Pastures New

by Julia Williams

  ‘Clive’s got a mate in the army,’ said Keith, ‘and he asked if we wanted them.’

  ‘Whatever do you need night-vision goggles for?’ Pete asked. The Guys leered at each other, and started muttering about war games and pretending to be SAS soldiers. ‘On second thoughts, I don’t think I want to know.’

  ‘Hello, old boy, any luck?’ Harry popped up beside the hedge Pete was crouched behind.

  ‘Not yet,’ said Pete. ‘I had no idea surveillance was so boring. Who’d be a policeman?’

  ‘You should try standing guard on an ammunitions dump on a winter’s night,’ said Harry. ‘This is nothing.’

  ‘Point taken,’ said Pete. ‘Another beer, anyone?’

  They all sat in silence for a while longer, jumping at every rustle and straining to see if there were any movements coming from the shed.

  ‘This is turning into a right rave-up,’ giggled Keith.

  ‘Hardly,’ said Ben, who’d followed behind Harry. He flopped down next to Pete.

  ‘Do you fancy a beer? Saffron packed tons of supplies.’

  ‘Beer sounds good to me,’ said Ben, leaning back and staring at the shed. ‘Do you honestly think we’ll find your intruder?’

  ‘Probably not,’ said Pete, ‘but it’s a bit of a laugh, isn’t it?’

  ‘Not for us it isn’t,’ said Keith. ‘Our butts are beginning to freeze off. We’ve done our bit, and now we’re off to a party.’

  ‘Well, thanks, guys, for coming,’ said Pete.

  ‘Don’t mention it,’ said Keith, giving Pete a leery look. ‘Sure you don’t want to join us? There’ll be lots of hunky SAS types there.’

  ‘No I do not,’ said Pete. ‘Off you go before you ruin my reputation.’

  ‘That was the idea, darling, that was the idea.’

  An hour later, everyone was getting restless. Apart from one false alarm when a fox knocked open the shed door, there was nothing to see.

  Another half an hour elapsed, and still nothing had happened.

  ‘If nothing happens in the next hour, I think we should call it a day,’ said Pete.

  A rustling in the bushes and muttering on the path got them momentarily interested, but it was only Bill and Bud come to relieve Harry, who’d announced he’d had enough.

  ‘I’ll come with you and fetch Amy so you can babysit,’ said Ben.

  Minutes later, as Ben and Amy walked down the path, they were both aware of the peculiar intimacy that darkness brings.

  ‘I’m sorry things have been so difficult this week,’ said Ben. ‘Caroline’s incredibly hard to shake off.’

  ‘Well, so long as nothing’s going on between you,’ said Amy, only half joking.

  ‘Amy, you know there isn’t.’ Ben was serious and grabbed her hand. ‘The only woman I’m interested in is you.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ Amy wanted to believe it, but despite Ben’s protestations, she couldn’t help the niggling little doubt that kept intruding into her thoughts.

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Ben, and stooped to kiss her. Then he paused.

  ‘Shh!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘That.’ There was a rustle in the bushes behind them.

  Ben whispered, ‘It might be our intruder. Let’s get back to the others, and see if he follows us.’

  They went swiftly up the path, and ducked in behind the bushes where the others were.

  Ben pointed silently to the path behind them.

  They sat still for a few moments, the tension unbearable. Then, when Amy was about to think they had got it wrong, there was some more rustling and some giggles coming from the bushes next to Saffron’s shed.

  ‘One, two, three, go!’ Pete and Ben shot out from their hiding places and pounced into the bushes. There was a muffled shout of ‘Oi, le’go!’ and a moment of confusion when bodies, legs and feet seemed to be tripping over each other.

  ‘What the –?’ Ben stood up and burst out laughing.

  Then Pete did the same.

  Emerging awkwardly from a passionate embrace were Caroline and Gerry.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  ‘So what did they say?’ Saffron wanted to know, when the vigilantes returned to base to report on proceedings. After discovering the illicit lovers, Operation Intruder was abandoned by mutual agreement. Any trespasser would be unlikely to come within a mile of the place now.

  ‘They were totally brazen about it,’ said Pete. ‘At least Caroline was. Gerry looked a bit sheepish.’

  ‘If he hasn’t split up with Maddy, he’s got good reason to be,’ said Amy. ‘I can’t see that going down too well, can you?’

  ‘True,’ said Saffron, mentally relishing the picture of Gerry being hauled over the coals by his harpy of a girlfriend.

  ‘Shame we didn’t find your intruder,’ said Ben, who was sitting down next to Amy. ‘Do you want us to come back tomorrow?’

  ‘Ooh, I’m not sure if I can take the excitement,’ said Saffron. ‘Perhaps we should wait and see if anything more happens. You lot came back like a pack of marauding elephants. I should think anyone planning to sleep in our shed again will have probably got the hint by now. I doubt very much whether they’ll be back.’

  ‘Shame,’ said Bill. ‘I haven’t had so much fun in ages.’

  ‘Sorry we didn’t catch whoever it was,’ said Amy. ‘But it was worth it to see the look on Gerry’s face when Ben sat on him.’

  ‘Intruder or no intruder, I wouldn’t have missed that for the world,’ agreed Pete.

  ‘So now do you believe me?’ Ben wanted to know as he walked Amy home later that evening. They were holding hands tentatively. It was the first moment they’d had alone since the discovery of Caroline and Gerry in the bushes.

  ‘Okay,’ said Amy. ‘I accept that nothing is going on between you and Caroline. But you can’t blame me for being anxious. You weren’t exactly straight with me about her. And she is very attractive.’

  ‘I know, and I’m sorry about that,’ said Ben. ‘The relationship I had with Caroline could hardly have been described as deep. She wasn’t here. I didn’t think it was important.’

  ‘Oh, right,’ said Amy. ‘Does that mean the next girl you go out with will get told that I’m not important too?’ They had reached Amy’s garden gate. Ben grabbed her and pulled her close.

  ‘I don’t want there to be a next woman. I just want you. What I had with Caroline means nothing. You are more important to me than any other woman I’ve ever met. You have to believe me.’

  ‘I want to.’ Amy’s reply was soft. ‘But I’m scared. You’re the first person I’ve had feelings for since Jamie. It’s like a door opening up, and I have to choose whether to go through it or not.’

  ‘Go through it, Amy,’ Ben insisted.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Amy replied, eyeing him warily. ‘I might never be sure.’

  ‘It’s worth the risk,’ urged Ben. ‘I won’t let you down.’

  ‘I hope not,’ said Amy, ‘but I’m not ready for this yet.’

  She kissed him swiftly on the cheek, and pulled away from him, rapidly walking up her garden path. Ben stood watching her go. He had been so sure they were getting closer. If it hadn’t been for Caroline coming back, they would be much closer. Damn it. She always put a spanner in the works.

  ‘So what’s the verdict, old boy?’ Harry was sitting in Ben’s surgery the next morning. The results of his angiogram were back, and they didn’t make for comfortable reading.

  ‘I think you know the answer to that one,’ said Ben. ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you, Harry, but your arteries are not in great shape. You’re going to have to start looking after yourself a bit better, otherwise you’re running the risk of a serious heart attack.’

  Harry looked decidedly grumpy. ‘So I expect you’re going to tell me to cut back on my drinking.’

  ‘You know I am,’ said Ben.

  ‘Do you mean I can’t even have the odd drop of whisky?’ protested Harry. ‘For medicinal purposes?’
>
  ‘I think you’ll find the medicinal properties of whisky tend to be negated in direct proportion to the quantities drunk,’ said Ben. ‘The odd drop is fine, but a bottle a day isn’t.’

  Harry pulled a face. ‘Now that’s a bit harsh, old boy. I don’t think even I drink a whole bottle a day.’

  ‘However much you drink,’ continued Ben, ‘it’s too much. So you need to cut back. And it’s not just the booze. You need to watch what you eat too. Which means no more fry-ups. I know how much you like them.’

  Harry pulled another face.

  ‘Well you’re a barrel of laughs and no mistake,’ he said. ‘I won’t have any pleasures left in life at this rate.’

  ‘And cake,’ added Ben. ‘I know Edie and Ada keep you in supplies.’

  ‘Now you’re talking,’ said Harry. ‘At last I have a reason to refuse them. I can say it’s for my health. Ben, old boy, maybe there are some benefits to this healthy-lifestyle malarkey after all.’

  ‘Did you have any joy?’ Saffron was round at Linda’s again, having just spent a morning tying honeysuckles to trellises, and preparing a bed for Linda’s sweet peas. Amy had taken a much-needed supply-teaching job for the day. Saffron felt terrible about it, although Amy had firmly told her not to be so daft. But it was becoming a real worry. Their supply of work was drying up rapidly. Without Linda, Mrs Meadows and Mrs Taylor they were in danger of having no business at all.

  ‘Cup of tea, babe?’ Linda asked as Saffron took off her boots and gingerly stepped over to the sink to wash her hands. She always felt so filthy dirty in this pristine, gleaming Nigella kind of kitchen, but Linda never seemed to mind.

  ‘Sorry, doll, I didn’t get a lot,’ said Linda. ‘I went into the bar on Wednesday and she wasn’t there, but I did see her on Thursday. She wasn’t very chatty, but said she had got the job because she needed the money.’

  ‘I’m surprised about that,’ said Saffron. ‘Maddy’s barely worked since Gerry’s been with her. She spends all his income in nail bars and on beauty treatments.’

  ‘Now that is one thing I have found out,’ said Linda. ‘They’re not getting on at all well. She thinks he’s cheating on her.’

  ‘She’s right about that,’ said Saffron. ‘Gerry seems to have taken up with Caroline. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when Maddy finds that out.’

  ‘Amy, how nice to see you.’ Caroline accosted Amy in the high street, where she was killing a bit of time between school finishing and Josh’s football lesson starting by doing some shopping. She had a splitting headache from having taught a class of eight-year-olds that day. It was odd. She’d been working in schools for years before she started the gardening work, but now it seemed a hostile environment, dry and dusty; and she had yearned to be outside the whole day.

  ‘Hi Caroline, how are you?’ said Amy, wishing she were anywhere but here. Caroline was the last person she wanted to see.

  ‘And this must be little Josh,’ Caroline cooed, ‘I’ve heard so much about you.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Josh, not at all impressed. ‘Mummy, can I have a Spiderman comic, please?’

  ‘Not today, sweetheart, we’re in a bit of a rush,’ said Amy, though it wasn’t strictly true.

  ‘I’m just off to buy Ben’s dinner,’ said Caroline. ‘You know how he likes his curries. I thought I’d surprise him tonight.’

  ‘That’s nice,’ she said between gritted teeth.

  Caroline patted Amy on the arm. ‘You don’t mind me borrowing your boyfriend for a while, do you? Only I get so lonely without my Dave to keep me warm, and Ben and I go back such a long way.’

  ‘He’s not exactly my boyfriend,’ said Amy, aware that Josh was right beside her. She hadn’t yet plucked up the courage to talk to Josh about what was going on between her and Ben, mainly because she wasn’t quite sure herself. One day her heart told her to do one thing; the next her head told her quite the opposite.

  ‘Now, Amy.’ Caroline suddenly took a big sisterly tone. ‘You mustn’t let Ben do to you what he did to me. You must pin him down, and make sure he looks after you properly.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Amy’s voice didn’t sound right to her.

  ‘Oh, just that he never really knows what he wants. He was like that with me. One minute we were practically engaged, and the next he wasn’t interested. And then when I came back, there he was again, wanting to start all over. I know I shouldn’t have, but you know what he’s like. He’s pretty irresistible, isn’t he?’

  ‘Yes,’ whispered Amy in horror. ‘He is.’

  Ben came in from work on Friday feeling thoroughly gloomy. He dumped his briefcase on the kitchen table and gave Meg a cuddle. Today had not been a good day. One of his elderly patients had died, and another, an eighty-year-old man with Alzheimer’s, had just gone into a home to the distress of his older wife, who was riddled with arthritis and would find it difficult to get in to visit him. It had been Ben’s turn to do the baby clinic, which, despite his enjoyment of the babies, always ended up giving him a headache. He had an ongoing, underlying anxiety about Harry, and for some reason Amy had been avoiding his calls all week. He was exhausted and just wanted to crash out.

  ‘Ben, I’m so glad you’re home.’ Caroline swept in dramatically. ‘I’ve had such an awful day.’

  ‘Me too.’ Ben’s response was deliberately short and terse, but Caroline didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘I can’t get hold of Dave,’ she wailed. ‘Normally he rings me or emails me every day, but I haven’t heard from him at all this week. His mobile isn’t working, and there’s an answer-phone message at his flat. Suppose something’s happened to him?’

  Ben refrained from saying that, considering Caroline had spent the best part of the last fortnight playing tonsil tennis with Gerry, it seemed a bit rich to think she actually cared what happened to Dave. Instead, he said, ‘I expect he’ll turn up.’ He poured himself a can of lager, took off his tie and pointedly went into the lounge and collapsed on the sofa in front of the TV.

  Caroline followed him.

  ‘But what do you think I should do?’ she asked. ‘I’m really worried about him.’

  ‘Caroline,’ said Ben in exasperation. ‘If you care so much, what are you doing with Gerry?’

  ‘Gerry?’ Caroline looked blank for a moment. ‘Oh, I dumped Gerry. He was just a bit of fun.’ She pouted. ‘I was cheering myself up because you turned me down.’

  Ben groaned. ‘Caroline, don’t start.’ He switched off the television and made for the stairs. ‘I’m going to get changed and then I’m going out,’ he said.

  ‘Where to?’ Caroline demanded.

  ‘Anywhere but here,’ said Ben.

  Half an hour later, Ben was knocking on Amy’s door.

  ‘Ben, hi.’ Amy looked a bit flustered.

  ‘Do you mind if I come in?’ Ben asked.

  ‘Of course I don’t mind,’ said Amy, who didn’t appear all that pleased to see him.

  ‘You’ve been ignoring my calls,’ said Ben, as he sat down in the kitchen.

  ‘Sorry,’ said Amy. ‘I know it sounds feeble, but I have been busy.’

  ‘Too right it sounds feeble,’ said Ben. ‘So does that mean you were ignoring my calls, or that you really were too busy to answer them?’

  ‘A bit of both,’ said Amy. ‘I’m sorry, Ben, I just needed some time to get my head round things. Caroline told me you were practically engaged and –’

  ‘She said what?’ yelled Ben.

  Then, suddenly, there was a crash of some kind followed by muffled cursing. It was coming from the direction of the allotments.

  ‘What was that?’ Amy stood up and went to the kitchen window.

  ‘Shit, do you think Saffron’s intruder is back?’

  ‘Wait there,’ said Ben, opening the back door and grabbing a garden fork that was leaning against a wall.

  ‘Don’t be daft,’ said Amy. ‘There’s safety in numbers. I’m coming too.’

  A wild figure burst up th
e garden path. ‘Ben, help me!’ It was Caroline, looking unusually unkempt and sobbing hysterically. She threw her arms around Ben. ‘I think someone’s just been trying to break into your house. And I think they tried to follow me here. I’ve got a stalker!’

  ‘What?’ Ben replied. He let go of Caroline and advanced slowly towards the garden gate, holding his fork aloft. Amy and Caroline followed behind him.

  Amy’s garden gate was swinging in the light summer breeze. There was a rustling sound, followed by a cough. Ben pulled back the gate, ready to pounce on the intruder.

  A big burly bloke wearing a backpack stood by the garden gate.

  ‘Hello mate,’ he said in a distinctive Aussie accent. ‘I’m looking for Caroline. I thought she came in here.’

  Caroline looked at the man, in a state of shock. ‘Dave,’ she gasped. ‘What are you doing here?’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  ‘This is Dave,’ Caroline said rather unnecessarily.

  ‘Well, this is a bonza welcome,’ said Dave. ‘Do your friends normally wave garden forks at people?’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Ben, ‘case of mistaken identity. We were expecting an intruder, and thought you were them.’

  ‘I was just coming to find Caroline,’ said Dave. ‘And now it seems I have.’

  Caroline was looking shell-shocked. Amy almost felt sorry for her.

  ‘You came,’ Caroline whispered.

  ‘Well I told you I would,’ said Dave. ‘We need to sort things out, Caz, once and for all.’

  Ben coughed and looked at his feet.

  ‘Preferably without an audience,’ added Dave.

  ‘Right, yes, of course.’

  Ben coughed again, and held out his hand. ‘I’m Ben,’ he said. ‘Caroline’s staying with me.’

  Dave disdained the proffered hand. ‘Ah, the love rat,’ he said coolly. ‘Caroline’s told me all about you.’ He turned to look at Amy. ‘I’d watch this one if I were you.’