by Minna Howard
‘I know.’ Vero squeezed her arm in sympathy. ‘But you were exceptionally lucky as indeed I am, though Ben and I didn’t meet as young as you were.’
‘I have a feeling that Sophie is rather envious of Grania bumming round India, fancy free. Dom has just started in a good firm, working his way up, which is commendable but perhaps he… they… both need a little fun, experience with new places before they settle down,’ Amelia confided.
‘Can’t he take time off so they can travel together?’ Vero asked.
‘Don’t know.’ She sighed. ‘Anyway, relationships are complicated. We’ll have to see what happens.’
‘From what she said, I have a feeling Sophie wants to stay here a while and get around Jules and reopen the kennels. She has a friend, a nephew or something of the old couple who was going to work there,’ Vero said, watching her for her reaction. ‘So, batten down the hatches, love, while your daughter goes to war.’
19
The two women sat over a cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee while Ziggy ran around the garden barking at anything that took his fancy. Osbert had disappeared on one of his adventures. Vero had seen the mice in their two cages, the tiny pink babies squeaking around their mother, the father looking rather bored in the smaller cage Jules had lent her.
‘I’m hoping the rest of them will come back today or tomorrow and collect them,’ Amelia said. ‘I know we have Ziggy for another week, but I’ve become quite fond of him.’
‘Perhaps you should get a dog of your own,’ Vero said. ‘You had one when I first met you.’
‘I know, though then I was about to be a stay-at-home mum,’ Amelia said. ‘What would I do with one now, when I go away? I enjoy going on some of those sightseeing trips, you remember I went on one to Italy last year, with Penny Russell, who is also on her own now. The people who go on them are an interesting bunch, all ages, and a lot of them are, for whatever reason, single like me. I’d love to go on another one,’ Amelia said, having thought she might book something to look forward to in the spring.
‘Well, if Sophie gets her way the kennels will be up and running again,’ Vero said. ‘If her friend takes it over and cleans it up there’s no reason, except perhaps Jules objecting, why it shouldn’t continue.’
Amelia laughed. ‘Let’s see what happens. Jules may well move on, to this job in Hampshire, and I expect Sophie will go back to London to Dom before long, after she’s had a bit of a break here.’
The shrill ring of the doorbell made them jump.
‘There’s your boys, Cleo’s parents,’ Vero laughed. ‘Hurry before they knock the door down.’
Amelia opened the door to the two men, who stood, suntanned and smiling, on the doorstep. Wilfred thrust a bottle of wine and some chocolates at her.
‘We’re so excited to see her, has she missed us?’ Jamie was halfway down the passage to the door of her room.
‘She’s been fine,’ Amelia said, relieved Cleo couldn’t talk and tell them about being chased upstairs by Ziggy and Osbert.
The two men opened the door to Cleo’s room and called to her. She squawked and then ignored them.
‘You’re cross we left you, but we’re back, my darling,’ Wilfred said, following Jamie into the room.
Vero rolled her eyes at Amelia and the two of them went back into the kitchen leaving the men to earn back Cleo’s love after abandoning her.
‘Oh, Vero, lovely to see you.’ Jamie came into the kitchen a few minutes later. ‘We can’t thank you enough for having her, Amelia. We thought we might have to cancel our trip, which would have been tragic as you know as it’s our only quiet time of the year in the garden centre. The only time we can go away. It was such a shock, the kennels being shut down so suddenly, though we’re glad they were, aren’t we?’ He turned to Wilfred who came in with Cleo on his shoulder, nibbling at his ear.
‘Yes, very relieved. We’d no idea the old couple were struggling so. Cleo, as we told you, Amelia, so likes her routine and she would have hated it,’ Wilfred said.
Amelia did not say that she hadn’t kept exactly to the routine and Cleo hadn’t seemed to have minded. She’d been fed and cleaned but not at the same moment of the day as her owners seemed to manage, though it was easy for them, as they all lived together beside the gardening centre and Cleo, who was the centre of their life, had only been part of hers.
Sophie came into the room and having met the two men when they introduced their builder to them, fired off her usual grumbles about Jules.
‘Really, it’s a blessing that he did close it,’ Wilfred said. ‘I can’t bear to think of what would have happened to Cleo if she’d been left there.’ His eyes glistened with unshed tears.
The doorbell went again, and Amelia went to answer it, hoping it was someone else coming to collect their animals. It was Bryony and her father, Daniel.
‘Oh, quite a crowd. Happy New Year to you all!’ Daniel greeted them seeing Wilfred and Jamie coming into the hall, with Vero following still in conversation with Wilfred.
‘Sorry, Amelia, we didn’t ring first, but we are just passing you on our way home and we thought we’d pick up the mice on the way.’
‘Great, come in,’ Amelia said.
‘Hope they’ve been good.’ Bryony was impatient. ‘Can’t wait to see them.’ She jiggered about with excitement.
‘Well you’ll find a surprise, it certainly was one for me.’ Amelia wondered how they’d take the news. ‘Your mice were not two girls after all, but one of each and there is a litter of babies.’
‘Babies!’ Daniel was horrified. ‘But the pet shop assured us that wouldn’t happen.’
‘Well, I’m afraid it has,’ Vero said, laughing. ‘Amelia had a dreadful shock when she saw all those squirming pink things in the nest.’
‘Babies, how many?’ Bryony said excitedly. She ran back outside to the waiting car to tell her mother and brother, leaving the front door open and the cold air coming in.
‘I haven’t counted, I thought it best to leave them alone. I was told by the vet to take away the male or he might eat them,’ Amelia added quietly to Daniel as they now crossed the drive to go to the shed. Bryony and George, her much younger brother, ran ahead, the little boy not really knowing what the excitement was about. Vero and Sophie were staying in the warmth, Vero determined to pin down Wilfred to join her committee to reopen the art centre.
‘You needed the vet?’ Daniel asked in dismay, as the crossed the garden, obviously wondering how much it had cost to call him out.
‘No, not for them. I was worried about the tortoises.’ She confessed again about not knowing that they hibernated. ‘He’s new, staying with his uncle, Giles Fraser. Wilfred left me his number in case Cleo needed him.
‘He was in the district, so he came to check on them. I happened to see him filling up at the garage and I told him about them. He said we must remove the male and as he was nearby, he offered to come and do it for me. I think he felt a bit guilty that I had to look after so many animals because it was him who had closed the kennels down.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry if you’ve been burdened with them, we were told by someone that you were taking pets in,’ Daniel said.
‘It was fine. Jules lent you a cage to put the male one in, to keep the babies safe.’
‘I see,’ Daniel sighed, obviously wishing she had left things to nature and the male mouse had dispatched his offspring.
‘Perhaps you could sell them to the pet shop, especially as it was them who gave you the wrong advice,’ she said.
Amelia left them to pack up the mouse food and cages and went back into the house. Jamie and Wilfred were on their way out with Cleo in her travelling cage. Vero gave her a hug, saying she’d better get home or Ben might send out a search party.
‘What a to do,’ Jamie said, hovering in the hall, ‘leaving two mice and coming back to dozens.’
‘Not quite as bad as that, but it was a shock,’ Amelia said, going out with them to their car, giving Vero
a wave as she drove away.
‘You must come to one of our soirées.’ Wilfred kissed her before getting into the car, Jamie behind the wheel, raring to get home. ‘We can’t thank you enough for giving Cleo a happy time. We’ll be in touch very soon.’
‘I’ll be round soon to see to your garden, the earth is a bit hard and cold now for planting, but we’ll make a plan. You need more shrubs to give it more depth,’ Jamie said.
‘Whenever it suits, thanks.’ Amelia waved at them as they drove away.
Bryony, looking as if she’d been given an extra Christmas present, appeared from the shed with George jumping round her. She was carrying the main cage, with her parents following behind with the male mouse in the other cage and the box of their food.
‘We’ll return this cage when we’ve got one for this mouse,’ Daniel said. ‘Or, if you give us the address of the vet, we can drop it there.’
‘I know where he is,’ Bryony’s mother said. ‘He’s Giles’s nephew, he’s staying with him.’
‘As you like,’ Amelia said, finding herself apologising again for the unexpected litter when it was obviously nothing to do with her at all.
‘That vet should be here to see the commotion him closing down the kennels has caused you,’ Sophie grumbled when everyone had left. ‘I hope, Mum, this is the last… the only time you have to take in all these pets and that we will get the kennels up and running again.’
20
It was getting near the start of the new term when Pia came around with Micky to collect their tortoises, Bill and Ben, who were now both deep in hibernation.
‘Thank you so much, Amelia, we got back late last night.’ Pia came into the house, handing her a bottle of wine and a huge bar of Swiss chocolate. ‘I don’t know what we’d have done without you. We had such a great holiday with my parents.’
‘You look wonderful, so brown and well.’ Amelia was pleased she’d been able to help them. As a single mother, whose boyfriend had bailed out leaving her pregnant, Pia had a difficult life, so it was good that she’d had a few days in the mountains with her family.
‘I certainly needed a break. I feel fired up and ready for anything.’ Pia laughed. ‘I hope they were not any trouble.’
‘Well… I don’t know anything about tortoises, and I thought…’ Amelia paused, not liking to say in front of Micky that she thought one of them had died. ‘Well…’ She laughed. ‘This sounds crazy, but I didn’t know they hibernated not ever having had one as a pet myself, and, well I thought he’d… anyway I rang the vet for advice and he came to check it, though his son who’s about eight years old,’ she gave another deprecating laugh, ‘knew what was happening.’
Pia looked worried now. ‘So, you called the vet, because one was ill? Is he all right now? I must owe you his call-out charge.’
‘No, no, you don’t,’ Amelia said. ‘They both were fine. It was just me panicking over nothing.’
Micky, having listened to the conversation, caught on at once. ‘They weren’t dead, just asleep for the winter. Didn’t I say?’ He sounded slightly scornful.
‘Yes, you’re right, Micky. I just was worried he seemed… well, yes, dead. The vet was luckily nearby seeing to someone’s injured horse, so he popped in. He didn’t charge me as he felt it was his fault the kennels had closed.’
‘I heard about it later,’ Pia said seriously. ‘My neighbours even went there to see what had happened, but it was all locked up and deserted. We were so grateful that you were taking in some animals.’
‘I didn’t mean to, it just sort of happened,’ Amelia said.
‘Well, we both really appreciate it, don’t we, Micky?’ she said to him as he rolled on the floor laughing with Ziggy. ‘What’s the new vet like? I understand he’s far younger than the last one.’
Amelia felt a surge of warmth as she thought of him while inwardly ridiculing herself for behaving like a teenager talking about some rock star. She heard the front door closing and Sophie came into the kitchen, back from a shopping trip. She caught Pia’s words.
‘He was so unfair shutting it down like that, but I have a friend, the nephew of the old couple who ran it and he’s going to come and reopen it.’
‘Oh, well that will be good.’ Pia smiled at Amelia. ‘It will mean you won’t be lumbered again, though of course next time you’re needed you well might be away yourself.’
‘So, have you been in touch with their nephew? Is he going to be able to restart it? By the sound of it it’s going to need a great deal of money,’ Amelia turned to Sophie.
‘Rufus. Yes, he’s coming here next week. Will it be okay if he stays here a few nights while he sorts out their house, Mum?’ She faced her. ‘He won’t be here for long, just a night or two. I don’t know how much has been left in the house, for him to be able to live there.’
‘He’s coming so soon?’ She wondered what Jules would have to say about it.
‘Well, there you are, with luck it will be ready for the Easter break. I’d have thought it a good money spinner when it’s been refurbished,’ Pia said, making for the door. ‘We’d better get on. Is this new vet a permanent fixture now?’
‘I don’t know, I’m told he’s been offered something in Hampshire.’ Amelia went on to explain about his circumstances.
‘You seem to know a lot about him,’ Pia teased. ‘Has he a wife or partner?’
‘I’m not sure. His wife died some time ago and he’s moved here from France where they used to live, to find a school for his son.’
‘I look forward to meeting him then.’ Pia laughed. ‘If he’s presentable he won’t be short of female admirers, or male ones if he’s that way inclined.’
‘He might not stay here long enough for that.’ Amelia was not going to mention Cynthia who probably had him firmly in her claws.
‘We’ll see what happens.’ Pia turned to Sophie. ‘Well, good luck to you and your friend with the kennels.’ She told Micky to get up off the floor where he was playing with Ziggy and come and help with his tortoises and carry things to the car.
‘Thanks, we’re determined to get them up and running again. I’m going to stay here and help, as I haven’t a job to go back to in London,’ Sophie said.
You have a fiancé to go back to, Amelia thought as she shut the front door behind Pia and Micky.
There was a light in Sophie’s eyes that Amelia recognised meant she had found a new mission. She wondered how long Sophie would stay down here away from Dom. It was not that she didn’t want her to be here, but she did not agree with her poor opinion of Jules, whom she now felt had made the right choice as far as the kennels were concerned.
21
Amelia was determined not to start a row with Sophie by discouraging her from getting involved, or even starting a fight with Jules for closing down the kennels. It was lovely to have here her for a while, she hadn’t seen her for nearly two months, but the thought of having to contend with her determination to wage war on Jules with Rufus exhausted Amelia.
Sophie was a great one for ‘causes’. At uni there was always something she was fighting for like fox hunting, battery chickens, water aid and many others, and now she’d turned her sights on Jules.
All the animals save Ziggy and Osbert were now safely back home with their families. Amelia had rather enjoyed having them, it had given her a purpose and company over the Christmas period, her first spent alone in her life.
Gloria, Osbert’s owner, was picking him up that evening, and then there would only be Ziggy left, who she’d become quite attached to. In his simple, doggy way, he’d always been pleased to see her, unlike Osbert who was very choosy, and thought himself far too superior to make a fuss of her.
Sophie, sensing her mood, said firmly, a look of determination on her face, ‘Rufus hasn’t seen the kennels for a while, so he doesn’t know what he needs to do to get them going again. He might take it over himself, or anyway find someone younger than his aunt and uncle to help them. After all, it is their
home as well as their livelihood and it must be saved.’ She stood in the middle of the hall, her voice strong and determined to save the day.
Amelia sighed, overwhelmed by Sophie’s zeal. ‘I think you’d better find out the truth of it all before you start this crusade, love. I understand from some people that it was high time for the old couple to retire.’
‘That’s not the point, Mum. They were both still working, doing a valuable service to the community.’ Once on a crusade, Sophie was like a dog with a bone and would not let go.
‘I’m sure Jules would not have closed it down unless he had a very good reason,’ Amelia said firmly turning to escape upstairs.
‘How do you know that, Mum?’ Sophie demanded, moving closer to her. ‘You said you never knew the place existed until it closed, and people dumped their pets on you. And why should it be you? There must be dozens more people around who could have done it, and at the very least Jules could have taken them in.’
‘It seemed there was a mass exodus in the district over Christmas this year. Not everyone had a pet, of course, but if they weren’t here, they couldn’t help out.’ Amelia was tired of the argument. ‘I’ll miss Ziggy, though.’ she watched him chasing his tail in the garden. ‘He’s a great character.’
‘I don’t know why you had to ask Jules here, you seem to be getting quite friendly with him.’ Sophie had the air of a maiden aunt warning her not to fraternise with unsuitable men.
Her tone made Amelia laugh. ‘Really, love you are making far too much of this. I happened to see him and his son, Dickon, filling up with petrol. I told them about the mice, and he came to take the male one away from his babies, or he might eat them, which I didn’t know could happen. It was Dickon who asked me to Christmas lunch at his great-uncle’s house. It was sweet of him and I had a great time, that’s it,’ Amelia said firmly wanting to finish the conversation.
‘But, Mum, just because you spent Christmas Day with Jules’s family doesn’t mean he was in the right. Surely he could have found other people to help them until Rufus arrived?’ Sophie was building up to one of her battles, fighting for the underdog.