‘It wasn’t like that.’ Her voice faltered.
‘Why couldn’t you just trust me and let me love you? Like I promised.’
‘I’m back now.’ Her voice was shaky. ‘I still love—’
‘Don’t say that, Flick. We can’t just turn back time.’
‘We could see how it goes?’
‘Why now, after all this time, have you decided this is for you? You had me and didn’t want me. It took me a long time to get over you.’
‘And are you over me?’ She briefly closed her eyes, waiting for him to answer.
He took a breath. ‘Yes, I’m over you.’ The truth of his words cut through her. ‘Things have moved on in my life. Esme is my priority, she comes first … and how could I ever know that you wouldn’t leave me again at the drop of a hat?’ Fergus stood up, his admission breaking Felicity’s heart, shattering again into tiny pieces.
‘That’s not going to happen, I’m back to stay.’ Her thumb skimmed over the pulse in her wrist.
‘How could I ever know that?’ His voice was soft as he turned to walk away from her, like she had once done to him.
It was only as she sat and watched him walk slowly along the pass that she knew she’d made the biggest mistake of her life leaving Heartcross. Once he was out of sight she allowed the tears to flow. The pain made her chest heave as she tried to inhale enough air to breathe. Why did it hurt so much? She hugged her knees to her chest. Every muscle in her body ached. She bitterly regretted leaving Fergus. He’d meant everything to her. He still did mean everything to her.
Her heart still soared with love for Fergus.
Chapter 15
Felicity put her hand in the air to fend off the multitude of questions being fired at her. Inside she felt close to tears. She wanted to be anywhere but here right at this very minute. Not only had she had the run in with Fergus but now most of the village seemed to think she was wholly responsible for erecting a bridge and getting it built ASAP so Heartcross could get back to normality.
The room was packed to the rafters; there were even villagers standing against the back wall armed with notepads and pens, and Felicity was standing right in the line of fire at the front of the teashop.
Everyone seemed a little on edge, and they all wanted answers to their questions, but it wasn’t as easy as that.
‘Please, please speak one at a time,’ insisted Felicity, still holding her arm in the air and trying to bring some order back to the room.
‘What if the council refuses to erect a temporary bridge?’ shouted Louis, a local farm labourer, from the corner of the room. ‘What are you going to do about it?’
There was angry muttering in the room which unnerved Felicity. ‘We are losing our livelihood. We can’t get across to Glensheil,’ he continued, and there were jeers from the back of the room.
Hearing a scraping of a chair, Felicity looked over to see Fergus jump to his feet and wave his hand above his head to calm everyone down, much to her surprise. The room fell silent. ‘Can we just stop and take a moment? Felicity has agreed to be our spokesperson, not to take on the job of building the bridge single-handedly by herself.’ He cast his eye around the room. ‘The way you are speaking to her is out of order. It’s for all of us to pull together, support each other and be kind to each other. That is the only way to get through this. Felicity, Rona and Meredith have all agreed to open up this place as a food kitchen and prepare all our meals and ration the food until we know how we are going to transport supplies. We’ve had tough times before with the weather; granted, we haven’t been totally cut off, but what we need now is solutions, not shouting at each other.’
‘It may be the case that once the river dies down we can transport supplies by boat … maybe?’ offered Felicity as a solution.
‘See, this is what we need, ideas we can take on board, positive suggestions without pointing the finger,’ encouraged Fergus sitting back down and catching Felicity’s eye who mouthed ‘thank you’.
‘First things first, I’ll attend the virtual meeting in the morning and will post an update for you all on the Facebook page. Does that sound fair to everyone?’
Felicity followed the nods around the room and was thankful that the majority of villagers had calmed down.
Rona was flitting from table to table filling up cups with tea and generally chatting to keep the mood uplifted.
‘And we will start the food kitchen tomorrow lunchtime, feeding the children and the elderly first. I’ll devise a rota with different meal times for each street in the village and post that on the Facebook page as well as pinning a poster to the window of the teashop.’
‘Excellent plan,’ shouted Allie. ‘And don’t forget to pool your supplies of food, anything perishable we will use first. You can either drop them here, to the pub or into Hamish at the village shop.’
The chairs began to scrape as people gathered their belongings. There was nothing more they could do until after the meeting tomorrow.
‘Well, I’d best get back to Isla,’ said Drew. ‘I left her with the wee man screaming the house down.’
‘Ah bless.’ Allie smiled, wrapping a scarf around her neck and pulling on her coat.
‘I’ll drop off all the eggs from the farm in the morning.’ Drew turned towards Felicity and Rona. ‘I’m not going to market any time soon and there will be plenty to go around for everyone.’
‘Excellent, thank you. That’s so kind,’ smiled Rona, touching his arm. ‘What a day everyone has had.’
‘I’m in need of a stiff drink,’ declared Meredith, ‘but there’ll come a time when the pub will run dry too, if we don’t sort out access very soon.’
Rory looked horrified at that remark. ‘That can’t happen … remember the time when we brewed our own beer?’
Now it was Fergus’s turn to look horrified. ‘Things are never going to get that bad again,’ laughed Fergus, slapping him heartily on his back. ‘I’d go teetotal, you nearly poisoned us all.’
‘It wasn’t that bad,’ argued Rory.
Fergus nodded encouragingly while he was speaking but then cocked an eyebrow and found himself grinning. ‘I think you’ll find it was more than terrible.’
Everyone laughed and as they all turned to leave, Felicity found herself tugging at the arm of Fergus’s coat. ‘Thank you,’ she said immediately when his eyes locked with hers.
‘Thank you for what?’
‘For sticking up for me against the masses.’ Her voice sounded weaker than usual.
‘I’d do the same for anyone that I thought wasn’t being treated fairly.’
‘Of course,’ she answered, feeling like a fool.
He followed the gang and she found her heart speeding up a fraction when he hovered by the doorway and turned back towards her. She was rooted to the spot and her eyes darted all over his face.
‘Take no notice of Louis,’ he said. ‘His bark is worse than his bite. Everyone is just worried about their livelihood.’
Felicity nodded, then Fergus gave her a smile she wasn’t expecting, the same smile he’d once given her in the past. Her heart lifted, and she knew that no matter how many times he tried to convince himself that he didn’t still have feelings for her, that he did. She could feel that the connection between them that hadn’t gone away, but she knew she had to convince him that he could put his trust in her once more.
Chapter 16
When the crowd finally ebbed, Felicity began to help Rona clear the empty cups away and load them into the sink. They were silent, lost in their own thoughts while Rona washed and Felicity dried.
‘It’s going to be a mammoth task you know, cooking for two hundred households,’ said Rona, wondering if they’d bitten off more than they could chew.
‘Huge pots of stew, we can peel vegetables, potatoes etc. Allie and Meredith will help and I’m sure Jessica will too,’ said Felicity, neatly stacking the cups and saucers onto each table ready for the next day. ‘And there’s the children.’
‘Child
ren?’ asked Rona in puzzlement.
‘Esme and Finn … I’m sure Isla will need a rest and with Aggie in hospital it’s one less thing for Fergus to worry about. They could pitch in here for the day. We’d keep them occupied.’
Rona stopped and stared at Felicity.
‘I’ve not sure that’s such a good idea Felicity.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Felicity, even though she knew what was coming next.
‘Just that I’m worried you are trying to ease your way back into Fergus’s life.’
Even though she knew her mum was right, she still felt annoyed at her assumption. ‘I’m just saying…’
Rona gave her daughter a knowing look.
‘All I did was thank him for sticking up for me.’
‘If Fergus still has feelings for you, don’t push it, let it happen naturally, let him come to you.’
Felicity knew her mum was right but she wanted to give it a little push in the right direction.
‘He has a lot on his plate with Aggie on the other side of the water in hospital too.’
Felicity felt her mood slide after suddenly feeling elated by Fergus’s smile.
Hearing a knock on the window they spun round to see Allie mouthing at them through the window. Felicity hurried over to the door. ‘Have you forgotten something?’
‘No, spur of the moment thing. Fancy a drink in the pub? Everyone’s coming.’
‘Everyone?’
‘Well, except Isla … obviously. A quick wet of the baby’s head.’
Felicity looked towards her mum.
‘You go, enjoy yourself,’ she said. ‘I can start prepping the vegetables ready for tomorrow.’
Felicity pressed a quick kiss to her mum’s cheek. ‘Thank you, I won’t be late.’
She grabbed her coat and linked her arm through Allie’s as they began to walk. ‘Will Fergus be there?’
Allie squeezed her arm, ‘Jessica has Esme so he’s coming to the pub for one.’
The corners of Felicity’s mouth lifted.
‘Don’t think I haven’t noticed that smile,’ teased Allie.
‘I have no idea what you are talking about,’ replied Felicity bringing up a hand to her chest in mock protest.
Allie rolled her eyes good-humouredly. ‘I’m sure you don’t.’
Chapter 17
The gang were sitting at the table next to the roaring log fire when Allie and Felicity walked into the pub. Nell, Allie’s trusted golden Labradoodle was stretched out in front of the fire. With one beady eye on the door she spotted Allie and thumped her tail on the floor, but other than that, didn’t attempt to move.
‘She’s a total darling, isn’t she?’ said Allie, rubbing her tummy before sitting down next to Rory and kissing him on the cheek.
‘Drink?’ he asked.
Allie nodded, and waved to her mum behind the bar who promptly brought over a couple of gin and tonics.
Felicity sat down next to Drew, who was already wetting the baby’s head. ‘The delivery was like a dream,’ he boasted. ‘I was hands on all the way through.’ He gave Felicity a mischievous grin who shook her head in disbelief then laughed.
‘No, honestly … I was a wimp. It was thanks to Felicity keeping everyone calm that Angus arrived safely. Firstly, I’d like to propose a toast to my gorgeous wife who is currently feeding the wee man while I get to drink beer, and secondly to Flick, we couldn’t have done it without you. Isla and Flick!’ he toasted, and everyone chinked their glasses together.
Felicity felt the burn of crimson to her cheeks as all eyes were on her. ‘Anyone would have done the same.’
‘Well, except me, I ran for the hills,’ Allie chuckled to herself. ‘I’m no good with all that blood and stuff.’
Felicity grinned and leant over and gave her a tentative hug which was reciprocated.
‘Are you pair planning on having children?’ asked Drew innocently.
Rory choked on his beer, then spluttered, feeling like he was under some sudden spotlight. Allie raised her eyebrows at him. ‘I think that question kind of shocked Rory.’ She squeezed his knee. ‘Who knows … one day … still early days for us.’
The chatter died down and everyone took a sip of their drinks. As Felicity drained the dregs from her glass she felt Fergus watching her. She caught his eye and immediately looked away, only to find herself staring back at him. ‘You okay?’ he mouthed.
But before she could answer Allie clocked them both. ‘I’m sorry Flick, all this baby talk, are you okay?’
‘I’m absolutely fine, honestly, don’t worry about me.’ She smiled, brushing it off and wishing Allie hadn’t asked that question in front of everyone. She didn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable, least of all Drew who was merrily drinking his second pint and celebrating the birth of his son.
‘Whisky is what we need.’ Rory banged his hand on the table. ‘WHISKY.’
‘Oh no, is it going to turn into one of those nights?’ teased Allie, once again waving towards her mum who gave her a stern look to suggest she had no intention of being at Allie’s beck and call all night.
‘I think I’d best get the drinks,’ Allie giggled, standing up. ‘Whisky chasers all round?’
‘No! Not for me,’ exclaimed Felicity. ‘I’m the one who needs their wits about them ready for morning … don’t forget I’ve got this Skype meeting with the officials.’
‘I’ve got every faith in you that you’ll get that bridge rebuilt by the end of the day,’ winked Allie, before wandering off behind the bar and pouring the drinks.
‘I think that’s what everyone is hoping.’ Felicity rolled her eyes, suddenly feeling nervous for agreeing to be the village spokeswoman, so much was resting on her shoulders.
‘You’ll be okay,’ said Fergus. ‘And surely the council and officials can’t leave us stranded for too long?’
‘I bet they actually can. It depends on how much money they have in their budget, I suppose. It’s not going to be easy. The cost will be phenomenal,’ added Drew taking a drink from Allie who’d returned to the table. ‘I’ve said that bridge would crumble at some point and I was right.’
‘There’s one for you Felicity, don’t think you are getting out of it that easily!’ Allie slid a tumbler over towards her.
Felicity didn’t argue and everyone picked up their glass at the same time, looked at each other, and swigged back the amber liquid.
‘Ew, it never tastes any better.’ Allie grimaced as the liquid burnt the back of her throat. ‘Here’s to new baby Angus.’
‘Baby Angus,’ everyone repeated in unison.
‘Could you imagine if Isla had left for the hospital before the bridge had collapsed? What a nightmare situation that would be,’ said Allie.
‘Tell me about it,’ replied Fergus. ‘That’s exactly the situation I’m in.’
Everyone looked towards Fergus momentarily confused until the penny dropped.
‘Aggie!’ exclaimed Felicity. ‘How is she? Have you spoken to her?’
‘Not directly … I was going to take her mobile phone next time I visited and of course now I’ve not got any direct contact.’
‘So, have you spoken to the hospital?’ chipped in Rory, flipping a beer mat over and over in his hand.
‘Yes, I’ve spoken to the hospital, they’d seen the news and of course I know she’s in the best place but to have no visitors anytime soon … Esme is already asking to see her nana.’
‘We always have the boat?’ joked Drew. ‘The one in the old barn. We could row you across the water once it’s calmed down. In fact, I think that sounds like an excellent plan.’
‘I might hold you to that.’
‘I can see a new business venture evolving,’ laughed Rory, ‘Drew’s boat trips.’
‘Hey, don’t jest, it may be the only way to get to the other side.’
‘Another round?’ asked Rory, standing up and placing his hand on Allie’s shoulder. ‘Your mum won’t shout at me if I nip behind the b
ar?’
‘If you’re feeling brave you go for it!’
‘Surely, he’s practically family now?’ winked Drew teasingly.
‘Actually, not for me. Sorry to break up the party,’ claimed Felicity suddenly feeling guilty. ‘I need to make sure Mum is okay. I think she’s already started peeling the veggies ready for tomorrow. I can’t leave her to it all night.’
‘And I’d best head home too,’ said Drew, with a goofy smile. ‘Well, maybe just one for the road. It’s not every day you welcome your new son into the world.’
Everyone cheered and patted him on the back. The gang knew Drew from old, there was no way he was going home anytime soon and before Felicity slipped her arms into her coat he was already ordering tequila.
Felicity popped a kiss on the top of Drew’s head. ‘Make sure you don’t get too drunk. Isla will murder you.’ She winked at him before turning and making her way to the door. As she stepped over Nell who was still lying in the same place and hadn’t moved a muscle all night, she waved at Meredith and Fraser who were still serving behind the bar.
‘I’m coming over in the morning to help with the food,’ shouted Allie after her. ‘Good luck with the meeting.’
‘Thank you,’ answered Felicity as she zipped up her coat. The fresh air hit Felicity as she stepped outside the pub. Even after just a couple of drinks she felt a little tipsy. She stumbled down the step and felt a hand steady her.
She looked up to see Fergus’s dark eyes gleaming under those eyelashes.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
‘I’ll walk you back, I need to get home to Esme and relieve Jessica of her auntie duties.’
They walked in silence for a little while. Even though Felicity felt her heart flutter, like a teenager again, she felt surprisingly relaxed walking next to Fergus and didn’t feel nervous in the slightest.
He walked her up Love Heart Lane. ‘So what’s it like to be famous?’
‘Famous?’ repeated Felicity perplexed.
‘The main lunchtime news.’
‘Hardly famous; a telephone interview doesn’t warrant that much fame and they cut out half of it.’ She smiled. ‘I didn’t like the sound of my voice. Do I really sound like that?’
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