Hidden Cottage (13 page)
‘Cool.’
It was good to see her smile.
Friday afternoon and sitting in the executive lounge at Brussels airport, Jeff was in a foul mood. He knocked back the last of his red wine then went over to the complimentary bar to get a refill.
When he returned to his seat, Pierre-Yvres had reappeared from the gents. Pete, as Jeff liked to call him to his face (or Poncy Pete behind his back), was one of the legal whizz kids from the office in Zurich and the thought of having to sit next to him during the flight to Dubai and then spend the next three days working with him was reason enough to hit the Merlot. Poncy Pete didn’t drink. Poncy Pete didn’t crack jokes. Poncy Pete didn’t talk about anything other than work and the challenges of the global economy. The man had no life outside of work – he lived like a monk as far as Jeff knew – and could make watching paint dry seem like an extreme sport.
Poncy Pete on top of everything else was not what Jeff needed. Ever since last weekend he’d been feeling pretty much rubbed up the wrong way, then, due to a legal tussle over a new contract with one of their biggest customers in the UAE, he knew there was nothing for it but to give up his bank holiday weekend and fly to Dubai. As a consequence he felt peeved and left out, knowing that everyone was going to be at home, all having fun without him.
He’d phoned Mia last night and she’d told him that there would be a houseful over the coming days – for some reason she’d got it into her head to invite Jensen and his girlfriend plus daughter to come for the village fete. Then apparently, once Daisy and Eliza got wind of this, they said they’d also come. ‘I think they’re keen to meet Tattie’s daughter,’ Mia had said, ‘especially if she’s going to figure largely in their brother’s life.’
‘You really believe that?’ he’d said. ‘You don’t think this is just his way of making a point with me?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Come on, Mia; by parading this Tattie and her daughter in front of us, he’s rubbing my nose in what I did all those years ago when you were first pregnant. You know he’s never really forgiven me for that.’
‘You’ve said some ridiculous things over the years, but that is the most ridiculous. Jensen genuinely cares about Tattie. And her daughter. Oh, by the way, Eliza’s bringing her boyfriend as well for the weekend.’
Aware that Mia had deliberately and not so subtly changed the subject, he said, ‘What boyfriend? I didn’t know she had one.’
There had been a pause from Mia’s end and then: ‘Why don’t you take a moment to think why that might be, Jeff?’
‘If you’re referring to that boy she brought home from university, I stand by my comments. He wasn’t good enough for her.’
‘And you’d know who is?’
‘Hang on, why are we arguing?’
Mia had sighed. ‘I don’t know.’
I know exactly why, he’d thought later when he’d rung off. He had questioned Jensen’s sincerity when it came to that girlfriend of his. Rule No.1 – he must not
ever
question or criticize Jensen.
After speaking to Mia he’d tried ringing Daisy, but there’d been no answer from her. He’d left a message on her voicemail to call him back. He had wanted to clear the air with her, to apologize for his reaction to her announcement about going to Australia. Perhaps he had handled things badly, but it was shock. He was still in a state of shock at her comment that she needed to get away from him as far as possible. How could she have said that, even if it had been a heat-of-the moment remark?
He was now hoping that a bit of reverse psychology might make her change her mind. He knew how these things worked: keep making a huge deal of it with her and she’d be even more determined to go. Instead he would go along with everything, make out that all he wanted was for her to be happy and if going to Australia made her happy, then so be it. What he needed to do was make the prospect of being so far away from home lose some of its shine for her, make her see what she’d be giving up.
She hadn’t rung him back, though.
Poncy Pete nudged him and pointed at the screen; their flight was being called.
Not long after they’d taken off, and with another drink in his hand, Jeff’s thoughts returned to Jensen. Was he really serious about this American girl and her daughter? What if the girl decided to go back to America – would Jensen go with her? And how would Mia feel about that? Perhaps then she would know how he felt about losing Daisy to the other side of the world. He almost hoped it came to pass, just so Mia would stop trying to sound so reasonable while at the same time make him appear so unreasonable.
He wasn’t being unreasonable. He really wasn’t. He just wanted things to be how they used to be a long time ago. A very long time ago when, frankly, the only problems he had to face were those at work, when he could return home and think how lucky he was. God, when was the last time he’d thought that? When was the last time he hadn’t felt there was some family crisis to deal with?
When he’d married Mia he’d been tired of living the single life; he’d genuinely reached the stage when he was ready to settle down, to have something true and lasting in his life. Seeing his son – the son he’d previously tried not to think about too much – ill in hospital had given him a massive jolt. All at once he’d felt this huge wave of responsibility. He’d been shocked at the extent of his feelings for a child he didn’t know, but suddenly all that had mattered to him was taking care of Mia and their son. Of being with them and making them happy.
When he told Mia how he felt she warned him to go slowly with Jensen, that he mustn’t push things with him too fast, that Jensen wouldn’t be able to love him overnight. In contrast Jeff had fallen in love with Mia all over again; she had blossomed into a truly beautiful young woman. He was crazy about her and was determined not to lose her by stepping out of line and doing anything wrong, particularly when it came to Jensen. He knew that if he was going to win Mia, he had to win over his son. But it was hard going at times; Jensen didn’t always take kindly to having him with them. But when there was something he wanted, Jeff wasn’t one to be thwarted by a bit of jealousy and he worked steadily away at gaining his son’s trust. And Mia’s approval.
It had been curiosity on his part that had caused him to see her again – he had been intrigued to see how she was, and to see what kind of child they had created. The only explanation he had for this change of heart was that he’d recently moved back to the Bristol area, having spent the last three years working in Leeds. His father had also just died. They hadn’t been close, far from it – his parents had divorced when he was seven years old and contact with his father had been minimal – but his unexpected death had got Jeff thinking about unfinished business.
He wasn’t one for self-analysis, never had been, never would be, but he had been ready to acknowledge that Mia was unfinished business. Some might say that it was a case of him deciding to do the right thing. He disagreed. It wasn’t about a guilty conscience getting the better of him; he’d never felt guilty. Mia had made her choice to keep the child and he had made his choice to support her financially, so what was there to feel guilty about? Up until then, he hadn’t told anyone, not even his mother, that he had a child. Why complicate matters by bringing her into it? had been his reasoning. To his surprise, and without wasting any breath on the hows and whys, his mother had immediately got in touch with Mia and became a hands-on grandmother, which he’d never truly understood as she hadn’t been a particularly hands-on mother when he’d been growing up – her style of parenting had been to leave him very much to his own devices.
To this day he would defend every one of his actions as being true to himself. He had sincerely believed himself to be too young to take on the responsibility of fatherhood. Had he married Mia when she was pregnant as a student, he knew it wouldn’t have lasted between them; he would have soon grown restless and bored of domestic life and consequently left her. And though he wasn’t around in person to help, no one could ever accuse him of not providing financially for Mia and Jensen.
When they were married he did everything and more to make life perfect for them as a family. That included trying to mend the rift between Mia and her mother. A colder and nastier woman you couldn’t wish to meet. She had disowned Mia when she was pregnant and didn’t speak to her again until Jensen was two years old, and that was only because her husband managed to convince her to do so. It wasn’t until some years later that she learnt that her husband had defied her and had secretly been in touch with Mia, wanting to be sure that she was all right. According to Mia, relations were cool but cordial from then on but then when she told her mother that Jeff was back in her life and they were getting married, the barmy old bat refused to speak to Mia again, claiming that she was a fool to think that the marriage would ever work; a leopard and his spots was quoted.
So Jeff went to see her, to persuade her that he had changed and wanted only the best for Mia, but she wouldn’t let him over the threshold, just over-dramatically slammed the door in his face. They didn’t speak to her ever again. Perhaps most hurtful of all for Mia was that the first she knew of her father’s death was not from her mother, but from a solicitor. The woman couldn’t even do that much for her daughter.
The ghastly woman had died four years ago, never having met Eliza or Daisy. There was no touching death-bed reconciliation, no final apology or request for forgiveness, just a last smack in the face when Mia was informed by her mother’s solicitor that the proceeds from the sale of her house and what money she had was to be donated to an animal rescue shelter. The bitch of a woman hadn’t even liked animals. She hadn’t liked anything in life. God knew how she and her husband had ever got it together to create Mia.
Thinking of the unnecessary anger and bitterness Mia’s mother had been consumed by for all those years, Jeff thought of his own anger this last week and how Daisy hadn’t returned his call. He promised himself the first opportunity he had in Dubai, he would ring Daisy and put things right.
With a hectic day behind her, Mia tidied up and ran the vacuum cleaner round the showroom; it would be one job less for her to do when she opened again on Tuesday, when there would be a rush of returns. This particular bank holiday weekend was a busy time for weddings and from the moment she had opened the barn that morning there had been a constant stream of customers collecting hats and fascinators for the weekend, some having had a panicky last-minute change of mind about what to wear and consequently wanting a different hat. There had also been a number of people dropping in with books for the fete tomorrow, some of the shabbier paperbacks she recognized from last year’s fete.
The showroom locked, she crossed the garden and let herself in at the back door. The telephone was ringing. She hoped it wasn’t one of the children calling to say they would be late or, worse still, calling to say something had cropped up and they couldn’t make it now. She was looking forward to having everyone here again, except this time, with Jeff away in Dubai, they would be guaranteed a tension-free weekend.
She had rather guiltily seized on the opportunity that Jeff’s unexpected trip had presented her with and had asked Jensen if he’d like to come and stay for the weekend with his girlfriend and her daughter. From there, things had escalated, with Eliza saying she would come with Greg and then Daisy had announced she’d join them. What was more, late last night after Jeff had called, Daisy had asked if she could bring her flatmate, Scott, seeing as he would be at a loose end for the weekend.
Happily it wasn’t one of the children on the telephone with bad news; it was a man, a man whose voice Mia didn’t recognize. Not at first at any rate, not until he said his name and a mental picture popped into her head of the amused expression on his face when she and Georgina and Muriel had called on him; he had clearly been playing them at their own game, assessing them as much as they were assessing him.
‘Oh, hello,’ she said. ‘How are you? How are you getting on with your unpacking?’
‘I’m fine, thank you,’ he replied, ‘slowly getting there with the unpacking. Look, I hope you don’t mind me ringing you like this, but it’s about the fete tomorrow. I’ve found some books I don’t need any more and wondered if they might be of use. If so, I could drop them off.’
‘Oh. Well. Yes. Yes, of course.’
‘Would it be all right if I called in now?’
‘
Now?
’
‘If it’s a bad time I could leave it until later.’
‘No, no, now would be better. Later I have a houseful.’
‘You’re sure? I don’t want to be a nuisance.’
‘No, really it’s fine. Well, I’ll see you in a few minutes, then. Bye.’
‘Hold on, I don’t know where you live.’
‘Oh, don’t you? But you have my phone number.’
‘I found that from the parish magazine you and your friends gave me earlier in the week.’
‘Oh, right. Well, in that case, I’m very easy to find: Medlar House, next door to the church.’
‘The vicarage, you mean? Or what used to be the vicarage?’
‘That’s right.’
‘OK, I’ll be with you shortly. And I promise not to keep you. I know a busy woman when I hear one.’
Mia ended the call, hoping she hadn’t sounded overly brusque. Or overly stupid. She could hear the less than inspiring words ‘
oh
’ and ‘
well
’ echoing in her ears. Had she really been so abysmally inarticulate and repetitive?
While she waited for Owen Fletcher to arrive, she went upstairs to see to Eliza’s bed. Nothing had been said, but Mia had made the discreet assumption that Eliza and Greg wouldn’t want to sleep apart. If she’d got that wrong, Greg could stay in Daisy’s old room. Meanwhile, Jensen and Tattie would sleep in Jensen’s old room and Madison would be in the spare room next door. For privacy Mia had thought of giving them The Gingerbread House – as Daisy had called the conversion of the outbuilding into a small cottage, which they’d had done at the same time as the barn showroom – but had decided that if Madison went to bed early and on her own, it wouldn’t be right or fair for her to be separated from the house. Instead, Mia had decided to put Daisy and Scott in The Gingerbread House.
