The Christmas Menagerie

by Minna Howard

  It was a relief when they were disturbed by the telephone. It was David calling to remind her that he had asked her to a concert; with everything else it had slipped her mind. At least Sophie was here for a while so that was a good enough reason to dissuade him if he should hope to try to seduce her again. Maybe he had just been lonely at New Year, and he had got the message and wouldn’t try it on again.

  ‘Thank you, David, I’d love that. I haven’t been there before.’

  ‘Good, I’ll pick you up about six, we can have a quick supper before it starts,’ he said. ‘All well otherwise, got rid of the animals?’

  ‘Almost.’

  He laughed and said he looked forward to seeing her, leaving her feeling warm and wanted… though only as a friend.

  Gloria turned up that evening with a huge bunch of flowers that must have been flown in from somewhere warm. In her youth she’d been beautiful and given many parts in films playing the love interest but as time passed and she got older, those parts diminished and she only got small roles now, but she was resilient and cheerful, always hoping something or someone, in the form of a rich, faithful man would turn up and claim her.

  Osbert gave her the cold shoulder, annoyed that he had been abandoned here, and went back upstairs to Amelia’s bedroom to sulk.

  ‘He’ll be all right soon,’ Gloria said. ‘He was like this when I left him at the kennels, but he soon forgives me. Thank you so much for taking care of him. As you know I was in Yorkshire, with my sister and her brood of children.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Whenever I feel sad that I missed out on a family I think of her. Her babies were beautiful and I used to envy her and wish I had some of my own, though it never seemed to be the right time with the film parts I had, but now they are adolescents they are impossible: drinking, out all night, unsuitable friends, just like I used to be.’ She laughed. ‘I couldn’t hack it now.’

  Sophie came into the room and Amelia introduced her.

  ‘I saw you in an old film the other day. The one about the girlfriend giving up her lover so he could look after his dying wife, it was shown on television,’ Sophie said excitedly, her eyes shining as she looked at her. She had been looking forward to meeting Gloria.

  ‘Thank you but that was a long time ago,’ Gloria said rather wistfully.

  ‘It was so sad, though noble really, we all cried,’ Sophie went on.

  ‘I’m glad you enjoyed it,’ Gloria said.

  ‘So, what are you in now?’ Sophie went on, obviously not knowing that Gloria was now only playing bit parts, if she were lucky.

  ‘I was in Holby City and I’m hoping for a part in Midsomer Murders,’ she answered, getting up from the sofa, moving towards the door as if she wanted to avoid more questions about her work. ‘But I mustn’t hold you up any longer. I’ll take Osbert home, if he’ll forgive me for leaving him with you.’ She smiled. ‘Shall I go up and get him?’

  ‘Yes, it’s probably best if you go. He chose to camp in my room which is at the end of the passage. The door’s open, you can’t miss it,’ Amelia said.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Sophie offered, still starstruck.

  When Gloria and Osbert had left, Osbert’s mood slightly softening at his owner’s return, Amelia said, ‘It must be hard when you get older as a once popular actor, no longer getting one of the main parts. I saw her in Holby, she was just a patient with a couple of lines to say.’

  ‘But she’s still beautiful,’ Sophie said.

  ‘True, but she’s no longer young.’

  ‘But older women fall in love and things, it doesn’t all stop when you’re thirty or forty, or even older. I hope not anyway,’ Sophie said. ‘I mean you could still meet someone else, Mum, you never know. We all wish Dad was here, but he was much older than you and it doesn’t seem fair you might live another…’ She paused, scrutinised her a moment. ‘At least thirty years on your own.’

  ‘Well, I’m not looking for anyone,’ Amelia said, wondering what Sophie would think of David when he turned up to take her to the concert. Though she didn’t see him as a lover at all, but he could be a good friend.

  22

  Amelia was in the supermarket stacking up on provisions before she started back at school, when she saw Dickon slipping a box of magnum ice lollies into his father’s trolley. Jules turned around at the wrong moment, saw him doing it and told him to put them back.

  ‘But, Dad, it will save us coming shopping again. I’ll only have one at a time,’ Dickon said reasonably.

  ‘We are not going straight home, I told you. They will melt, put them back,’ Jules said before catching sight of her.

  ‘Amelia.’ His eyes lit up for an instant, or maybe it was a trick of the light, she told herself.

  ‘I was just thinking of you.’ He handed the box of ice lollies to Dickon to return to the freezer.

  ‘But it’s so cold outside, it will be the same as the freezer in the car.’ Dickon tried once more.

  ‘No, put them back, please, Dickon. We don’t want melted lollies all over the place.’

  ‘Okay,’ he said, reluctantly taking them back to the freezer.

  ‘So, as I said, I was thinking of you,’ Jules repeated, in the matter-of-fact sort of tone one might use to a work colleague of little importance.

  ‘Nothing bad, I hope.’ Amelia was annoyed with herself for feeling so pleased to see him. She glanced round to see if Cynthia would suddenly appear to claim him, but there was no sign of her.

  ‘No, I just wondered how many of the pets you have left and how they are. The Christmas break is well over now, and they should have all been collected.’ His scrutiny annoyed her now. She’d been foolish to call him out over the tortoises hibernating and then the mouse business, no doubt making him think she was the last person to be trusted with an assortment of pets, if she didn’t know the difference between a male and female mouse, and that tortoises hibernated.

  ‘Just Ziggy. The others have gone home, all alive and well,’ she said slightly defensively.

  He laughed. ‘I didn’t mean I didn’t think you were not capable of caring for them. Though I think there were quite a lot for one person, who…’ He paused, watching her as if to gauge her mood before continuing, ‘is not perhaps used to animals.’

  ‘I hope you don’t really think that. I had pets as a child and so did my girls, we had a dog, then hamsters and a rabbit, and my parents had dogs when I was growing up. Anyway, it’s just Ziggy now and my younger daughter, Sophie, who you met at Vero’s party, is with me to help out, so all is well.’ She challenged him to provoke her further.

  ‘Good.’ He smiled at her. ‘My uncle thought, as I closed the place, we should have taken them, and Dickon would have been thrilled. But you were obviously a godsend for all the pet owners who were relying on the kennels to help them out while they were away, as they had, so many times before.’ He sighed. ‘I suppose the next exodus is Easter, so there’s some time for people to find alternative arrangements.’

  ‘I’m told by my daughter that Rufus, the nephew of the owners of the kennels, is coming here and is looking to reopen them. I’m sure he’ll get it up and running again soon.’ The minute she’d said it she wished she hadn’t, as Jules’s expression became stern again.

  ‘It’s not as easy as that, Amelia. It depends on how much money he has. If he can afford to raze it to the ground and start over again then fine, but it’s gone too far to be just patched up,’ Jules said. ‘If he wants any advice, I’m happy to help him, but I’m afraid it will be expensive to rebuild. Does he have money, do you know?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ Amelia said. ‘Sophie knows more about it than I do.’

  A military-looking man passed them, then turned back and glared at Jules. ‘I must say you have a cheek coming into the district and snatching away Dodi and Jim’s livelihood. They’ve been a pillar of our society for years and you,’ he looked at him as if he were dirt, ‘have the audacity to throw your weight around and send them packing.’
r />   A few other shoppers alerted by the man came and clustered round, some making similar remarks.

  Amelia, relieved that Sophie wasn’t there, said in her best school mistressy voice, ‘When was the last time you saw the kennels?’

  The man turned on her. ‘Are you his wife?’

  ‘No, she’s not.’ Jules was quite calm in the face of things. ‘I suggest you go and see them for yourself and decide whether you’d be happy to leave any animal there, before you accuse me of shutting them down unnecessarily.’

  The man growled something and walked away, making the small audience move on too.

  Jules shrugged and smiled. ‘I know I’m one of the least popular people around, but do you think, Amelia, that I would have shut them down if the place hadn’t been in such an appalling condition?’

  ‘No, I don’t, though there seem to be so many pointless rules and regs now I wouldn’t know,’ she said, glancing round for Dickon. She was afraid he’d be upset by the scene, but he was inspecting an array of chocolate bars further up the aisle.

  ‘Anyway, please tell Sophie’s friend to contact me before he does anything. There is no way,’ Jules looked stern again, ‘that it can be reopened in its present state.’

  Having made his choice, Dickon picked up a large bar of milk chocolate and came over and slipped it into the trolley under a box of cereal, while his father had his back to the trolley. He caught Amelia’s eye and she winked at him, making him laugh and she wondered if he’d get away with it at the checkout or if Jules would insist he put it back.

  ‘I won’t hold you up any longer and I must get on,’ Jules said to her. ‘I’ve a lot to do today, but keep me posted, you seem to know more than I do about what might be happening.’ He moved off before turning back. ‘My uncle was asking after you, you must come over again soon,’ he said vaguely, moving off before Amelia could answer.

  She too was in a hurry; in a few days she’d be back at work at school and she still had to do her lesson plans. The children in her class were six years old and bursting to learn; she’d be too busy to take time to bother with the fate of the kennels. Sophie was more than capable enough to cope with it, though surely she’d soon want to go back to London to be with Dom?

  23

  Stacy returned from her son’s the day before Amelia started back at her school. She looked exhausted but seemed cheerful enough as she explained that as the baby was quite small, being early, and had to be fed little and often. Jenny, her daughter-in-law, had resorted to some bottle-feeding.

  ‘So, I was able to feed him occasionally,’ Stacy said. ‘Jenny’s mother has not been well so couldn’t travel but she got there today, so she can help out now.’

  Ziggy seemed delighted to see her. Unlike Osbert, he did not hold grudges, and he ran round and round in circles chasing his tail with joy at his mistress’s return.

  ‘So, anything exciting happened while we were away?’ Stacy asked her as they sat together in the kitchen having a coffee and a piece of Christmas cake. ‘I feel as if I’ve been away for years.’

  ‘Well, only the kennels closing down, though of course you knew about that. There was a difficult scene in the supermarket.’ Amelia filled her in with the details.

  ‘So, that’s what happened. I told you I’d booked Ziggy there, a couple of months before Christmas. Everything seemed fine then, before I got a text from Dodi, saying due to unforeseen circumstances it was closing for Christmas,’ Stacy said. ‘We hadn’t used it for over a year as we take Ziggy with us when we go to our caravan.’

  ‘But it was okay then, safe to leave animals?’ Amelia wondered if Jules had far higher standards than were strictly needed.

  ‘Yes, Ziggy seemed none the worse.’ She frowned. ‘Though now I think of it, we didn’t see the buildings out the back, that last time. We left him with Dodi in a sort of office in the stables. Dodi explained that that some of the animals got upset if they saw other owners there, hoping it was their own come for them. So, they’d changed the way you left them. We thought nothing of it, Ziggy didn’t seem to mind.’

  ‘So, you didn’t see the state of the kennels at all? Even when you picked him up?’ Amelia asked, wondering how long this couple had been struggling.

  ‘No, when we picked him up, we waited in the office place and they brought him to us. I saw the kennels some time ago when we had Patch, our dog before Ziggy. They had a nice set up there, then,’ Stacy said.

  ‘So, you haven’t seen the state of them for… over a year?’ Amelia asked.

  ‘Longer than that.’

  Amelia wondered if Dodi and Jim had changed the routine so the pet owners couldn’t see how run-down it all had become.

  ‘That could well be true, now I think of it,’ Stacy said. ‘Dodi and Jim were getting on, but if I’d known the place was so run-down, I’d never have sent him there. I’m so relieved you could take him, Amelia. I hope he behaved,’ she said anxiously.

  She bent over and stroked Ziggy’s ears. ‘Yes, you, Ziggy, I do hope you behaved yourself.’

  ‘He was very good.’

  ‘So, what’s the new vet like?’ Stacy asked, leaning forward eagerly. ‘I’ve heard he’s young and good-looking.’

  Amelia felt herself blushing and jumped up to offer Stacy more coffee or another biscuit from her Christmas tin, to hide her confusion. ‘He’s fine, he’s come to stay… we’re not sure for how long, with his uncle, and he has a small boy.’

  ‘Of course, now I remember, Giles’s nephew, Jules. Giles told me a while ago that he might be moving back here from France.’

  ‘So you know him?’ Amelia wondered if she could surreptitiously find out if he and Cynthia were an item.

  ‘No, but we are friends with Giles, and he told us in the summer that this might be happening. To be honest with all the excitement of the baby and all, it slipped my mind. But we certainly needed a new vet. I’d have thought Giles’s nephew would be perfect and we have some good schools around for his son.’

  ‘It’s not certain that he’ll stay here, I understand he’s been offered a job in Hampshire. I’m told a recently qualified woman vet is coming soon,’ Amelia explained.

  ‘Well, as long as they are young and energic. Poor old Les, he was a good man, but he should have retired ages ago.’ Stacy got up and collected her things and Ziggy to go home.

  Amelia started work at the school the following day and the children came back the day after. To her surprise she caught sight of Dickon alone in the playground, his hands in his pockets, idly kicking a stone about. So, he’d come here. She wished she’d known about it, so she could have told him she was teaching here, been a familiar face for him. It must be so hard starting in a new place especially coming from another country, trying to fit in a class which was already up and running. She went over to him. He looked up, relieved to see her.

  ‘Hello, Dickon. What a lovely surprise to see you here. It must seem a bit strange at first, but I’m sure you’ll soon get used to it.’ She smiled reassuringly at him.

  ‘’Spose. Wish I was back in France. I had lots of friends there,’ he said wistfully.

  ‘I found it hard to fit in when I first came here too, but it soon gets better.’

  ‘But you’re a teacher, it’s easy for you,’ he said gloomily.

  ‘A bit easier perhaps, but it still takes a little time to get used to a new place. Come with me, I know some of the children in your class as we did art and crafts together last term.’ She looked round to see which would be the best child to introduce him to and her gaze fell on Maisie, a shy, pretty girl who rather hung about on the outside trying to join in.

  ‘Let’s talk to Maisie.’ She went up to the girl. ‘Hi, Maisie. Did you have a good Christmas?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, eyeing Dickon warily.

  ‘You’ve been at the school since you were four and so you know your way around. This is Dickon and he used to live in France and I thought you might show him how things work here, help him to settl
e in.’

  Maisie regarded Dickon seriously, unused to being asked to do anything. It was always the other, more confident ones that pushed themselves forward. Dickon smiled shyly at her.

  ‘Okay,’ she said, taking his hand and walking off with him towards the swings.

  Amelia watched them, hoping Dickon would be happy here. It was a good school, which taught children to respect each other and be friends with everyone, but all the same it was a challenge to start somewhere afresh, and the school was probably very different to the one he’d been to in France. She’d keep an eye on him as best she could, without being overbearing and hope he’d make friends soon. His teacher, Miss Evans, was good at teaching but not so good at getting the children to interact with each other, play together and care about each other.

  She saw Dickon again at lunch and he wasn’t eating much but he was talking to the boy next to him. He did not seem the same confident boy she’d seen shopping with his father, showing her his gecko. It was as if he was keeping himself close, just getting through the day. Her heart went out to him, though this was part of life, growing up, moving to new places, learning to join in and she couldn’t interfere too much in someone else’s class.

  She’d started working here in the autumn term. She had applied for a few jobs in local schools when she’d settled in, but there were none going. Then the teacher of this class she had now had some trouble with her pregnancy and left at the end of the summer term, so she jumped into her job. They were a cheerful bunch of children, with, to her relief, decent parents, who took a proper interest and care of their children.

  As the school day neared its end she wondered if Jules would collect Dickon. His class and her own waited in the same room. She was on duty today and she looked forward to seeing him. She was disappointed. Cynthia came for him and he looked very relieved to see her.