by Alex Brown
‘I’m pleased to hear it. You deserve a bit of downtime,’ Jude said kindly. She had come to see that Myles relied far too much on Sylvia, treating her like his beck-and-call woman, with little regard for her own personal requirements, such as a bit of time off for herself now and again.
‘Indeed. And if you wouldn’t mind taking your time over whatever he gets you involved in, it would be much appreciated.’ A mischievous smile flitted across Sylvia’s face.
‘I’m sure I can manage that,’ Jude winked, relishing in the subterfuge. After the shaky start when they had first met, she was really warming to Sylvia these days, and the pair of them had settled into an unlikely friendship. A mutual understanding of each other brought about by their sometimes insufferable, but always entertaining boss. ‘Now, where is he? Or, to be more precise … where does he want me today?’ It was always a lottery – Jude had given up trying to work with Myles in an orderly way, working through the house in a logical order, tackling reception rooms, followed by bedrooms, bathrooms, etc., as she had with her many previous clients. She knew Myles had given her free rein, but still, she had to have some idea of his preferences. And he had kind of gone back on his word with that, in any case, and had taken to springing ideas on her. Last time he’d been adamant about wanting a Pokémon-themed dining room. Nothing wrong with that, Jude had thought, but this particular dining room was actually a vast space. The old banqueting hall, which had always been made available to the villagers by the previous owners, Lord Lucan and his wife, Marigold, for things like the WI summer party or the May Fair, when the weather had turned. And Jude had been made aware that the Tindledale Parish Council were hoping that Myles would consider continuing with this tradition. So a hundred-foot Pokémon hall wasn’t really appropriate. It had taken her a whole day to convince him to consider something more ‘in keeping with the tradition of the house’.
‘He’s asked me to bring you to the basement today.’
‘The basement?’ Jude lifted an eyebrow, feeling intrigued. ‘But what about the rest of the bedrooms? We’ve only agreed the design specifications on three of them …’
‘I know,’ Sylvia momentarily closed her eyes and shook her head in exasperation. ‘But he was quite specific. Apparently, he has a surprise for you. Another one!’ And the two women exchanged knowing looks.
‘Oh dear.’ Over her time designing the interior for Myles, Jude had come to realise that her client was extremely fond of springing surprises on her. Last time she’d been here, he had greeted her with a pair of ginger woolly llamas in tow, Clarissa and Clive, who were being set up in an area over behind the old lavender field, which had been ploughed recently, ready for replanting.
‘Guess we had better get on with it then … we know how he hates having to wait for his big reveals,’ Jude laughed, inwardly thinking what a boy Myles was, and she still couldn’t work out if this youthful exuberance was endearing, or just a right pain in the arse. Scott, her boyfriend back in America, had been juvenile, and that had grated on her. But, somehow, Myles seemed to be growing on her. She had thought a lot about the way he had been with Holly when she had visited – really thoughtful and generous with his time. And then that night in the Duck & Puddle when he had been charming and kind to Chrissie. And she had looked over and seen Myles – global rock superstar (albeit faded now) – playing darts with Mack and his army pals, plus Cooper the village butcher, Matt the farrier, and Lawrence, who owned the B&B and ran the Tindledale Players am-dram society … so an eclectic group. But they were all laughing and joking around as if they had known each other all their lives. It had been fascinating seeing Myles seemingly out of his comfort zone, because that was just it, he hadn’t looked uncomfortable at all. He had looked happy, relaxed, and as if he belonged here in Tindledale. The silly persona – bizarre costumes and exaggerated behaviour – had vanished, and he was just one of the blokes. Somehow, seeing him in a normal setting, in a T-shirt and jeans, a pint glass in one hand and a dart in the other, had a certain appeal. And Jude had been thinking a lot about what Chrissie had said that night in the pub about Myles fancying her …
‘Lead the way then, please Sylvia,’ Jude grinned, having never been down to the manor house’s basement before. She was looking forward to it and intrigued to hear what Myles had planned for what she imagined would be an absolutely enormous space, or a series of smaller ones. Surely it couldn’t be one huge room underground, she thought, purely from a structural point of view.
*
Fifteen minutes later, and Jude was standing in a room the size of a football pitch, with eight tall, fluted columns dotted around to support the ceiling. Lit only with tea lights positioned inside the old-fashioned gas lamps that still hung on the walls, it gave the space a cosy, flickering orange glow. Like an animated sepia photo taken in the olden days. Faded but totally atmospheric.
‘Swimming pool!’ she echoed, practically dumbfounded. But that’s what Myles had said. And it might be the kind of thing they have in the basements of the big houses in Primrose Hill in London where he’s from. But she’d never seen the likes of it here in the sleepy little idyll of Tindledale.
‘So, what do you reckon?’ He was bouncing around like an over-excited Golden Retriever puppy. Darting towards the centre of the room and back to her, flinging his arms around, his eyes twinkling with excitement in the candlelight. And his hair was different. The silly man bun had gone, replaced with a cool cut that Jude thought really suited him. He no longer looked like an overgrown teenage hipster, but more like a proper forty-something man. A good-looking one, at that. She was impressed. And, dared she say it … attracted to him. But she was here to work, she swiftly reminded herself.
‘Err … um, well … yes. I can see your vision.’ She stalled for time to formulate a sensible response, all the while thinking, is he actually insane? She had worked on some huge, spectacular projects in her time, but this … well, it was crazy.
‘It’s going to be awesome. And look …’ He grabbed the pile of mood boards, sample books and swatches from her arms and dumped them on the dusty floor before taking her hand and literally running her to the side of the vast room. ‘See here,’ after dropping her hand, he shoved his shoulder against a small, arched door. ‘It always does that,’ he laughed, and Jude guessed that he had been here in the basement working on this idea for quite some time. He gave the door another shove, and this time it opened, scraping across concrete; the noise set her teeth on edge. But then there was daylight. ‘Perfect, yes?’
‘What for?’
‘For the villagers to get in of course.’ Myles said it as though it was the most obvious answer ever.
‘The villagers?’
‘Yes, the villagers. For the May Fair.’ Myles was standing outside on the grass now, with one hand sweeping his blond fringe away from his face, the other gesturing behind her. ‘You didn’t think I was planning on keeping the swimming pool all to myself, did you?’
‘Well …’ Jude couldn’t help herself from smiling, and then laughing. How could she not? His enthusiasm was irresistible, and she knew he had the funds to finance such a big project. He had told her so, when she had baulked at his request to buy a rare nineteenth-century Meiji period Japanese silk painting for £35,000, thank you very much! Just to hang on the wall in one of the guest bedrooms that most likely would never get used. ‘Of course not, but are you sure? I mean, nobody in Tindledale expects you to provide a public swimming pool. Not to mention, in time for the May Fair … which is only –’ she pulled her iPhone from her pocket to check the date – ‘eighteen days away now.’
‘Yeah, I know that. But it would be so good though, wouldn’t it? And it won’t be just a swimming pool. It would be a proper tropical island and traditional beach mash-up too.’ His eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. ‘Yeah, in here we’ll have the tropical island theme around the swimming pool – with an authentic swim-up bar! Cabanas dotted around selling smoothies for the children. And pineapple lollies – I
love them; you get a chunk of pineapple and stick it on a stick. Literally. That’s all there is to it.’ He really was a big kid. ‘And we can have real coconuts with holes drilled in for a straw! And fountains. You know, those ones they have in parks in London that spray jets of water up in the air – I’ll source a company to supply them. And we’ll have sand. With deckchairs dotted around. And someone said the village has a mobile fish-and-chip van that parks up in the High Street every Thursday. Well, we’ll get it here. And an ice-cream van! It’ll be brilliant. Just like a proper British seaside. You said yourself that the parish council want to carry on using the house for their WI gigs and stuff … and they can in the winter. The beach theme will be for the May Fair and then the swimming pool can be used for the rest of the summer.So they’re going to love it. Year-round access to the Blackwood Farm Estate, courtesy of yours truly.’ Myles did a theatrical bow.
And then Jude got it. She realised what was going on here. This, in addition to all the numerous different outfits, costume changes on a near daily basis. He was playing a part. Trying to find out which character he needed to be in order to fit in. Be an integral part of the community. And that was fair enough. But what baffled her most, was why? He had no ties with Tindledale – Sylvia had said he had grown up in London and had picked Tindledale as the place he wanted to ‘retire’ to, now that his rock career was over, by simply sticking a pin in a map. Literally, that’s what he had done. Sylvia had told Jude, and she didn’t doubt it for a second. It was just the kind of thing Myles would do. Choose where to live his life on a whim. And it actually made her feel a bit sad for him, that he didn’t have those ties anywhere else. What about his family? His parents? Where were they? Where was his real home?
Jude had ‘retired’ in a way as well, had come to Tindledale for another way of life too, but it was different for her. She had roots here. Her dad, her best friend, she had grown up in Tindledale. Her whole life was here. Apart from Maggie. If she could just teleport her here from LA, then life would be perfect. She’d be surrounded by the people she loved, and who loved her.
‘So, will you help me do it?’ Myles looked at her, his sapphire blue eyes locked onto hers in earnest. And she didn’t have the heart to crush his enthusiasm with talk of timescales, financials, risk assessments and the like … not to mention planning permission, public event licences, and amenities like toilets and parking and first-aid provision. All of that took time. And there was simply no way it could all be achieved in a matter of weeks. But the words were out of Jude’s mouth in an instance. She seemed compelled to be complicit in his adventure.
‘Of course I will.’
The words sank in.
Oh dear, now I’m going to have to pull off a flaming miracle. And since when did I become an events organiser? Oh well, it might be fun … and it’s not like I’m rushed off my feet at the shop in the High Street. Which reminds me, I might have to have a rethink about the viability of having an actual shop that sells only a few candles and home comforts each week. Maybe I’m just not cut out to sit behind a counter all day long. My long-cherished dream seems to have lost its shine now. Perhaps a home office would suit me better for managing the interiors and events side of the business, and I could supply the overseas stuff from there too. And I wouldn’t need to pay someone to sit in the shop when I can’t be there, not to mention all the commercial overheads that come with having a retail shop … hmmm.
‘Brilliant!’ Myles boomed, breaking Jude’s reverie. ‘Knew you’d go for it and think it was a fantastic idea. I’ve already got a company lined up to bring the swimming pool. They can install it in two to three days and they’ll even run it too … provide a lifeguard to make sure it’s safe and all that. Did you even know that you could hire a swimming pool?’ Jude shook her head, bamboozled. ‘No, nor did I till yesterday, when two seconds on Google told me that you most definitely can. It won’t be a sunken one. There isn’t enough time for all that digging, but it’ll still be good.’ And he placed his hands either side of her face and exuberantly kissed her left cheek, before pulling her in for an enormous hug. Jude felt her arms instinctively wrap around his back as she breathed in that deliciously, dangerously intoxicating Chanel scent. If any other man had been this presumptuous, then she would have batted them away in an instance, but it felt different. Myles was just the kind of guy who could do this … And she liked it. Quite a lot.
Dropping his arms, but keeping hold of her hand, he started walking her towards the gate at the far end of the grounds.
‘Where are we going now?’ she asked, feeling breathless, his spontaneity was exhilarating.
‘You’ll see. But we’d better hurry up or we’ll miss it.’
‘Miss what?’ Jude squeezed his hand to get his attention as they were running now. Fast across the grounds, with the warm air fluttering around their faces.
‘The six donkeys I’ve got turning up in about –’ he paused to check his watch – ‘two minutes!’
‘Oh. Right. I see,’ Jude managed, incredulous all over again as she surreptitiously brushed beads of sweat from her top lip.
‘They’re going to look insane mooching around the garden. And kids love donkey rides! Talking of that, how about some beach huts too, just in case it starts raining on the day? That would be totally rubbish. And steel drums for an authentic calypso vibe.’ Myles grinned, squeezing her hand tighter. ‘It’s going to be awesome – like a real beach right here in the rural village of Tindledale.’ And Jude couldn’t help herself from thinking that, actually, he had a very good point. If they could pull it off, then it would be truly spectacular.
Holly for one would absolutely love it. And Jude was sure Myles would let Holly, aka his new best friend, have an exclusive, private first go in the swimming pool as a fabulous present, which was all the extra incentive Jude needed to try to make it all happen in time for her birthday. Especially as it was looking a bit unlikely that Holly was going to get her wish for her parents to get properly back together in time for her birthday, with the way things were between them. Chrissie had told Jude as much last night when she had phoned to see how her friend was. ‘I feel like Sam could be getting it finally, but I need more time, if I’m going to trust him again,’ Chrissie had said, followed by a huge sigh of resolve. So Jude reckoned there was every reason to try to put a smile on her goddaughter’s face for her fourteenth birthday … she had promised to help Holly if she could. And she never went back on a promise. So she had a good mind to get Chrissie and Sam along to the swimming pool too for a private session, and make them find a way to work things out more quickly. Jude knew Chrissie and Sam were meant to be together … it was just a matter of time. Time that Holly truly wished would hurry up.
Chapter Eighteen
In the doctor’s surgery waiting room, Sam checked his inside coat pocket again to be sure. Yes, the donor cards were still there. He hadn’t managed to find his, but was over the moon that Dolly had been right – his dad’s card, and his mum, Linda’s, were inside the hatbox. And he had been thinking a lot about what Dolly had said regarding hope, so that’s exactly what he was doing from now on. Hope and positive thinking, that’s what it was all about. Look where negativity, blaming himself and feeling inadequate had got him? As soon as Dr Ben had confirmed his blood group was a match with Holly’s, and that Linda was a potential match too, then Sam was going to see Chrissie to give her the good news. He hoped this would show that he was thinking logically and planning ahead. That he was here for the long haul and not about to chase another overseas project. And he wasn’t just doing this to prove something to Chrissie. It was also because he wanted to do everything he could to make sure that Holly was kept well. He wanted to make sure all her records were up-to-date and the information was correct. That had to be a good thing – even if, as he wanted to believe, it would never be needed. He patted his coat; the cards were in the inside pocket, like lucky charms, he hoped, to help him and his family through.
His though
ts turned to a letter that Dolly had found in amongst his dad’s old paperwork. It was addressed to him and Patrick.
It’s time for me to say goodbye to you, Samuel and Patrick. My two wonderful boys. I want you both to know that I will always love you. I leave feeling incredibly blessed to have been a part of your lives and I know that you will grow into fine young men that any man would be proud to call his sons. Please look after your mum, and see if you can cut her some roses from the garden from time to time. I know one day you will have your own families who will bring you as much happiness and joy as you two have me, so keep those loved ones close always, because love is all you have at the end of the day …
*
Sam had cried on reading that part of the letter as he reflected on how his dad’s words and wishes contrasted with his own actions. He hadn’t kept his loved ones close at all. What a fool he had been! And he doubted that his dad would be feeling proud of him right now. Rob had then explained how he had been having treatment in hospital for cancer, exacerbated by his Type 2 diabetes. And Sam had taken a bittersweet moment of comfort in this knowledge, that maybe he hadn’t somehow passed the diabetes on to Holly through his genes after all. He had assumed his dad had the same type of diabetes as Holly, but now it seemed this wasn’t the case.
Sam had then cried in sorrow and sadness as he had tucked the letter back inside the envelope. His lovely, thoughtful, kind dad had wanted him, and Patrick, to know what was happening. He hadn’t wanted them kept in the dark at all. That had been Linda’s doing, because Rob had written on the back of the envelope: I’ve asked your mum to pass this letter on to you.