips to mine and kisses me three, four, five times before drawing back, smiling and keeping his arms around me.
‘Cecil made a point of speaking to me one day when I was fitting a heel to one of the cows – they call me the Jimmy Choo of the cow world, don’t you know?’
I smile back. I can’t stop smiling as Leo continues, ‘Anyway, he said to me, “Never forget that home is where the heart is.” I dismissed it as an old man’s ramblings. You know what he’s like. He does come out with some gems sometimes. Anyway, I’ve thought of what he said many times since, and he was trying to tell me in a roundabout way that I should take a good look at my life – and he was right. Home is where the heart is and –’ Leo raises my hand to his lips and my eyes flood with tears of joy and hope for the future – ‘my heart is with you, Stevie.’
The new book in the hugely popular
Talyton St George series
After years of training, horse-mad Flick has finally achieved her dream of becoming one of the few female blacksmiths in the country. Her first job is in Talyton St George. The little cottage on the green where she is staying is idyllic, and it feels like the fresh start she needs. But she soon finds she is having to work overtime to prove her abilities to the not-so-welcoming locals.
One person very much on her side though is Robbie Salterton. He’s a bit of a local celebrity – a handsome stunt rider who does charity work in his spare time – and he seems to be going out of his way to look out for Flick. But is he just being friendly or does he see Flick as something more? Despite swearing off men, Flick can’t help wanting to find out . . .
Springtime at Cherry Tree Cottage is OUT NOW!
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Published by Century, 2013
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Copyright © Cathy Woodman, 2013
Cathy Woodman has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by
Century
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ISBN 9781780891576
Country Loving Page 35