Cinnamon Gardens

by Anna Jacobs

  ‘Not yet. I’ve only just decided to do it. You’re the first of the family I’ve told.’ She waited again.

  ‘What’s his name?’

  ‘Angus Denning. You’ll like him.’

  ‘I’m going to meet him, am I?’

  ‘If things continue to go well, yes. He’s a great guy.’

  ‘I hope they do go well, then, and that he doesn’t let you down as Dad did. But be careful, Ma. He may be interested in your money.’

  It was her turn to be silent for a few moments, then she said sharply, ‘I shall ignore that remark, which implies either that I’m stupid enough to fall for a con man or that there’s no other reason for a man to love me than money. Your father’s influence is still showing and you’re treating me like a fool. Tell Carla to put some more work in on your development.’ She ended the call.

  When her phone rang again, she could see it was Nick calling so didn’t answer.

  But she couldn’t get the thought of Steve out of her mind. What exactly had Craig arranged for him? What had their youngest done that was so bad?

  The only thing she could think of was that he’d been into drugs. That would have freaked Craig out, she knew. He had a thing about drug taking. Well, so did she. Surely Steve wouldn’t …?

  But she couldn’t stop thinking about her youngest and by the end of the day, she’d decided to ask Angus’s help in phoning Craig without revealing her number.

  It just might be the truth that he needed to talk to her about their son.

  The two men watched Janey walk slowly up Peppercorn Street. She went right past the block of flats.

  ‘I told you she’d not notice us if we used another car,’ Lionel gloated. ‘We’ll buy your friend a drink or two.’

  ‘I wonder where she’s going?’ Wayne said. ‘The street’s a dead end.’

  ‘There’s a path leads out of the turning circle at the top. She must go down that. I’ll follow her on foot another time and grab her in the next street. These upper parts are usually quieter. The rich sods from the big houses are all out at work. You can drive round to pick us up.’

  ‘I don’t know about forcing her to come with us, Lionel. It doesn’t seem right.’

  ‘It seems right to me. We need a woman to look after us and she might as well make herself useful. She cost me a lot over the years.’

  But at the top of the street, Janey went into a big old house, using a key.

  Lionel thumped his hand down on the dashboard. ‘The sneaky little bitch! I bet she’s moved up here to another flat. She must only go down that narrow passage when she notices us following. Well, we’ll come in your car next time and if she does …’

  ‘I’m not at all sure about this, Lionel. We could pay a woman to do some housework and—’

  ‘I’m not paying when I can get it for free.’

  ‘But we’ll have to feed her.’

  ‘No, we won’t. She gets money for being a single mother. We’ll have some of that too.’

  ‘But the police—’

  ‘Will change that order if she asks them to, and once we have the baby, she’ll do anything we tell her. It’s her weakness, that baby is, just as she was my stupid wife’s weakness. You’ll see.’

  When Wayne didn’t say anything, he changed the subject.

  ‘Come on. We’ve just got time for a quick pint. I’m buying today.’

  In Australia, Steve finished his day’s work, did his allotted share of the clearing up after the communal evening meal, and went back to his room, feeling exhausted. The work here seemed never-ending. It had occurred to him several times that this was how his mother’s life had been, caring for three children without any help, day after day.

  Why had he never thought of that before?

  His steps slowed and he sighed as he reached his room, which was part of the old shearers’ quarters. All the guys were lodged here. The ‘rooms’ were more like cupboards, but at least he had some privacy in the narrow space.

  He studied his hands as he went inside. They were already rough with manual labour after only a couple of weeks but there were good sides to it as well. He’d always enjoyed being out in the open air.

  What was the use of studying at university, though, if you ended up shovelling pig dung? He’d been stupid, hadn’t known when he was well off. It hadn’t taken him long to realise that. But he’d had to promise his father to stay here for three months in order to get his debts paid.

  And anyway, he had nowhere else to go till he’d saved up some of the pittance they were paying him here.

  He winced as he knocked his arm against the edge of the narrow metal locker. He already had a big bruise on it where he’d stumbled into the side of the tractor this morning. And he’d gashed his leg the other day. A farm was a dangerous place to work unless you paid attention every minute, Owen had told them, and he was right.

  Steve flung himself down on the bed, closing his eyes.

  What was that?

  He frowned as he heard a whimpering sound outside. It could only be a small animal and it sounded in distress. When the noise went on and on, he went to look for it to see if the poor thing was trapped somewhere.

  To his surprise, he found a puppy lying just outside his room. When it saw him, it pressed back against the wall, as if afraid of him hitting it. It was small and shivering visibly, so he made soothing noises and picked it up to comfort it.

  It huddled in his hands, then began licking his fingers. When he bent closer to study it, it took a swipe at his nose with a small pink tongue. Then it shivered again and whined softly, sounding so pitiful he cuddled it close to his chest.

  He didn’t know what to do to help it, because his mother had never allowed them to have pets. Whenever they’d asked, she’d said she couldn’t cope with one more creature to look after.

  He’d resented that as a child, hadn’t even thought of her side of things. But Nick pointed out rather forcibly when he grumbled about her leaving them that she deserved some time for herself after raising the three of them without any practical help from their father.

  Hell, that lesson was certainly being rammed home now. He supposed that was the point of him being here. He’d thought a lot about his mother during the first few semi-sleepless nights as the drugs worked their way out of his system, angry at her for getting him into this.

  Only, he’d done it himself, hadn’t he? You didn’t have to be Einstein to work that out.

  The puppy shivered again, so Steve carried it to the kitchen of the main house, where the other guys sat in the evenings, those who were feeling sociable, that was. There were only four of them here at the moment and Matt always disappeared the minute the evening meal was over. He hardly spoke to anyone, even when they were working together, seemed to hate the world. He was a very strange guy.

  Dix and Logan were still sitting in the kitchen. They were playing draughts because Owen didn’t allow them to watch TV during the week and they weren’t allowed access to computers at all.

  Steve hesitated in the doorway. He hadn’t been exactly friendly to these two and now he needed to ask their help.

  They looked up and Dix grinned. ‘Come and join us. We won’t kill you. Most guys keep to themselves at first. I did too.’

  ‘Oh. Right.’

  The puppy chose that time to whimper again.

  ‘What the hell have you got there?’

  ‘A puppy. It was crying outside my room. It seems to have lost its mother.’

  Logan got up and came to study the pup. ‘Poor little thing. I think the mother was killed this afternoon in an accident. Didn’t you hear the shouting? She got caught up in some machinery. Owen was really upset. She was his favourite farm dog. He’s found people to look after the other puppies, but he must have missed this one.’ He touched its little head gently but didn’t take it off Steve.

  ‘Better tell Owen,’ Dix advised. ‘He’ll know what to do with it. He’s good with animals.’

  Steve wasn’t go
ing to let them see that he was rather nervous of Owen, who had been scornful about his physical condition, and his idiocy in getting into drugs. But there was no one else to ask, so he took a deep breath and went along the corridor to the main house, where he knocked on the door as per house rules.

  ‘Come in.’

  He found Owen and his wife Megan sitting near a wood fire in a comfortable room, looking relaxed and happy. ‘I found a pup, or rather it found me.’

  Megan immediately got tears in her eyes. ‘Oh, no! I thought we’d found them all. I was so upset I mustn’t have counted properly.’

  Owen came across to examine the tiny creature and sighed. ‘It’s old enough to survive but only just, and it’ll still need a lot of looking after. I don’t have the time because we’re still a man short. Got any more friends willing to get up in the night and feed a pup, Megan?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. I’ll have to do it myself.’

  ‘You’ve enough on your plate and I’m not having you run yourself ragged at this stage.’

  Steve supposed he was referring to his wife’s very obvious pregnancy. How women walked around and did things with such a load in their bellies, he couldn’t figure. And his mother had gone through it three times! He waited, stroking the puppy.

  Owen stared at him then at the pup. ‘We’ll either have to put it down or you can look after it, Steve. I’m not loading anything else on to Megan.’

  ‘Me? I don’t know anything about animals.’

  ‘I can show you what to do,’ Megan offered.

  ‘As long as you only show him,’ Owen said. ‘You are not taking on a pup, Megan. You’ve only got a month to go before the baby’s born.’

  Steve stared down at the puppy, which swiped a lick at his chin and stared up at him trustingly with its big brown eyes. Kill it? No way. ‘I’ll look after it as long as you show me how.’

  Owen clapped him on the shoulders. ‘Good man. I’ll find you some bedding and puppy food.’

  It was the first time Owen had said anything positive to Steve.

  ‘You’ll need plenty of old newspapers,’ Megan called after them. ‘It’s not house-trained yet.’

  At the thought of cleaning up poop after the little dog, Steve nearly said he’d changed his mind, then it shivered again and huddled closer. No, he wasn’t going to let anyone kill it.

  Owen took him through to the big farm storeroom. ‘She’ll need to cuddle up to you at first. She’s been with the other pups and her mother ever since she was born, so she’ll fret if you leave her alone.’

  ‘Oh. Right.’

  ‘I’ll get you a waterproof sheet to cover your bedding.’

  ‘Yuk.’ Again he wondered about giving her back. No, he couldn’t do that. Especially not when she was cuddling up to him like this. ‘Does she have a name?’

  ‘Not unless you give her one.’ Owen carried the stuff across the yard to Steve’s room, gave him some rapid instructions and left him to it.

  As Steve stared down at the pup he was still holding, she peed all down his front.

  ‘Oh, hell!’ He held her out but it was too late.

  All he wanted to do was give her back to someone, but once again she gave him ‘the look’ and made a little mewing sound. He was a sucker, that’s what he was, a stupid sucker.

  He’d had a book when he was little with a puppy called Taffy in it. He’d loved that story. It seemed as good a name as any.

  ‘Come on, Taffy,’ he said. ‘Let’s get ourselves cleaned up.’

  He didn’t get much sleep, because Taffy peed on him again, then started whining for food.

  Owen came for him at six o’clock with a puppy crate. ‘I’ll find you jobs near the house this morning. She’ll need a hot-water bottle to keep her warm. Wrap it in this old towel. We don’t want her getting burnt. You can leave her in your room but come back to check on her every hour.’

  ‘What have you got me into?’ Steve asked Taffy when they were alone.

  She didn’t answer; was too busy clearing the plate of puppy food and then pooping all over the clean newspapers he’d just spread out.

  It didn’t occur to him for several days that Megan would never have allowed Owen to kill the puppy. But by that time, Taffy and he were best mates.

  And at least she’d stopped peeing in the bed and was starting to recognise her name.

  He’d always wanted a dog. Funny how things turned out.

  Just let them try to take her away from him now.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Winifred watched intently as Angus explained what he was doing and how the improved security system would work when it was finished.

  ‘I haven’t forgotten about getting you a computer,’ he said. ‘I just have to install these special apps on it, then I’ll bring it over. I’m designing a system to help elderly people understand what to do, one small step at a time.’

  ‘What a good idea. When they told us what to do at those computer classes, it was as if they were speaking a foreign language. And the tutor looked at us as if we were stupid when we asked questions. But how are we to guess the meaning when these are new ways of using old words, or else completely new words? Someone needs to tell us what they mean before they start using a computer word.’

  He stared at her in surprise, head on one side. ‘That’s a very helpful comment already. I was aware of that, but I wonder if I’ve started far enough back. Maybe I should put a list at the beginning with explanations of each word.’

  ‘Better to have them available to print out as guidelines on pieces of paper,’ she said. ‘There were so many differences, I forgot half of them between one class and another. It’s not that older people are stupid, Angus. It’s that some of us don’t have the foundations for using the new systems.’

  He nodded slowly. ‘You are going to be so useful to me in putting the final polish on my Golden Oldie Apps.’

  ‘I am?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She beamed at him, then heard the post drop through the letter box and went to pick up the letters from the hall floor. She came back frowning and threw the post down on the table with an angry huff.

  ‘Something wrong?’

  ‘Yes. These aren’t real letters; they’re more rubbish from people pestering me to sell the house. I get several a week.’

  ‘Mind if I look at them?’ He picked up the envelopes. ‘I think one of them’s a real letter.’

  He studied today’s offers to sell while she opened the other letter. ‘These two seem to be from different estate agents in Sexton Bassett, but I haven’t heard of either of them, even though they’ve got addresses in town. Mind if I keep them?’

  ‘Be my guest. I usually throw them straight in the rubbish bin.’

  She was still frowning, so he ventured to ask, ‘What’s the other one about?’

  ‘It’s from a social worker at the council, wanting me to enrol for the seniors’ programmes. Look at what they’re doing!’ She flicked the paper with one scornful finger. ‘What do they think we are, children? I don’t want to go and be entertained by amateur singers who should have taken singing lessons before they opened their mouths in public. And as for someone playing the spoons, the mind boggles.’

  ‘Playing the spoons? You’re joking.’

  ‘No, I’m not. See. It’s printed here.’ She offered him a list of morning entertainments.

  He studied it, agreeing with her comments. ‘What rubbish they’re offering.’

  ‘I’m glad it’s not just me. Angus, I’m not conceited but I’m not stupid, either. I’d be bored to tears by this so-called entertainment.’

  She showed him a second sheet of paper. ‘And I do not want to go into their medical programme.’

  ‘Well, I can understand not wanting to go to concerts like those, but what’s wrong with the medical programme? It never hurts to get a check-up.’ He didn’t say especially at her age, but he thought it.

  ‘Once you let officials get their hands on you,
they find ways to take over your life. They think old equates to stupid.’ She screwed up the paper and threw it away. ‘I go to my own doctor when I need to and that’s enough for me. She doesn’t pester me to join things. I’ve never been a joiner and I’m not going to start now.’

  He’d never heard her speak so sharply. ‘It’s getting to you, isn’t it? Especially the way these people are pestering you to sell.’

  She nodded, blowing her nose good and hard. ‘What if they try to burn down my house? They already burnt the summer house.’

  ‘I don’t think they’ll go that far.’

  ‘I’m beginning to think they might.’

  He put his arm round her and gave her a quick hug. ‘We’ll catch these bullies for you.’

  ‘And then what? Another one will pop up and start nagging all over again. What it amounts to is they want to take my home away from me. This place is far more than just a house or an asset to me.’

  He’d never seen her so down in the dumps. That upset him. He wondered what he could do to help. He’d discuss it with Nell. She might have some ideas.

  He’d discuss it with Kieran too, who had some useful connections.

  When he left Winifred’s house, Angus hesitated for a moment, then went out the front way and hurried down the street.

  Kieran’s car was parked at the flats, so he knocked on the door and as Paul opened it, asked, ‘Is Kieran at home?’

  ‘Yes. Come in.’

  Kieran was sitting chatting to his new wife, holding a mug of coffee, looking so cheerful Angus hesitated to dump a problem on him.

  ‘Hi. Sit down. There’s one more cup left in the cafetière.’

  ‘No, thanks. I have to get back. It’s just … well, I need to see you about something quite urgently.’ He explained what was going on with Winifred and saw Kieran’s eyes brighten with interest, not irritation, thank goodness. He should have remembered how much his friend used to enjoy unmasking scams and villains.

  ‘It’ll be Nolan behind it,’ Kieran said confidently.

  ‘Who else could it be? But he’s been very clever about not quite breaking the law.’