‘Where to?’
‘Sykes Wood. We’ve been communing with nature.’
Harriet folded up the ironing board and went to the fridge to get Flick her drink. ‘What does one do to commune with nature?’
‘Well, one of the things we did was to hug a tree.’
‘Hug a tree? Whatever next.’
‘It’s all to do with listening to what the tree says to you.’
‘And what did yours say to you? Here’s the biscuit tin. Want one?’
Flick chose a Bourbon and bit a huge piece off it so her mouth was too full to answer. Harriet said, ‘I would have thought that with your exam tomorrow, a bit of hard work would have been more appropriate.’
Flick sipped her milk and then began, ‘Well, Kate said that—’
‘“Kate said”? Ms Pascoe, surely.’
‘She says that as we are in our last year we can call her Kate.’
‘Well, I don’t approve at all.’
‘Get up to speed, Mummy. You’re so old-fashioned. Though Mrs Hardaker did say she didn’t like us calling Ms Pascoe Kate, and she thought we should be working but Ms Pascoe said “Nonsense” and Mrs Hardaker’s lips went all straight like they do when she gets cross. She said, “Miss Pascoe, I really think—” But Ms Pascoe just tossed her head and said, “Come along, Class Three, away from these four walls out into the world, for another brilliant experience” so we did.’
‘So what did you hear when you hugged your tree?’
‘Well, I didn’t hear anything actually, because there were creepy-crawlies all in the cracks in the bark and I couldn’t concentrate in case they got in my hair.’
‘So you didn’t have a brilliant experience.’
‘No, it was a bit disappointing. Kate says trees scream when they get a branch chopped off or get cut down. She says when the world was young we would have been able to hear them but not now. That’s dreadful, isn’t it? I never thought they could feel hurt. I shall worry now. Shall I go and rest ready for tomorrow?’
Harriet laughed. ‘That’s your way of saying you’ll go and join Fran watching television, is it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, it’s not for long. She’s getting square eyes, absolutely hypnotised she is and doesn’t understand one tenth of what she watches, so you must get her to play in a while.’
‘OK.’
Flick came back from the day of examinations exhausted. Harriet had collected her in the car at three o’clock and when she saw how weary Flick looked she began to have reservations about her angry retort to Kate.
‘How did it go? Everything all right?’
‘Mummy, I’m so tired. It was quite exciting though. Two girls burst into tears, another one fainted, and one went out to be sick. The lunch was lovely, and the teachers! They were so kind.’
‘And the exam?’
‘Oh, that. Quite easy, actually.’
Harriet’s heart sank. Quite easy? Oh dear. That could mean she hadn’t understood what was required of her. ‘Well, I’m glad. We’ll just have to wait and see. You won’t have to be too disappointed if you don’t get in. Daddy and I, Grandma Sadie and the boys and Fran will all love you just the same, you know.’
‘I know. Daddy’s already told me that about five times.’
‘Sorry, but it’s true.’
‘I know.’ Flick looked out of the car window. Parents! She knew she would get in. It was where she was destined to be and she couldn’t wait to play lacrosse – such a distinguished game. She’d seen some of the girls going out to the playing-fields from the window of the examination room, and longed to join them. The uniform! Oh, roll on, September! ‘When I get home I shall give Fran a big hug and tell her all about it,’ she declared, ‘then she’ll know for when it’s her turn, and I shall want a cup of tea and a piece of cake.’
‘OK, fine. You can go in the Store and choose a fancy cream one if you like.’
‘Great! Shall I have to pay? I’ve no money on me.’
‘You know Daddy’s rules.’
‘Yes.’ Flick sighed.
Harriet dropped her off outside the Store with a pound coin in her hand.
‘Don’t be long. I’ll put the kettle on.’
Flick decided to wander around the Store for a moment; it seemed a long time since she’d been in there and it was only right she should know what was going on. She’d have to tell Daddy that the greetings card shelves were not quite as full as they could be, and that his new assistant was spending too much time chatting instead of taking the money quickly when there was a queue. People hated waiting. Ms Pascoe came in.
‘Hello, Kate! I had a lovely time at the exam, I’ve just got back. Did you miss me?’
‘Of course I did. Everything all right?’
‘Oh yes, thanks. It’s lovely, I hope I get in.’
‘If that’s what you want, so do I.’
‘I do. I’m buying a cream cake for a treat.’
‘Some fresh fruit would do you more good.’
Flick laughed and tossed her head. ‘But I’m having a cream cake, sorry!’
She lingered by the video-lending shelf and pondered whether or not to ask Mummy if she could borrow one. Being short she couldn’t be seen over the top of the stand and quite by mistake she overheard two women talking. One of them was Kate Pascoe. ‘Ten o’clock. Tonight.’
The other voice said ‘Righteo. We’ll be there.’ Flick slipped quietly to the end of the shelving and peeped round the corner. It was Simone Paradise who had answered.
She bought her cream cake and went home, and told Fran all about the exam, and watched television and fell asleep for a short while dreaming of playing lacrosse wearing that wonderful purple sweater she’d seen on the girls that very afternoon.
‘Harriet! This damned tie won’t behave itself. Help! Rescue me, please, I’m running late.’
‘You never have been able to do these ties. Why don’t you buy one of those made-up ones?’
‘I have bowed to modern technology in all corners of my life but I will not bow to a made-up tie. That is definitely sartorially verboten.’
‘OK, OK. There we are. You look good. Much better in that suit now you’ve lost weight.’
‘Thank you – I do, don’t I? More youthful, don’t you know.’
‘Hurry up!’
Flick was reading Fran a bedtime story and she shouted through the bedroom door. ‘Why isn’t Mummy going?’
‘It’s all men tonight, my dear child.’
‘I thought Ms Pascoe and Mrs Paradise were going.’
‘Certainly not, though I mightn’t mind Ms Pascoe, she’s a cracker.’
Harriet, standing in the doorway, said, ‘Why did you think they were going?’
‘I heard them saying they were meeting at ten o’clock. So I thought they must be going where Daddy’s going.’
‘Ten o’clock? You must have misheard. They would have said seven o’clock.’
‘I’m not daft, Mummy.’
Harriet shrugged her shoulders and went in to kiss Fran good night. ‘Good night, my sweetheart.’
Fran lay on her side, snuggled up to the cuddliest teddy bear her grandmother had been able to find. Her long dark lashes fluttered as she began dropping asleep, one hand tucked under a rosy cheek. ‘Ni’, ni’.’
‘Time for your bath, Flick, you must be tired. Thanks for reading the story.’
Jimbo shrugged on his overcoat and gave Harriet a hug. She straightened his silk scarf and kissed his cheek.
‘Have a good time.’
‘I will. Be all right?’
‘Of course. I won’t wait up.’
Harriet stood at the door watching him start up the car and waved as he turned up Stocks Row. As she locked the door the thought crossed her mind, what on earth had Simone Paradise and Kate Pascoe got in common? Not a blind thing as far as she could see.
Harriet had decided to spend the evening while Jimbo was out, going over the accounts on the compute
r in the study. She’d just switched on and was checking through in her mind which aspect she would take a look at first when she heard the front door being unlocked.
‘Jimbo? Is that you? Hello-o-o?’
‘Only me, darling.’
‘Mother!’ Harriet went into the hall. ‘I didn’t expect you tonight.’
‘Thought I’d keep you company. Where are the boys?’
‘Scouts. Coffee or something stronger?’
‘Stronger. You’d better get one for yourself. You might need it.’
‘Why, what’s the matter?’
‘I need your advice.’
‘My advice – since when?’
‘Since last night. I’ll sit down.’
‘Of course. Whisky?’
‘And water.’
They sat in the study, Harriet patiently waiting to hear what she was supposed to be advising about.
Sadie swirled the whisky glass round and round in her hand. She was elegantly dressed as always, her long slim legs in fine nylon tights and smart high-heeled shoes, her outfit a straight black skirt, silver-grey long-sleeved silk shirt, and a scarf loosely tied around her throat. Harriet admired her as she sat deep in thought sipping her whisky. ‘Well, I’m waiting?’
‘I’m thinking of getting married.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Like I said, I’m thinking of getting married.’
‘To whom?’
‘Craddock Fitch.’
Harriet was stunned. She couldn’t believe she’d heard correctly. ‘You? Marriage to Craddock Fitch? Are you pulling my leg?’
‘As if I would. He’s asked me and I’m almost ready to say yes.’
‘I see. Well, you did know him when he was a strip of a lad. I was aware you were seeing a lot of him, but marriage … Are you sure?’
‘Are you asking that as a fully mature adult or as a child of mine?’
‘Ah! At times like this the two are very mixed. It’s difficult to know which I am at the moment.’
‘Exactly. I don’t know which I am, either. Am I a grown woman and a grandmother – heaven help us! – or have I gone back to being a seventeen-year-old like I was when I first refused him. Maybe I’ve taken leave of my senses.’
‘Why did you refuse him?’
‘I’ve always been independent right from the cradle, and some sixth sense told me that being married to Craddock – well, Henry as he was then – would be suffocating. He would have expected complete loyalty, complete absorption in his business affairs, because it was obvious even then that he was going to be a businessman, and I baulked at the idea of being so completely taken over. I engineered a row and that was that. He hated the idea that anyone owned him, you see, so I deliberately said something, whatever it was I can’t remember exactly, to annoy him and he blew his top.’
‘And now?’
‘Now he’s different. He respects me, which he didn’t before. I can answer back without him freezing me out with his stony silences. We can discuss and argue and he listens to my opinion. And what’s more, I still find him fascinating. He’s not the chilly person he appears to be. Oh no! He wants to be a warm loving man, and he’s trying very hard.’
‘Look, Mother, if you love him, for heaven’s sake marry the man. Whyever not?’
‘You may be right, but …’
‘Yes?’
‘This mail-order business. I’ve built that up myself. Agreed, it stemmed from an idea of yours, but the work and the success has been mine – agreed? I’ve felt fulfilled making a success of it. I love Harriet’s Country Cousin marmalades and jams, and the labels! I get a thrill every time I look at them. And the Christmas hampers are bliss! It’s about the only thing apart from you that I can look back on as an achievement which is wholly mine.’ Harriet nodded. ‘I can hardly bear the thought of giving it all up, which I would have to do.’
‘I can’t stand the idea either. I’d have to get someone else to do it.’
‘Obviously I’d give you my shares.’
‘Well, thank you. I shall miss you and so will Jimbo.’
‘I haven’t said yes yet.’
‘No, but I think you will. At the very least you’d keep a rein on his more blatant excesses.’
Sadie looked annoyed. ‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘You know, buying himself a position here in the village.’
‘Oh that. They all know what he’s up to, so why not if the village benefits?’
‘Why not indeed!’
Sadie sat for a while staring at the carpet. She finished the last of her whisky and then said, ‘I might say yes. I could very well say yes. You must understand that my will leaves everything to you and the children, so I wouldn’t want you to worry about that. Craddock has quite enough. He doesn’t need my money, neither do you really, but it’s all yours.’
Harriet got up and went to give her mother a kiss. ‘Your money is the last thought in my head. If you do decide to go for it I hope you’ll be very happy. I hold no brief for my father so I certainly shan’t get in the way if it’s what you want. Mr Fitch would definitely be able to keep you in the style to which you would like to become accustomed!’
Sadie grinned. ‘I shan’t let him take my grandchildren over, though. Definitely not – they’re mine. I do hope it won’t make a difference to Jimbo’s business relationship with him.’
‘I shouldn’t think so.’
Sadie stood to go. ‘Harriet, before I leave you in peace, I should tell you that there was a scene in the Store today.’
‘Really?’
‘Jimbo’s new assistant was serving and I could hear a lot of noise and shouting, so I went to take a look. Simone Paradise was in there with that crowd of little louts she calls her sweeties. They were causing mayhem. Pulling the greetings cards off the shelves and throwing them down. Picking up chocolate and sweets and trying to open the packets up. One took a bite out of an apple … I can’t remember all they did. I protested and told her to get them all out. She hitched the baby up in that ridiculous sling thing she makes from her shawl and said in that slow drawling way she has, “Sweeties, come on we’re leaving now.” I was furious. I asked her what about the cards they’d stamped on and we can’t sell, and the apple they’d bitten a piece out of? To say nothing of the sweets. She said she couldn’t afford to pay for them and it was our fault for having the goods displayed where the children could get hold of them. I’m afraid I saw red. Did my Dame Edith Evans bit, you know the kind of thing. Told her in my most superior manner that she needn’t come back in the Store again with her horde of brats because her kind of business we could well do without. Time she got them under control. Et cetera. Et cetera. Simone fixed me with what can only be described as the evil eye. I’m shuddering now when I think about it. I’m not an imaginative person but I felt as though time had stood still. Then it jerked back into rhythm again and there were the children standing beside her angelic and quite still.’ Sadie visibly pulled herself together. ‘However, what I was going to say was, do watch out for her. She really is odd. Night, night, my dear, take care.’
‘I will. I’ll tell Jimbo. Good night, Mother. Thanks for talking to me about it. The decision is yours in the end, you know.’
‘Yes, but it’s nice to know you would approve if I said yes, which I probably shall. I love you for it, my dear. I hope to be as lucky as you. I adored your Jimbo from the first moment I saw him; you did well there, my love, very well. And thank you for all my grandchildren, too. I’m so proud of them all.’ She leant forward and kissed Harriet and patted her arm. ‘Good night, Harriet. See you tomorrow.’
Harriet closed the door after her mother and decided she couldn’t go back to concentrating on accounts and in any case the boys would soon be home. She switched off the computer and sat for a while in Jimbo’s armchair – his ‘thinking chair’ he called it. If her mother could be as happy as she was with Jimbo then she should go right ahead. Sadie had endured years of loneliness, some
what alleviated by coming to live in the village just after she and Jimbo bought the Store, but even that wasn’t quite the same as sharing one’s house and one’s bed. A stepfather. Wow!
Harriet felt glad to have been consulted. It wasn’t often her mother let down her guard and spoke of herself and her feelings; it had indeed been a rare moment between the two of them.
Chapter 12
The news that Sadie had died in her sleep that night shocked the entire village. More than one of them had been on the receiving end of Sadie’s forthright opinions, and she had in the short time she’d lived in Turnham Malpas become something in the way of a legend. But Sadie dead? Her strong life-force, cut down at one stroke? No one could remember ever having seen her looking anything but at her best, always full of pep and get-up-and-go. And so stylish. They’d envied her style. It wasn’t that she spent loads of money on clothes, just that she knew what would flatter her and she’d worn it well. Chic was what she was. Every customer spoke of their horror at the suddenness of her going, or savoured over and over again the times when they’d clashed with her. And no chance to say goodbye even – that was sad, real sad. But then Sadie would have hated any kind of sloppy sentimentality so maybe it was best she went the way she did. All the same. So suddenly …
On the day of her funeral the church was packed with mourners. Not a few noticed that Mr Fitch, grim-faced and silent, was there sitting with the family. But then he would be grim-faced, wouldn’t he? He’d no heart. But what was he doing, sitting with the Charter-Placketts? That he was a close business associate of Jimbo’s they all knew but in the front with family mourners …?
It was the three grandchildren for whom the villagers felt the most compassion. They were devastated and quite uncomprehending of this terrible blow, for Sadie must have been a real fun grandma to have. The two boys wore their Sunday suits and little Flick, bless her, that new coat she was so proud of with its fur collar. They remembered how distressed Sadie had been when Flick had her accident. But it was Sadie now they were mourning.
When the service was finished and Sadie had been laid in her grave, they all noticed that Harriet went to speak to Mr Fitch. Funny that; she’d drawn him to one side so they couldn’t be overheard. Pity – would have been nice to know what they had to say to each other.
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