by Joanna Neil
Chapter Eight
‘I DIDN’T realise how much stuff I would have to bring along with me,’ Ruby said as Sam helped her with Becky’s pushchair and several bags that went along with it. The day of the fund-raiser had dawned, a bright, warm, beautiful day, where the sky was a perfect, cloudless blue, and the air smelled fresh and sweet. He’d picked her up, as promised, in his gleaming silver saloon car that promised luxury and comfort and delivered it magnificently. Now they had arrived at his family’s country home, and after a quick, eye-opening glance at the glorious Georgian mansion, Ruby concentrated her attention on unloading everything from the car.
‘It’s just that I need to have Becky’s food and drink, nappies and so on with me, along with a change of clothes in case of calamities—well, you know how messy she can be with food, don’t you?’ Ruby added. ‘And that’s without the toys and odds and ends to keep her occupied throughout the day.’
‘It looks as though you’ve come to stay for a week,’ Sam murmured, his mouth curving in a smile. ‘Not that I’d mind at all if you wanted to do that. I do tend to rattle about the place. Having you around to keep me company would be a more than welcome intrusion.’
She made a rueful face, trying not to acknowledge the playful gleam in his eyes. ‘I doubt you’ll say the same once the crowds arrive here,’ she said. ‘You’ll probably find you’ve had enough of visitors for a long time. And half an hour of Becky’s crying would probably be enough to put you off for ever.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that.’ He turned to glance at the baby, who was still strapped into her car seat, a relaxed, faraway look in her eyes, as though she was biding her time contentedly until something more exciting happened. ‘I’m sure she and I will learn to get along.’ He picked up the floppy bunny and moved its arms and legs in a funny dance, so that Becky giggled and reached for it, opening and closing her fists in a familiar gesture. He made it dance again, and this time she chuckled so hard that her whole body shook.
Ruby laughed. ‘You’ve found her soft spot. She takes bunny to bed with her. She won’t be parted from him, unless it’s for food.’
Sam helped her to set up the pushchair and slid the bags into the rack underneath. ‘I’ll take you into the house and introduce you to my housekeeper, Sarah. She’ll see to anything you need today and help you out with Becky if necessary.’
‘Does Sarah work every day, even at the weekends?’ Ruby was curious about everything to do with Sam’s home life. He said very little about it, and she tried to glean bits and pieces wherever she could.
‘No, we have two housekeepers who both work part-time, and generally they sort the hours between them. Sarah volunteered to come in today. Her husband and children are coming to enjoy the day out, so she can give them lunch here and generally join in the fun. She’s been with us for a long time, so she’s really like one of the family herself.’
Ruby unclipped Becky’s restraining straps and settled her in the pushchair, leaving Sam to lock up the car. She glanced towards the house. ‘It’s really quite beautiful,’ she murmured, ‘with all that lovely stonework and those long, arched windows. When you said it was symmetrical, I was expecting something refined and austere, but it’s absolutely wonderful. It’s big, but it’s not imposing at all, just perfectly designed with those L-shaped side extensions. And as to the grounds, well, from the front it looks like something from a landscape painting with all those mature trees as a backdrop.’
‘I’m glad you like it,’ he said. ‘It’s all been designed to be pleasing on the eye. In fact, it’s more like two U-shapes back-to-back with extensions to the sides. That gives us more privacy in the gardens that are planted in the shelter of the L-shapes. You’ll see, when I give you a quick tour, that we have glass doors opening out into those gardens. Around the back of the house, the outbuildings are arranged around a courtyard, with the stables to one side and the barns and grooms’ quarters on the others.’
They walked towards the front entrance, where stone urns provided splashes of colour, filled with bright, flowering begonias and waxy green foliage that spilled out over the sides. The walls of the house were covered in an attractive reddish-bronze-coloured ivy that had been neatly trimmed.
‘So will people be intruding on your courtyard space today?’ she asked. ‘I thought when you said we would be using fields for the event, everything would be staged well away from the house.’
‘It will. We decided to erect some marquees on the fields, instead of using the barns. I just thought I’d show you the house and garden first, so you’ll have a chance to look around. Besides, I expect you want to give Becky time to be free of the pushchair and stretch her limbs before we go and see how things are set out.’
‘That would be good. That was thoughtful of you.’
Inside the house, they walked through a wide hallway and then turned into a huge T-shaped area that made up the kitchen, dining and utility room. The kitchen was magnificent, with oak beams, gleaming units and copper pans on display. A woman Sam introduced as Sarah was bustling busily about, laying a large oak table with plates of triangular sandwiches, pizza slices, a large ham and bowls of salad. She added a selection of cheeses and fruit.
‘It’s good to meet you,’ Sarah greeted Ruby. She was a middle-aged woman, with soft brown hair and friendly grey eyes. ‘And is this young Becky that I’ve been hearing so much about? Would it be all right if I hold her for a while? Will she take to me, do you think?’
‘Of course you can hold her. I think she’ll be okay with that.’ Ruby glanced at Sam. ‘She does have moments when she decides to be awkward, but she seems to be in a good mood today.’
Sam winced. ‘I’m on my best behaviour so as to try and make friends with her,’ he told Sarah. ‘I haven’t had much luck with her until today.’
‘Are you talking about young Becky or Ruby?’ Sarah chuckled, giving Ruby a quick smile as she reached out to hold the infant. ‘He told me how you speak your mind and tell him where he’s going wrong. Keep on doing that, is what I say.’
Ruby felt her cheeks fill with a rush of warm colour. ‘It’s a habit I ought to curb,’ she said. ‘He is my boss, after all.’
‘He still needs to listen sometimes,’ Sarah murmured. She cuddled Becky. ‘It never does any harm to take a moment every now and again.’ She tickled the baby, making her smile, and the infant grasped the decorative buttons on Sarah’s blouse, delicately testing out the size and texture of each one with her fingertips.
Watching them gave Ruby a poignant reminder of how it had been when Sophie was at home and she would lift Becky in her arms and cuddle her. A feeling of overwhelming sadness washed over her. Where was her sister? Why couldn’t she find her and take care of her?
‘If you two women are going to talk about me as if I’m not here, I’m going to take Ruby away from here and show her around,’ Sam said. ‘Divide and conquer, that’s the way I see it.’
Ruby pulled herself together. Sophie would have loved to be here. Maybe one day soon she would return, and all the heartache would be a distant memory.
Sarah laughed. ‘You go ahead,’ she said, looking at Ruby. ‘I think Becky will be all right with me if you want to leave her for a while. I hunted out the old playpen from the attic and put it in the dining room, so she can amuse herself in there if need be.’
‘That sounds perfect.’
‘I forgot to tell you that Sarah loves babies,’ Sam put in, his mouth tilting at the corners.
Ruby smiled. ‘I can see that. That’s great, Sarah, thank you.’ She could see that Becky was content to be with Sarah, and if there should be a problem, she wasn’t going to be far away, was she?
‘And any time you want to eat, come and help yourselves to what’s on the table,’ Sarah suggested. ‘I’ll keep everything covered up so that you can pick at it as you like throughout the day, and there are plenty of cold drinks in the fridge.’
‘That sounds like my kind of heaven,’ Ruby said with a
grin. ‘Thanks, Sarah.’
She went with Sam to explore the rest of the house. The sitting room was across the hall in another T-shaped section that included a study-cum-library. ‘This is where I tend to work in the evening,’ Sam said, showing her into the study. ‘I have all the reference books I could want in here, along with a computer and Internet connection, and I find it quite peaceful, especially after a tough day in A&E.’
‘I can see how you would feel that way,’ Ruby said. ‘Everything is so perfect…all those bookcases, and that beautiful old oak desk…but it’s comfortable in here as well, isn’t it? I love the armchairs and that grand fireplace…and the view from the window…’ She looked out through the wide, arched and glazed doorway to a paved terrace, and beyond that to a sweeping lawn surrounded by flower borders filled with banks of hollyhocks, asters and sweet williams in varying shades of pink through to blue. ‘I could just imagine myself sitting here writing my magazine columns and keeping my medical website up to date.’
She put a hand to her mouth fleetingly as it dawned on her that he might misconstrue that, but he said softly, ‘I can imagine that, too, though I tend to think of you working away on your computer at the farm, surrounded by the clutter of family life, and looking out every now and again at the pond and the meadow at the back of the house.’
‘As opposed to the neat and tidy, wonderfully organized way of things here?’ She gave him a wry smile. ‘I have to move all sorts of bits and pieces off the desk or table before I can get down to work, and when I look outside I see a meadow full of buttercups and celandines, not to mention the odd daisy or two…and sometimes a few hens wandering about, or the ducklings following their mother to the pond. My life is very haphazard, but this all fits you to perfection.’
‘Oh, I don’t know…there’s a lot to be said for the laid-back, relaxed and hassle-free approach. I haven’t ever tried it, but I must say it has a certain appeal.’
She stared at him in astonishment. ‘Good heavens, the shell is cracking, the barriers are breaking down. Wonders will never cease. Are you sure you’re feeling all right? Next thing, you’ll be giving it all up to go trekking in the mountains or on safari in Africa.’
His mouth curved in amusement. ‘Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. It would at least have to be gold panning in Australia.’ He laid an arm lightly around her waist and led her to the door. ‘I think we should continue with the tour, don’t you?’
The intimacy of that gesture was enough to cause a wave of heat to ripple throughout her body, but she tried not to think too much about that. He was intent on showing her around, nothing more, and she had to remind herself that her priority today was to take care of Becky. She couldn’t simply abandon herself to thoughts of getting close to Sam, could she?
The sitting room was a haven of peace, a long, wide area, furnished with deep, luxuriously upholstered sofas, low coffee tables and graceful plant stands that held exquisite flower arrangements or trailed silvery-green fronds. The floor was pale oak, and the room was filled with light from long, arched windows and doors that opened out on to a paved area surrounded by a low stone balustrade.
The garden here was landscaped, with borders of flowering shrubs laid out in circular swathes, and rustic arches and fences here and there, covered by rambling roses. To one side, there was a carved wooden seat beneath a trellised arbour near to a rockery area with a waterfall that flowed gently into a large lily-clad pond.
‘It all takes my breath away,’ Ruby said softly, gazing out. ‘You must be so content to live here amongst all this splendour.’ She turned to face him but caught sight of his briefly bleak expression before he pulled his features into the semblance of a smile.
‘I might have been,’ he murmured, ‘but life has ways of intruding and causing havoc.’
She gazed at him, expecting him to go on, but instead he seemed to straighten up and said quietly, ‘Perhaps we should finish the rest of the tour later. I have to go and welcome everybody to the event, so, if you like, we could go and prise Becky from Sarah’s arms and take her to see what’s going on, or you could stay and help yourself to something to eat and drink.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ she said quickly. ‘I don’t want to miss out on anything.’ She didn’t know what he had meant by that remark about life intruding and causing havoc, but perhaps it had something to do with his family and the fact that this beautiful house was empty most of the time, except for himself, and the people who were employed to keep the estate in perfect order.
Becky was happy enough to be settled in her pushchair once more and seemed to be very taken with the crowds that had gathered on the field to one side of the estate. Music floated over the air, a bright, cheerful tune that put everyone in the right sort of mood from the beginning. The smell of hot roast meats wafted towards Ruby as she passed by the barbecue stand, and the refreshments tent was doing a roaring trade already.
They stopped to look at the various stands, where vendors were selling all kinds of wares from autumn bulbs to necklaces and children’s toys. Sam bought a colourful plastic windmill for Becky, handing it to her so that she could watch it spin in the faint breeze.
Ruby rescued it as Becky reached out to grasp the rounded tips and stopped it spinning. ‘I think I’ll fix it to the side of the pushchair so that you can just watch it going round,’ she told her. ‘We don’t want the toy broken before we even manage to get it home, do we?’
Becky frowned, but once Ruby had put the windmill in place, she settled down to watch in fascination as the wind caught the plastic fronds and whirled them around, so that the colours formed a rainbow pattern.
‘That will keep her occupied for a while,’ Ruby said.
Sam nodded. ‘Since we’ve reached the bandstand, I’d better go up there and do my bit,’ he said. ‘I’ll announce the raffle and tell people about the events that will be going on, just in case they’ve lost their programmes.’
‘And tell them what it’s in aid of,’ Ruby reminded him. ‘Tell them to dig deep into their pockets and purses because we want to fund state-of-the-art equipment specifically for our A&E. They can’t close us down if we’re the best port of call in the area, can they?’
‘Will do,’ he said.
He made his short speech, bringing chuckles from the crowd as he outlined the pitfalls of spending too long in the refreshments tent, or the hazards involved in shepherding children by every ice cream van on site. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ he said. ‘I’d love it if you do that…but then again, I’m not the one driving home with youngsters full of fizzy pop and ice cream in the back of the car. Have fun,’ he told them, ‘enjoy the shows and please give generously. Your A&E needs you.’
He stepped down from the bandstand and showed her where there was an exhibition of country crafts. ‘Your ladies from the village institute have done us proud,’ he told Ruby. ‘I took a peek earlier at some of the items on display. There are some lovely stained glass vases and bowls for sale. I noticed you have one or two on shelves at the farmhouse—and I guessed you like them because you have one on your desk there too.’
She nodded. ‘I do have a bit of a thing for them—I’d like someday to have a collection of glass in the bathroom—high up on a beautiful bamboo shelving unit where Becky can’t get hold of them.’
They wandered around the crafts tent for a while, and Ruby made a few purchases, adding a lovely bead bag to her selection. ‘It’s so pretty,’ she said. ‘It’s for if and when I ever get to go anywhere glamorous and fashionable…unlikely, I know, but I can dream, can’t I?’
Sam laughed. ‘It may not be a dream,’ he said. ‘Who knows? Maybe I’ll whisk you away somewhere.’
‘Oh, yes? The hospital restaurant is the most glamorous place I’ll ever get to, on past experience.’ She said it with a glimmer of humour in her eyes, and he purposefully moved her on to the compound where the dog show was being held.
‘You know you can rely on me to show you a good tim
e,’ he said. ‘Dogs and puppies…what more could you want?’
She chuckled and went to find a clear place on the grass where she could release Becky from the restriction of the pushchair for a while. She lifted the baby out and set her down on a small blanket, placing her favourite toys beside her.
‘Doh, doh, doh…’ Becky said, stretching out her arm and indicating the dogs that paraded around the enclosed ring.
‘ Yes, you’re right…they’re doggies. Clever girl.’ Ruby sent her an admiring glance. ‘Well done.’
‘You’re not trying to tell me that she said “doggy”, are you?’ Sam remarked, sending her an amused look. ‘That was no way a proper word.’
‘Was too,’ Ruby said with a defiant lift of her chin. ‘Stop trying to burst my bubble. It was definitely “dog” that she said. I won’t hear you say otherwise.’
He laughed and turned his attention to the show. Craig was there, inspecting all the competitors, a motley assortment of pedigree, mongrel and mixed breeds, all barking, tail wagging and generally having a wonderful time and basking in the attention of the assembled crowd.
‘The winner of the small dog category is…Cup Cake, the west highland terrier,’ Craig announced. ‘He may be short, but he has a big personality.’ Cup Cake jumped up in excitement and did a funny sort of pirouette, falling over his back legs, rolling over, and then wriggling to a standing position once more, tangling his lead around his owner’s legs in the process and delighting everyone who looked on.
‘Doh…doh…’ Becky said again, holding out her arm and pointing towards the dogs as though she would gather them up.
‘See,’ Ruby hissed under her breath. ‘Told you so.’
‘Nah. It was nothing like “dog”,’ Sam declared.
Craig came over to them a few minutes later. ‘Hi, you two. Hi, Becky.’ He smiled at Ruby. ‘I thought you might like to see this new addition to the veterinary household…Becky too.’
He squatted down beside them and revealed, in the crook of his arm, a brown and white sleepy puppy, covered in downy fur.