Firestarter (10 page)

'I wonder if you can eat the seeds,' her mum said interrupting her thoughts.

'Had seeds in it, did it?' Alice's dad asked.

She fetched them to show him.

'These might grow you know. Wouldn't hurt to try some I suppose.' He took them from her.

Alice was very impressed. It wasn't just low fat soup making she hoped to learn from her mother. A few lessons on handling men wouldn't go amiss.

That night Alice tried to send herself to sleep by imagining getting Hamish to do exactly as she wanted. It wasn't successful; she kept jerking awake thinking she could hear sirens, or people knocking on her neighbours' doors.

Even more frustrating, when Hamish arrived the following evening he gave her a quick kiss and, before she could suggest they'd be more comfortable if they went inside, said, 'How do you fancy going bowling?'

'Bowling?'

'You know, bowling.' He mimed bowling the heavy ball down a lane as though trying to knock down pins at the end of the landing.

'Sure, if you like.' She had nothing against the game, it just seemed an odd choice for a fourth date. More the sort of thing you might do for the first one or if going out with a bunch of mates. Was this a clue that he didn't want the same kind of relationship as she did?

When she got into his car and saw Jeff and William from his watch in the back, she couldn't decide if that was good or bad. They were on the same wavelength about bowling being something to do with a group, but why did he want them to go out with his friends when he could have stayed in with her? Maybe it was a warning that if she wanted one member of Red Watch she'd have to accept them all.

The bowling was fun but, as she'd imagined, more like an evening with friends than a real date. Hamish picking her up and swinging her round after she scored a strike was as intimate as it got.

Alice wasn't excluded from conversations, in fact Jeff paid her far more compliments than she was entirely comfortable with, but naturally work topics crept into their chatter and there were a few in jokes which meant nothing to her, even after William did his best to explain.

'Getting down and dirty with your birds again tomorrow?' Jeff asked Hamish at one point.

At least she understood that; he was referring to the wildlife place Hamish helped out at.

'Absolutely,' Hamish said. He turned to Alice, 'Maybe I'll see Sausage.'

Once she'd stopped giggling she said, 'I think you'll find his name is Snowball, which as anyone can tell you is a much more sensible name for a crow.'

'I thought crows were black?' Jeff said.

That made both Alice and Hamish grin. It felt good they already had an in joke of their own.

'I'd like to see Snowball-Sausage.'

'I'm sure he'd like to see you too. Presumably you're working tomorrow?'

'Yep. Monday to Friday, nine to five.'

Hamish explained the fire service's watch system; two twelve hour days, two twelve hour nights and then four days off. 'I've committed two of those four day periods a month at the sanctuary.'

That explained why, although she knew he wasn't working over the weekend, he hadn't arranged to see her between then and Sunday evening.

Alice got a proper kiss goodnight, but just one. His friends, who lived close to him, were waiting in the car.

Her earlier nap, combined with some disappointment over how the evening went, meant she slept badly for a third night in a row.

By Friday Miles was back to his irritating best, having them create profit projections and sales forecasts based on what, going by the recent slump, were wildly optimistic order estimates. He was furious when told the information couldn't be printed out because the only computers which connected to the printer network were no longer operational.

'Why wasn't I told?'

Kath jumped up, sending her chair crashing into her desk, strode into his office and returned with a handful of paper which she thrust under his nose. 'You were! We've all explained and had to fill in your stupid forms saying we're using our own machines.'

For a moment it looked as though he'd explode, but he suddenly calmed down.

'Sorry. I've had a lot on my mind. Ring and get the IT company to come and sort it out, will you?'

'We don't have a maintenance contract any more.'

'Then they'll have to invoice us, won't they?' He returned to his office leaving Kath the difficult task of persuading the IT people, who'd had their contract terminated without warning, to come out at short notice and then bill Tatisuz, a company who were rapidly gaining a name for being bad payers.

Alice wanted cheering up, but sensibly decided to wait until her lunch break to phone Kate. Her sister let her moan about work for a while then asked how things were going with Hamish.

'I'm not sure,' Alice said.

'I was worried this might happen.'

'What would?'

'That once the excitement of dating a fireman had worn off you'd be bored with the man himself.'

'It's not that at all. He's lovely, what I know of him, but I don't seem to be able to get beyond the fireman. He talks a lot about work and socialises with his colleagues and...'

'He isn't putting out your fire?'

'No. Kate, do you think he's got the same idea as you? That I'm only interested in him because he's a fireman?'

'Possibly. Or maybe he's just taking things steady?'

'I may have said something about Tony being too intense.'

As Alice munched her way through a cheese sandwich, the answer came to her. It was Hamish the bird watcher, not Hamish the fireman she should concentrate on getting to know. She rang his number.

A woman answered. 'He's busy just at the moment.'

'Could you tell him Alice called?'

'Hi, Anna. I didn't recognise your voice.'

'Not Anna, Alice.'

'Oh, a new one. OK I'll tell him.'

Alice didn't believe for a moment that the woman had mistaken Alice for Anna, but she couldn't tell if she was warning her off or just being bitchy.

Chapter 10

Alice had finished her second sandwich, an apple and a KitKat by the time Hamish called back from the wildlife sanctuary. Resisting the urge to ask who the woman who'd answered his phone was, she said, 'I'm eating my lunch watching starlings eat theirs and wondered what birds you could see.'

'Mostly gulls.'

'No sign of Sausage?'

'No, but he only approaches when I'm at ground level. We're repairing nest boxes and you can guess who they send up the ladder.'

'I can see you'd be handy for that. What else do you do there?'

Hamish told her a little about conservation work, recording information when birds were ringed and building hides.

'It sounds really interesting.'

'Want to join me tomorrow? There's always plenty to do.'

Result! 'Yes, I'd like that.'

'If you're sure? We'll be working all day, not just having a nice day out.'

'That's fine, really. I'd like to do something useful.' She could do with the exercise too. Other than a couple of aerobics classes with Kate and walking up the stairs to her flat and down the lane between the bus stop and work she'd done nothing for ages. She couldn't keep that up without putting serious strain on the seams of all her favourite clothes.

'Great. Is eight too early to pick you up?'

'No, that's fine.' She wasn't usually up that time of a Saturday morning, but then she didn't usually have much reason to be.

'You'll need to wear something warm which you don't mind getting muddy.'

'No problem.' Well it might be, but not one she couldn't solve by eight the following morning.

That afternoon a man from the IT company came out. He confirmed what Miles had already been told by his staff; the only computers compatible with the printer were no longer working.

'We can supply and install a domestic type printer today which will do the job for now, but I recommend updating your entire system.'

'Supply at a mark-up and charge for installing no doubt? Just tell me what I need and I'll sort it out myself.'

'Suit yourself, but we're charging to be here anyway and I have a suitable machine in the van. You might as well have me do something.'

Miles hesitated, but when it was pointed out the printer would cost less than £100, so any mark-up was likely to be less than the cost of driving to somewhere he could buy one, he grudgingly agreed.

'I'll just nip out to the van and fetch it,' the technician said.

'Would you like a tea or coffee?' Lucy asked. It was coming up for three and her turn to make the drinks.

'Grand. Either's fine. Milk and two sugars please.'

After he'd left, Miles said, 'Might I remind you that the tea and coffee are for staff only?'

Alice took the kettle from Lucy and filled it to the top. They all paid in for the drinks, which didn't stop Miles expecting someone to make them for him and any visitors he had. She'd make one for the computer man and if Miles saw and complained she'd remind him of that. Kath would back her up she knew.

The tea was drunk, mug washed and printer installed before Miles returned to the main office to see if progress had been made. The technician proved it was working by having Kath print out an invoice for the job, which he'd just asked to be emailed through.

'If you'd like to give me a cheque now it'll save you posting it,' he told Miles.

'We have a procedure for paying bills,' Miles said.

They did. Just lately that was to ignore them until legal action was threatened.

An hour later a siren was heard. A fire engine, blue lights flashing, pulled up in front of the Tatisuz building. It seemed they'd been alerted by the automatic alarm system. For the second time that week Alice was evacuated into the cold, whilst a fire crew checked for a non-existent fire. Miles was furious, saying he expected the IT company to give him a reduction to compensate for all the time his staff couldn't work.

'Come off it, Miles. We're hardly rushed off our feet and it's been less than an hour,' Kath pointed out.

'It's nearly five now, so I don't suppose anyone will bother going back to work.'

'Thanks, boss. Decent of you,' one of the forklift truck drivers said. He and his mates headed for their cars, seemingly unable to hear Miles saying that wasn't what he'd meant.

'Oh go home the lot of you!' Miles snapped.

No one needed telling twice and everyone got away a good half an hour earlier than usual. Alice walked slowly up the service road towards the bus stop, texting Kate on the way to ask if she could borrow her wellies.

'Sure. They're still at M&D's' she texted back. Kate wasn't officially living with Pete yet, but she spent more nights at his place than she did with their parents and had transferred over quite a lot of her things.

'Thanks. Will call round for them now'.

As she sent the message, Miles pulled up beside her. 'I can drop you off on Long Lane if that's any use?'

'Oh, yes please.' She quickly climbed in. 'I'm going to my parents in Fawley, so the nearest you go to there would be great.'

'Which road?'

'Coleville Avenue.'

'Ah. OK.' Then after a pause, 'What did you think of that computer chap? Bit cheeky eh?'

'Hmm.' She didn't want to argue with someone who'd let her leave work early and was giving her a lift.

'Some people think just because I'm running a business it's OK to rip me off. They don't seem to realise that if I can't keep costs down it's my staff who'll suffer. I really don't want to have to lay anyone else off.'

'No, it must be difficult.'

Kath had said he'd already got rid of everyone he could without having to make redundancy payments, but even if true that didn't prove he'd actually wanted to do it. Alice could see that being responsible for everyone's livelihoods must be a strain. He hadn't been quite so awful before the company ran into financial trouble.

Miles turned into Coleville Avenue. 'Whereabouts?'

'Just by the blue van. Thanks very much.' Alice got out. Just before shutting the door she bent down and said, 'Have a nice weekend.'

'Yes, you too, Alice.'

Alice hesitated on the doorstep. Now she wasn't living with her parents she wasn't quite sure that she should just walk in when they weren't expecting her. Especially as Kate was rarely there and they might reasonably expect some privacy. Knocking and waiting for them to stop whatever they were doing and come to the door didn't seem right either. She let herself in, calling a greeting as she did.

'Is it that time already?' her mum asked.

'We finished work early because of a fire alarm problem and the boss gave me a lift home.'

'Fire alarm? The same as at your flats?'

'No. Well, we got out for nothing, but nobody called the fire brigade. We had some work done on the computers and that did something to the smoke detectors or something like that.' She could only hope all the technical jargon wasn't too complicated for them.

'You've been stood outside in this weather? I'll put the kettle on.'

'Thanks, Mum.' A cup of tea and piece of cake were her mum's cure for just about anything. Quite often it worked.

By the time her mum had brought through mugs of tea and a plate of flapjack, Alice was helping her dad with his garden plan. He rotated his crops so the same type of plant wasn't grown in the same place more than one year in three, which he said kept the plants healthy. Usually it was just a case of shifting things round on his scale drawings, but the planned addition of butternut squash meant major changes.

'I don't know whether to cut down the numbers of everything, or have the same quantities of less sorts.'

Alice knew the answer to that one. Lower quantities of any one thing meant insufficient amounts left over for wine making. 'A bit of everything I'd think, Dad. Like you say, you never know what's going to do best from one year to the next.'

'That's true.'

'Don't go digging up the rhubarb plant though, Peter,' Alice's mum said.

'Don't worry, I won't. That always does well and if we can't eat it all I could always turn it into a drop of rosé.'

'Talking of eating it, try the flapjack.'

Alice and her dad both helped themselves to a piece. Each chunky section had a pale pink layer through the centre. The flapjack itself was crumbly, rich and buttery, the perfect contrast to the tangy rhubarb filling.

'Oh fab, Mum.'

'I wondered if the rhubarb would make it go like porridge, but it seems OK.'

'A lot better than OK.'

'I do like it,' Alice's dad said.

'You like it, but...?' Her mum winked at Alice.

'I still prefer a pie, with custard.'

'Pick me some more and I'll bake you one.'

'It'll be a few days before any's ready and if we keep taking it from the forcer there won't be much later on in the year.'

'No, but we'll have gooseberries then, and blackcurrants. They both make good pies.'

'That's true, Janice. They're good for wine too, but better in pies. Quite a lot of things are better in pies.'

'You're right there, Dad. Especially one of Mum's pies.'

'Flatterer! I suppose you'll be staying to supper then?'

'Well, if there's enough?' Alice tried to look like the kind of innocent daughter who wouldn't have dreamed of angling for an invitation.

'It's sausage and mash so it's easy to do a bit more. Peter, fetch a few more spuds will you?'

'I'll get them,' Alice said. 'I need to go in the garage anyway. Kate said I can borrow her wellies. Where are they?'

'You'll see 'em.'

Her dad was right. Alice had forgotten how bright they were. A hideous shade of yellow decorated with red and blue cupcakes. They were also a bit too big. Three pairs of socks would solve one of those problems, hopefully the promised mud would soon deal with the other. When she explained why she wanted them, her dad leant her a thick coat too. It was a spare gardening one, so getting it dirty wasn't a worry.

Alice was just about ready when Hamish arrived. She saw him give her appearance a hasty inspection.

'Sorry about the boots. I hope they won't scare the wildlife.'

'No they're fine. Actually I'm impressed; I was worried you wouldn't have anything suitable for working in.'

'I don't really, I borrowed the boots and coat. I am willing to work though, just not used to it.'

'I do like a willing girl.' He pulled her as close as her many layers would allow and gave her an unhurried kiss.

She hoped that was just a taste of the reward she was going to get for whatever tasks he had planned for her. And as it was the weekend, she'd be negotiating for double pay.

'I suppose we'd better get going,' Hamish said. There was a pleasing note of regret in his voice.

During the drive to Beaulieu, Alice asked what they'd be doing.

'One plan is to make some new nest boxes. How are you with a hammer and nails?'

'I'm better with an emery board to be honest, but I don't mind fetching and carrying or whatever is useful.'

'There's always plenty to be done, especially if you're prepared for the mud.'

'The more mud these boots get on them the better.'

'You want to be careful making rash statements like that, you could come to regret it.'

Alice walked with Hamish across the car park and into a wooden building with a 'staff only' notice on the door.

'Hello,' he called as he went in.

Someone greeted him and offered coffee. Alice recognised the voice as the one which had answered his phone the previous day.

'Make that two please, Louise,' Hamish said.

As she followed him in, Alice saw the small building was stuffed full of mismatched chairs, a sofa and wooden benches. There were two doors at the far end. One had a sign indicating it was a unisex toilet, the other was open to reveal a tiny kitchen area and a tall, thin woman of about thirty. She didn't look happy.

He introduced the two women.

'Well this is a surprise!' Louise said. 'First time Hamish has brought one of his girlfriends here. You'll know how a kettle works I imagine.' Louise pushed past them and slammed the door behind her.

'I don't know what that was about, she's usually lovely.'

'I think she likes you, Hamish.'

'Of course she does. We've been friends for years.'

Oh great, another Rachel type situation. Except Rachel had been icily polite rather than openly hostile. It was hard to say which was worse.

Hamish made their coffee and then three more mugs when Louise returned with a middle-aged couple. Soon others joined them until every seat was occupied. Hamish introduced her to everyone in turn and she was warmly welcomed, especially when he explained she was there to work and looking forward to getting muddy. They began discussing who would do what.