by Minna Howard
The lunch party had gone well, Giles and his latest lady friend were good at entertaining. Giles always liked a full house for Christmas, scooping up people who were on their own. Amelia came to mind, as he thought of all those animals she’d been landed with. He’d hated shutting the kennels down, understood what an important part it played in the old couple’s life, but it was better for them that he got them to agree to do it, before they were had up for animal cruelty. He knew that they didn’t mean to be cruel; things had just spiralled out of control. Later, when Dodi had time to think it over, he felt that, though it was a dreadful wrench for her, it was also a relief. The two of them had quietly left the district to go and live with her recently widowed sister.
Amelia seemed to be coping with the varied pets she was looking after, and surely everyone would soon be back to relieve her of them? It made him smile as he recalled her concern for the tortoises.
As he drove through the pitch-dark road, lit only by his headlights or a hint of light peeping through the drawn curtains of an occasional house, he wondered how long she’d been a widow. She was an attractive woman and probably had a boyfriend, lover, whatever. David seemed quite taken with her, he’d watched them both at lunch. He was a good friend and recently broken up with his girlfriend, Lucile. Now he was back in the field as it were, perhaps he and Amelia, if she didn’t have anyone else, would get together. They seemed to be getting on well at lunch.
He’d reached the farm, and his headlights picked out the name, Strawberry Farm, by the drive. He slowed down and turned in. All thoughts of his friends were taken over by the fight ahead to save the cow and her calf.
11
Ziggy came scampering to the door as Amelia opened it when she returned from the lunch party. His claws clattered on the wooden floor as he danced round in relief at her return. He nudged her leg with his nose in welcome and she bent down to stroke him. It was not until she saw one of her shoes chewed to bits that she realised he was sucking up to her, knowing he had done wrong.
‘Oh, Ziggy, that’s so naughty.’ She picked up the shoe; it was damp and covered in tooth marks, she couldn’t wear it now. Ziggy went back to his basket, sighed and put his head on his paws closing his eyes as if he had no idea what she was on about.
It was a good thing it wasn’t one of her best shoes. In fact, she’d often told herself she should throw these ones away, though they were so comfortable, and she only wore them in the house.
Osbert appeared from upstairs, regarding her with disdain, and though it was now dark she let him out into the garden, switching on the lights outside. She watched him wander over to the bird table as if hoping he might catch some late night, birds feeding there.
The telephone rang and it was Tania, her sister.
‘Oh, first time I’ve sat down today, well, apart from lunch, and that was jumping up and down, fetching things. Did you have a good day, Amelia? I thought of you all alone, and wished you’d come here, though it’s a fearful squash, and I could cheerfully strangle my mother-in-law. How did you get on without the girls?’ She sounded exhausted and Amelia braced herself for a litany of complaints, feeling sorry for her, especially having her impossible mother-in-law staying, a woman who criticised everything and never lifted a finger even though she was hale and hearty. Garth, her brother-in-law, seemed quite incapable of keeping in mother in line.
‘I went to a lunch party, just got back.’
‘Oh, was that fun? Who asked you?’ Tania’s interest was raised.
‘Actually, a small boy asked me. His father is the local vet.’
‘Vet? How do you know a vet, you don’t have any animals?’ Tania always like to know everything.
‘Not of my own, but I’m sitting for various pets as the local kennels suddenly closed down.’ She went on to explain the story to her fascinated sister; who was happy to forget her own troubles for a time.
When she finally rang off, she left Amelia missing her, though relieved she had not gone there for Christmas. She would go and see her in the spring, or better still ask her here, on her own, when she could get time off from work, to see her house now it was finished.
She was sleepy and overstuffed herself, after the delicious lunch, and she would not need any more to eat, but before she allowed herself to slump down on the sofa in front of the television, she went outside to the garage to check on the mice and tortoises. All was well there; the second tortoise was now also fast asleep, and she felt a prickle of shame for bothering Jules, when she’d thought the other one was dead. Did he and Cynthia laugh about her ignorance when they were alone? She scolded herself for stressing about such a thing. It was quite funny, and it had made Dickon laugh, though not in a mocking way, like she felt Cynthia would do.
There was something about Dickon that touched her heart, more than just sympathy for losing his mother so young. She wondered what the relationship was between Jules and Cynthia. Were they a couple? It was hard to tell with so many people there. Having a young, motherless son would make Jules’s choice more difficult. He and his son were obviously very close. What she’d seen of her so far, made her think that Cynthia, as a stepmother, would not bode well for the boy.
The last guest to check before she settled down on the sofa, was Cleo. Amelia went into the dining room and when she saw her, Cleo squawked and began running up and down in her cage which Amelia knew from the copious notes, Jamie and Wilfred had left her, meant she wanted to come out. She’d already had a fly around this morning, but she’d let her have another one now before she settled down herself.
‘As a Christmas treat, you can come out,’ she told her, making sure the doors were closed before she opened her cage and stood back. Cleo peered out of the open door before flying up to perch on the top of the curtains, watching her carefully.
‘I’ll leave you alone and I’ll come back soon.’ Amelia thought she’d look up what was on television and get a glass of water ready to settle down on the sofa for the evening. She opened the door of the room carefully, but Cleo suddenly flew down and out of the door before she could close it behind her.
Amelia chased after her as Ziggy saw her and began to madly bark, running up the stairs after her as Cleo flew into the hall and up the stairs to the floor above.
Osbert, having just come in from the garden, caught sight of what was going on and sprang up the stairs meowing, also intent on catching her.
Frantically calling them both to leave Cleo alone, Amelia tore up the stairs herself, trying not to trip over either dog or cat. She manged to pick up Osbert, who yowled at her and scratched her neck, drawing blood. Amelia screeched and dropped him, and he ran on up the stairs after Cleo.
Ziggy was on the landing barking in a frenzy. Cleo was now sitting on top of a cupboard growling at them all.
Amelia managed to grab Ziggy and shut him in the bathroom. Osbert was prowling round the landing and he suddenly sprung up onto the bookcase almost in jumping distance of Cleo who then left her perch and flew downstairs again, Osbert now in hot pursuit.
Amelia called out to him to stop, but he ignored her. She dashed down the stairs almost tripping herself up, just grabbing the banister in time. Cleo flew back into the room and into her cage, and Amelia, dashing to the door, managed to shut it, leaving Cleo safely inside the room, seconds ahead of Osbert who was hellbent on catching her. He turned away from Amelia in disgust, going back outside into the dark, cold garden.
Amelia shut him out there while she went back to Cleo who was now out of her cage again perched on the back of a chair. She could hear Ziggy howling and scratching at the bathroom door.
‘Oh, Cleo,’ she said, ‘why ever did you fly out of the room like that? You’ve never done that before. What could I have said to your masters if you’d been got by either Ziggy or Osbert?’
Watching her, Cleo did a poo right in the middle of the carpet and then as if bored by her adventure went back into her cage and began to eat her food.
Amelia shut the cage
before cleaning up her mess and, exhausted, went back to the living room to collapse on the sofa. Ziggy was barking frantically upstairs so before she flopped down, she went upstairs to let him out of the bathroom before going down again to the garden to fetch Osbert, but there was no sign of him. Afraid to leave him out all night as he was a stranger to the district, she called and called, rattling his tin of treats which he was rarely allowed in case he got fat. This brought him back, and she got him inside before letting him have one, even though she felt he didn’t deserve it for scratching her. Her arm was beginning to hurt, so she washed and covered it with disinfectant cream, before collapsing on the sofa, completely exhausted.
12
Jamie and Wilfred had rung her – woken her up in fact as she dozed on the sofa – on Christmas night to ‘speak’ to Cleo.
‘How did she like her present?’ Wilfred asked her.
Oh, no, she’d forgotten to give it to her. She’d no idea what it was, and it was impossible to guess what was hidden under the glitzy paper. It was a relief that Cleo couldn’t talk and moan to her owners that they’d obviously forgotten her and hadn’t brought her anything.
‘She was a bit surprised about it, but she loves it now,’ she lied, ‘but here she is, I’m sure she’s impatient to talk to you.’ She ran into the dining room and put the phone on top of her cage so Cleo could hear her owner’s voices.
‘Are you all right, my little darling?’ she heard Wilfred say in a baby voice as she left the room, leaving Cleo standing on one leg in her cage, looking bemused hearing her master’s voice but not seeing him. A few minutes later Amelia went back into the room and picked up the phone.
‘Everything is fine,’ she said, determined not to tell them about Cleo’s bid for freedom which could so easily have ended in either Ziggy or Osbert’s jaws.
‘We do miss her. I hope she is being good,’ Jamie said.
‘Yes, she’s fine.’ Amelia felt sick remembering Ziggy and Osbert chasing her up the stairs. ‘Are you both having a great time?’
‘Lovely, so bright and sunny. We’ll be back on the second, can’t wait to see her again. Are you sure she’s not pining?’ Jamie sounded anxious.
‘I don’t think she is.’ Amelia had only skimmed through the list of a parrot’s behavioural traits they had left behind for her to study, though she remembered something about parrots fanning their tails, hissing or being off their food if they were distressed, which Cleo hadn’t done – yet anyway.
When they’d rung off, she gave Cleo her glamourous present, wrapped in gold and red paper. Cleo regarded it a moment, her head on one side, before she began to peck at the paper, tearing it off to reveal a box, which Amelia opened for her. It contained a mirror with a small, silver bell attached.
Cleo, not sure that she wanted to share her cage with this ‘other’ parrot, squawked at it but Amelia left it with her to get used to, rather regretting it later when Cleo took to ringing the bell incessantly, like an impatient duchess demanding instant attention.
Stacy rang to ask about Ziggy, though in fact she was far more excited about her newborn grandson.
‘He’s called Kenton and so small, amazing how quickly you forget, even after having your own children,’ she crooned. ‘The thing is…’ She paused before rushing on. ‘They’ve asked if we can stay on another week and as they live so far away, and we can’t just pop in and with work and everything… well… we’d like to stay on, but not if it’s difficult keeping Ziggy a bit longer. Only I don’t know anyone else could take him at such short notice. It’s such a bore that the kennels closed down.’
‘That will be fine, Stacy. Sophie is back tomorrow and the others who left their pets with me will be back the day after New Year.’ Amelia knew what a special time it was for Stacy being with her first grandchild and besides she’d gotten quite fond of Ziggy and enjoyed taking him out for walks. The weather being quite sharp and damp, she’d probably have stayed inside if he hadn’t been here. He enjoyed barking a greeting to other dogs and chasing any bird who had the audacity to alight near him.
‘Others? How many other animals have you got landed on you?’ Stacy was horrified. Being so fixated on her grandchild, she’d not realised that the news that Amelia was staying at home this year, and had offered to take in Ziggy, had spun round the neighbourhood like wildfire.
‘We started off with Bryony’s mice, supposedly both sisters, only they were male and female, and have multiplied. Jamie and Wilfried’s parrot, Gloria’s cat and Micky’s tortoises.’ She laughed.
‘Goodness, if I’d known you’d be lumbered with so many I wouldn’t have accepted your offer to have him. Though I don’t know what I’d have done with him. Hoped to find somewhere near Neil, I suppose, or kept him in the car, or probably not been able to go at all.’ Stacy sounded contrite.
‘No, it’s fine, really. Their owners are all back just after the 1st.’
‘Well, I do hope they are. It’s a lot to ask of you, especially as the girls are not there to help out. It’s all that new vet’s fault for turning up out of the blue and closing down the kennels just before Christmas,’ Stacy grumbled. ‘We’ve all used that place for years, I’m sure it would have been fine this time.’
‘I never knew the place existed until people brought their pets to me, so I don’t know the truth of it,’ Amelia said when Stacy paused for breath, determined not to be drawn into any blame game dumped onto Jules, though, she reminded herself, she barely knew him.
Amelia was relieved when Stacy rang off. She’d said nothing to support Jules’s decision.
It was understandable that local people who’d known the kennels and the couple who ran it for years, might resent this stranger who’d recently arrived and closed it down. It would be best not to get involved in the local politics, apart from having taken in some of the animals herself.
13
Amelia picked Sophie up from the train that evening. She was tired and grumpy after a difficult journey in a slow, cold train.
Her pleasure at seeing her daughter slightly waned when she saw her coming out of the station; her expression, briefly caught in the lights, was one of despair.
‘Ohhhh, I’m so glad to be home. Really, Dom’s family are such a pain,’ Sophie greeted her as she got into the car and leant over to kiss her. ‘His father doesn’t lift a finger to help, spending most of his time fiddling with his ancient cars. His mother slaves away in the kitchen making us all feel guilty for not helping. Then when we do try and help, she fusses and criticises the way we do it. And, as I told you, I spent much of my time trying to avoid Vince, Dom’s sister’s boyfriend. I never want to go and stay there again.’
‘It can be difficult to fit in with other families, and at such a fraught time as Christmas,’ Amelia said, sympathetically, suspecting that Sophie had been letting her grievances build up during her travels. She started the car and set off for home.
Amelia thought it best not to ask if her engagement with Dom was over. She was wearing gloves, so she couldn’t see if Sophie was still wearing her engagement ring. If she did marry him, she would have to put up with his family, though perhaps if they stayed in Cornwall and she and Dom lived in London, she might not see much of them. But marriage, as she’d discovered when she married Esmond, was not just the love of two people who, left alone, might have a fair chance of living happily ever after together. Instead it meant having to put up with difficult members of their respective families, weaving upset and angst into their relationship.
Esmond had been briefly married before, egged on by the girl’s parents who saw him as a good catch and a way to pass on their beautiful but spoilt daughter to someone else’s care. It didn’t last long, though her parents lurked in the background for some time, perhaps hoping they would get together again, preferring Esmond as a son-in-law to the men their daughter replaced him with. This rather put him off marrying again, until he met Amelia, and found her parents were far too happily occupied with their own lives to try
and muscle in on their daughter’s love life.
She’d been lucky with Esmond’s parents, who lived in Italy and were quite a bit older than her friends’ in-laws. Whenever they’d all met up, they had been charming and easy going, but now they, with her beloved husband, were dead.
‘So, when is Dom back from skiing?’ Amelia asked her as they drove home. She guessed this skiing event had caused another upset in their relationship. Dom’s uncle had taken a chalet at some ski resort, and invited his brother, sister-in-law and both their children to join them. There was no room for any boy or girl friends, or even, if like Sophie, a fiancée. They would be gone a week so Sophie had come home, though from the sound of it, she was relieved to be here, and she now admitted that it would have killed her if she’d had to squash into a cramped chalet with Dom’s family.
As they opened the front door Ziggy came running to meet them. Sophie bent down to stroke him. ‘Hello, aren’t you sweet?’ He skittered away, barking, turning back to see if she was following him, and for a moment, Sophie forget her troubles and was a child again, laughing as they played together.
*
‘So, these animals that have been forced upon you, when are they going home?’ Sophie dropped down on the sofa having now met Osbert, who regally ignored her, and Cleo who’d squawked at her, the mice and their babies and the sleeping tortoises. Ziggy, now exhausted, sat curled up beside her on the sofa, his head on her thigh.
‘Ziggy’s going last as Stacy is staying another week with her new grandson. The others the day after New Year’s Day, I think,’ Amelia told her.
‘It’s a bit much, Mum, expecting you to look after so many pets,’ Sophie said. ‘But it’s that new vet’s fault, isn’t it? I hear he barged into the kennels and shut the whole place down without giving them a chance to protest or make other arrangements.’
‘I don’t know much about it,’ Amelia said vaguely. ‘I just heard that the elderly couple who used to run it couldn’t cope anymore.’