‘It’s definitely going to be a good year,’ Rory said into my hair as my dad and Harry joined us. Our friends and family surrounded us as we all waited for the countdown. I smiled back at him. I couldn’t believe what a crazy time it had been since he first kissed me.
Thank goodness life didn’t turn out the way you planned.
‘Okay, everyone,’ Beth called for quiet then. ‘I just want to say thank you for coming to spend Hogmanay with us here at Glendale Hall. I hope that the New Year will be wonderful for each and every one of you. Right, here we go. Ten…’
We all joined in then with her counting down to the stroke of midnight. I leaned closer to Rory and Harry stood between us, Rory’s hands on his shoulders, my dad beside him, all of us shouting louder as we got closer to midnight. I hoped my mum could see us now. And that she knew what a big difference she had made in my life, and would always make even though she was no longer here.
‘Three, two, one!’ We all chorused in unison, and then we watched as the sky above us exploded into a volley of colour, light and sound.
Chapter Forty-One
After the fireworks were over and the village dispersed, we congregated in the kitchen of the Hall for Sally’s famous hot chocolate and a selection of cakes made by Emily. The warm and cosy atmosphere was just what we needed after standing out in the brisk night air. Harry and Iona both fell asleep in their pushchairs as we sat around the table, each of us telling the group our resolutions for the year ahead.
‘I think we all know what Rory and Heather’s resolution is,’ Emily said with a smile.
‘And to take over Hilltop,’ I added, holding up my crossed fingers.
‘I want to read every single Agatha Christie novel,’ Izzy said.
‘I’m moving onto Fraser Farm,’ my dad said, holding up his mug of hot chocolate in our direction. ‘That’ll be a huge change.’
‘I think we need a dog on the farm,’ I said, turning to Rory. ‘Especially if we might have sheep again.’
Rory opened his mouth to respond but then his phone vibrated on the table where he’d left it. ‘It’s Angus,’ he said before answering with a frown because Angus would never call just for a chat. I immediately felt on edge, worried that something was wrong at the farm. ‘What’s up?’ he asked, urgently, as Angus spoke into his ear. ‘Oh my God, have you called 999?’ Rory jumped up. We looked at one another, worried. I got up too, automatically. ‘We’ll be there as soon as we can. Priority is the animals, okay?’ He hung up and met my eyes. ‘There’s a fire at the farm.’
‘Oh my God,’ I said, pulling on my coat quickly.
‘Angus has called the fire department but who knows how quickly they can get to us. We need to get back as soon as we can.’
‘How can we help?’ Beth asked, hurrying to grab her coat, handing Drew who had joined her his. Emily and Brodie followed us too.
‘I’ll stay here with the kids,’ Dad said, quickly. I gave him and Harry a quick kiss and followed Rory out, leaving Caroline, Sally and my dad looking after the children. We piled into two cars and roared away from the Hall towards the farm.
‘Did he say what happened?’ I asked Rory as he drove as fast as he dared home.
‘Just that the barn was smoking. He’s moving the horses, we need to start extinguishing it if we can before the firefighters get here.’
‘I’ll call Greg for advice,’ Emily said from the back. Her ex-boyfriend Greg was a fireman in Inverness.
I glanced behind me and gave her a grateful nod. I saw Brodie mouthing something and I turned back, realising he was uttering a silent prayer. I’d take all the help we would get right now.
‘No answer,’ Emily said with a sigh. ‘He might be working tonight.’
I hoped he was a good firefighter if that was the case.
As we approached the farm, I could see a thin wisp of smoke coming from the barn. Angus was leading Duke and Prince to the paddock, ushering them in as we drove into the yard, Drew’s car right behind us. I looked out of the window and saw there was someone else with Angus. I jumped out of the car and Emily and Brodie climbed out too. And then I paused. I looked back and Rory was still in the car, hands gripping the steering wheel.
‘Give us a sec,’ I said to the others who went to greet the other car, and I opened the driver’s door. ‘Rory, what are you doing?’
His face had become deathly white. ‘We’ll lose it all,’ he said as he looked out of the window.
‘We won’t,’ I said firmly, shocked that he was the one gripped by panic right now, and not me. I leaned in closer and touched his shoulder. ‘Listen to me, there are no flames yet, only some smoke. Look. That gives us a chance. But the longer we sit here, the more time we lose. We need to get out and save our home right now,’ I said urgently. I touched his face and turned it to me. ‘Everything is going to be okay, I promise.’ Then I raised my voice. ‘Now get your bum out of the car, and let’s stop this before it’s too late.’
He blinked then nodded. ‘Okay.’
‘Okay.’ I clicked his seatbelt open and then held out my hand. He hesitated for a second before gripping it and getting out of the car. I breathed a sigh of relief that he was moving. ‘Let’s talk to Angus, find out what we can do,’ I said, taking his hand and pulling him with me. I could feel the fear radiating off him that he might lose his farm, and I was determined to not let that happen without a fight.
‘Angus!’ I cried as we approached, the others joining us. ‘What happened?’
‘I found him trying to take the quad bike again,’ Angus said, through gritted teeth. I looked and saw it was Luke with him. ‘It’s okay boy,’ he soothed Prince. ‘He had lit a match to see in the barn, dropped it when it burnt down into some hay. It hasn’t caught alight yet but the hay is smouldering.’
‘I didn’t mean…’ Luke began, his face ashen.
‘We’ll talk later,’ I cut him off. ‘Right, Rory and Drew we need to see if we can get the smoke under control. Maybe we can move the bales away from the ones smoking, so they don’t all catch alight, and then try the fire extinguishers on it? Anything to stop flames starting and the whole barn going up,’ I said. Thankfully, Rory nodded, relieved he had been given directions, and they hurried off for the barn.
A fire the barn would do devastating damage. All I could hope was because it was winter and cold that the hay hadn’t been as warm as it could get, so we might be able to stop it all from burning.
‘What can we do?’ Beth asked, from behind, bringing me back to the moment. I thought about what else we could do to prevent this turning into an utter disaster.
‘Okay, while they try to tackle it, we need to move anything out of the way in case it doesn’t work,’ I said, after a moment. I couldn’t let panic set in. We had to keep as calm as possible. ‘Brodie and Emily, can you do a perimeter check of the barn and move anything that could catch alight, Beth – can you help me move as many animals as possible into the paddock?’
As Drew and Rory tried to stop the smoking hay in the barn, I took Beth into the barn next door where the chickens and pigs were. They could sense the tense atmosphere and were awake already, making a lot of noise. ‘Grab that bucket of feed, and use it to lead the pigs out,’ I said to Beth, flinging open the gate to the pig pen. I ran to the chicken coop and opened it up, and they headed straight for their outside pen. It was on the other side to the smoking barn so I would leave them there for now. If the barn did catch alight, I’d have to move them too.
As Beth tried to coax the pigs to follow her, I ran out and over to the goats where I opened the gate and basically chased them out of the barn towards Angus who had led the horses safely into the paddock, and then came out to help Beth round up the pigs. Thankfully, the cows were back up on the hill as the snow had cleared so they were out of danger. I glanced at the farmhouse though, panicked the fire could destroy our home if the barn did start burning.
‘Stray pig!’ Beth suddenly cried. One of the pigs was heading back t
owards the barn. I ran after it and clapped my hands so it turned and then I practically pushed it after the others.
‘I’ll get the hose and help Rory,’ Angus said as he locked the paddock, which was now full of animals.
‘Everything is clear,’ Emily said when she and Brodie joined us.
‘Thank you,’ I said gratefully. ‘Can you please stay here and try to keep the animals calm, and I’ll see what’s happening in the barn?’ I glanced at Luke sat on the grass, his knees up, head buried on his elbows. When Rory had rung his parents after we found him trying to steal the quad bike on Stewart’s dad’s orders, they hadn’t been all that bothered. I wondered at his home life that he was here on Hogmanay and not celebrating with his family. Their neglect, if that’s what it was, could cause us to lose our livelihood and home. I took off back to the barn, parking those thoughts until after we saved it, and got there at the same time as Angus who started hosing around the edge of the barn and walls to keep it all cool.
‘How’s it looking?’ I had to shout to Rory over the noise of the water and the extinguishers, which were almost all out. He and Drew put them down and we watched the bales of hay. The smoking hadn’t ignited into flames yet, which was a good sign but I could still feel the heat radiating off them. They had managed to move some of the surrounding bales but I knew if a fire got out of control, we would lose them all.
Angus came in, washing the floor with cooling water. ‘It looks under control.’
‘Look at that bale!’ I cried, pointing to one of the ones they had moved. It was starting to smoulder. Angus immediately turned the hose on it.
‘I think this one is dying out,’ Rory said, reaching out to touch the one that Luke had ignited. ‘It’s cooler than it was. At least we learned from that hay bale fire that summer when we were kids, do you remember?’ he asked Drew.
‘The whole barn went up,’ Drew explained to my questioning raised eyebrow. ‘We had no extinguishers in here, and we stored double the amount back then too. We ended up losing all the hay, and the barn roof was badly damaged. It cost a lot of money to sort it out and Dad needed a bank loan to buy enough hay for feed for the next year.’ No wonder Rory had freaked out. He didn’t want history repeating itself, or something even worse to happen this time. I glanced at him; he was focused on the task but was still pale. ‘What was that boy even doing here?’ Drew asked then.
‘Trying to have a ride on our quad bike,’ I said. I turned around. ‘Is that…?’ My chest sagged with relief as we heard the unmistakable signs of sirens approaching.
Chapter Forty-Two
Greg indeed jumped off the fire engine with his colleagues and approached us standing outside the barn. ‘What happened?’ he asked me. He had been to the farm a couple of times when we’d had the whole group together. I told him what had happened and what we had done to try and stop the fire, then he followed the others inside with hoses.
I wrapped an arm around Rory’s waist. He was watching the barn silently. ‘It’s going to be okay,’ I repeated to him. There were no flames. Even though we would lose two bales of hay, things could have been so much worse.
‘We’ve done all we can,’ Angus agreed with a decisive nod. I felt better. No one could argue with Angus.
‘Let’s check on the animals,’ I suggested. ‘They need us.’ I didn’t think just staring at the barn was doing any of us any good.
‘Come on,’ Beth agreed, putting her arm through Drew’s. We all wandered over to the paddock. The horses had moved well back and seemed to be okay. The pigs were happily eating, as were the goats. They looked remarkably unfazed by the whole thing. I supposed with food and water and at a calm distance, they had all they needed. Angus went in to see the horses and Beth and Drew carried some more hay in to the paddock.
Luke was still there, evidently too terrified of Angus to move, his face red and tear-stained as he sat with his knees up to his chest. ‘Is it destroyed?’ He asked, fearfully, looking up when I went to stand over him. ‘Did I…?’
I crouched down so we were face-to-face. ‘Why did you do it, Luke?’ I needed to know. I thought we had treated him leniently after catching him trying to steal it last time, why had he come back?
‘I was bored. There’s nothing to do. My mum tells me to stay out of our flat as I get under her feet. And I like seeing the animals here. And I thought it would be fun to try riding the quad bike. I wasn’t gonna take it this time, I swear. Just drive it around for a bit.’
‘Quad bikes can be really dangerous. And you broke in. You do get that what you did was wrong, don’t you, Luke?’ He nodded miserably.
‘Heather,’ Emily said, from behind me then. I looked to where she was pointing and saw Greg walking over to us. I stood up hurriedly and went to meet him with Rory by my side, my heart in my throat.
‘How bad?’ Rory asked without pre-amble. I knew he didn’t mean to be sharp with Greg, he was just braced for bad news. I wasn’t sure how we seemed to have swapped roles with him being the pessimistic one, but we had tonight.
‘No sign of any more smoke,’ Greg said, equally briskly. ‘We’ve taken the two damaged bales out of the barn just in case though. There is some smoke damage in there but structurally, it’s sound. But you, young man,’ he said, turning to Luke, ‘you cannot light matches in areas like that. The whole barn could have gone up and spread to the farmhouse. This could have been extremely serious, do you understand?’
Luke was crying again. ‘Yes… yes, sir,’ he stammered, unable to meet any of our eyes.
‘Thank you, Greg, so much,’ I said, reaching for him and giving the surprised man a swift hug.
Rory shook his hand energetically afterwards, some colour returning to his cheeks. ‘We cannot thank you enough.’
‘You did good work before we got here,’ Greg said, waving our praise aside. ‘It was good to see you all albeit under these circumstances. We’ll head back. We’re bound to get more call outs tonight with fireworks and bonfires.’ He nodded at Emily and Brodie. ‘Happy Hogmanay all.’
In the drama, the fact that it was now the first day of the New Year had escaped me. What a dramatic start! I hoped the rest of the year would be more peaceful. As the fire engine left, Beth and Emily went inside to make us all coffee and ring to check on everyone back at the Hall, Drew helped Angus take the animals back into their shelter, and Rory and I spoke to Luke.
‘I think you’ll agree you did some serious damage tonight,’ Rory said after asking Luke to stand up to speak to us. I couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for the kid, he looked so shattered, and was clearly having a tough time at home. ‘Damage that needs to be paid for.’ Luke opened his mouth but Rory held up a hand to silence him. ‘You’ll work here to pay us back for tonight. For one hour every day after school and on Saturdays. Once it’s been paid off, you can stay on for money but only if you work hard and keep out of trouble.’ Luke looked at me, taken aback. I was so proud of Rory. I gave Luke a reassuring nod. ‘Is that something you can do?’
‘Yes! Yes, sir,’ he replied, quickly. ‘Can I help with the animals?’
‘Only if you do a good job. Most of the work will be menial and it’ll be hard, and you have to do it in all weathers but if you prove to us that you can do it then you can help with the animals. Now, Drew has offered to drop you home when they go back to the Hall. As school doesn’t start up until Wednesday, I want you here all day on Monday, okay?’
‘I’ll be here,’ he promised. ‘I’ll see if Angus needs help now.’ He turned to go then paused and glanced at us shyly. ‘Thank you,’ he added before running off.
I wrapped an arm around Rory’s waist. ‘You big softie,’ I said as we watched him head into the stables to find Angus.
‘I think he’s a good kid but he needs guidance. To be honest if I hadn’t had the farm, I might have gone off the rails when I was younger. I wasn’t like you and Drew, all studious and focused, I needed a firm hand sometimes from my dad. I don’t think Luke has anyone at ho
me to help him so we might as well try, right?’
‘I think you’re doing a wonderful thing.’ I gave him a quick kiss. ‘Are you okay? You worried me back there,’ I asked then, gently.
‘Yeah, I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I think I panicked, thinking the whole thing was going to burn. Sometimes it feels like a huge responsibility owning all this, isn’t it? Like I want my parents to think I’m doing a good job, and I want to secure it for the future for Harry and his children too. I’m so glad you were here. You took control and got everyone doing what they needed to.’ He pulled me closer. ‘You just swept into action. If I had hesitated for longer… what I’m saying is thank you, you saved us.’
It was certainly a change to hear Rory thanking me and not me thanking him. I smiled. ‘You don’t need to thank me. We were a team back there. All of us saved it.’ I couldn’t help but feel proud of myself though. I felt like a few months ago I would have been panicked too, certain that I couldn’t have helped, but tonight I knew I was capable, and that had made me capable somehow. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy or something. I also was no longer unsure about being here on the farm. I felt as passionate about it as Rory now, and equally determined to protect it as far as I could.
I decided then to take a photo of the burned hay bales. Earlier, I had shown off my ring to my Instagram followers. This would be a very different post. But I was determined to keep being honest on there. This was my life. Warts and all.
It was scary how often we had come close to losing everything this Christmas, but we had pulled through, and I believed that whatever the future held, we would be okay.
‘Let’s find the others,’ Rory said then. ‘See if Harry is all right.’
‘He’ll have slept through it all I bet,’ I said as we walked towards the farmhouse. I was so pleased he was safe and sound, and that he’d have his home intact to come back to. ‘We won’t forget how this year started, that’s for sure.’
Hopeful Hearts at Glendale Hall Page 26