BLINDFOLD

by Lyndon Stacey

  `Wow! Don't you look nice!' he said. `How are you doing? Feeling better now?'

  `This is for you from Ma,' Jez said, holding up a large, expensively labelled, bottle of whisky. `She said to say thanks for everything.'

  `Well, thank you.' Gideon accepted it, greatly surprised. `That might have an interesting effect, mixed with my painkillers! It's lovely,' he assured the child, who was looking a little uncertain.

  `Joey says he's going to buy me a pony, and Tim says we can keep it at the Sanctuary,' she announced, moving on to matters of greater importance.

  `Hey, that's brilliant!' he said. `And how is Joey?'

  `He's home again now but he said he wouldn't come here,' Jez

  confided. `But Curly isn't coming home for a long time, Ma says. Joey says it's a bloody good thing too!'

  Gideon coughed to hide a smile. `Joey's probably right,' he agreed amidst the general amusement.

  'Gideon, you remember jenny, don't you?' Pippa prompted, touching his arm and drawing his attention to the older lady at her side.

  `Of course I do,' he responded gallantly. `How are you doing? And how's Willow?'

  `She's fine. We both are, thanks to you.' The intense gratitude in her expression made Gideon fidget, and she said quickly, `Oh, I'm sorry. Pippa said you'd be embarrassed if I thanked you.'

  `Oh, she did, did she?' he asked, raising an eyebrow. `Who's the behaviourist around here?'

  Sherry and fruit punch were offered and the gathering settled into easy companionship, everyone blending well. Gideon was inclined to think that Joey had been right to decline the invitation. His presence might have been a little unsettling for some.

  After a while Mrs Morecambe appeared and a buffet lunch was served on the kitchen table, after which everyone sat chatting in the various chairs, comfortably full and basking in the warmth of the range.

  As coffee and tea were passed round, Naomi and Tim produced their birthday gift of a new waxed jacket, to replace the one that was ruined on the night of the fire. Mary and Anthony gave Gideon a top-notch pocketknife and the Rosetti family produced a beautiful, silver half-hunter watch.

  Rachel gave Gideon a lavishly wrapped package and a huge, uninhibited hug, her face radiant with the release from worry and the joy of her burgeoning relationship with Giles.

  `I can't get used to the new look,' she said.

  `Me either!' he admitted. A visit from Pippa's hairdresser, the day before, and painful memories of his tussle with Slade's heavy, had resulted in not only Pippa changing her gingery mop to

  blonde, but also in Gideon sporting a short head of hair for the first time since his mother had last cut it when he was fourteen. Rachel's parcel contained an antique carriage clock which prompted him to exclaim, `Hey, are you lot trying to tell me something? Either there's something wrong with my timekeeping or you're hinting I should retire!'

  Jenny Weatherfield and Jez- had both brought small gifts and, after all had been admired, Pippa announced with a gleam in her eye that if he wanted to see what she and Giles had got him, Gideon would have to go outside. Giles, it seemed, had already slipped out.

  Muttering audibly about the proper consideration due to an invalid, Gideon hauled himself out of his chair, aided laughingly by his sister, and joined the general exodus towards the front door.

  `Like the hair, Bro,' Naomi commented, taking his arm. `I see Pippa's had hers done too.'

  `Yeah, well, I'm fed up with being called "Girlie" and Pips wasn't happy when Rachel's charming ex-husband called her a redhead.'

  `Well, I think you make a charming couple,' she said with a playful look.

  `Now don't start that again! Just let me organise my own love life, will you?'

  'Ah, so I'm on the right track, then?'

  `Mind your own business,' Gideon said severely, and Naomi laughed.

  Outside, parked on the gravel, was a dark green, short-wheelbased Land Rover. Not new, it was nevertheless in very good condition, and Gideon was speechless for a moment.

  `You're not serious?' he asked finally.

  `Quite serious,' Pippa told him. `We decided the only way to be sure of having our own cars when we needed them was to provide you with some sensible transport of your own. Now you've finally wrapped that prehistoric motorbike round its last tree!' she added with what Gideon felt was rather an unkind degree of satisfaction.

  He ignored it.

  `I don't know what to say,' he said, shaking his head. `It's incredible!'

  `Well, before you work yourself up to a thank-you speech, I should warn you, it comes with a condition.'

  `Er, yes?' Gideon said warily. `Go on.' `Look inside. Try it for size.'

  He walked across to the driver's door and was about to open it when a small, brindle face and two paws appeared behind the glass. Gideon stopped, his hand on the door handle, and started to smile in spite of himself. As the puppy began to wriggle with glee at the prospect of company, the female portion of the party uttered a synchronised `Aahh!' and he knew protest would be useless.

  Aii hour or so later, with just the dogs for company, Gideon sat in the Priory kitchen with the brindle pup on his lap. The guests had departed, Pippa was out in the yard seeing to the horses, and Giles and Rachel had offered to feed Elsa for him.

  `I suppose I'll have to find a name for you now,' he told the drowsy pup. `See, I knew you were going to make work for me!' He was wondering if he could really live with a dog called either Logan or Joey, and also whether either of them would receive the tribute in the spirit that it was meant, when he made a discovery. Inspecting his birthday gifts once again, he turned the Rosettis' watch over and opened the back to look at the works, and there, inscribed inside the silver cover in tiny but clearly legible script, were the words, With Thanks for Second Chances.

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