Pastures New (24 page)

For a while they worked companionably. Ben dug furrows – Amy would have liked to, but she knew she could only work at half the speed that Ben did, so it seemed a bit more practical to do it this way – while Amy filled them with compost. To begin with, Caroline – who was clearly trying to impress Ben – seemed to fork through with enthusiasm. But after about ten minutes, she slowed right down. A further ten minutes elapsed and she had to stop altogether to attend to a broken nail. And after that she became preoccupied by a series of text messages, which evidently required an instant response.

Amy raised her eyebrows at Ben, who was resolutely digging away and ignoring Caroline’s antics. He gave her a rueful smile and an apologetic shrug. When Caroline announced she was going to pop in on Harry – ‘It will be so lovely to see him again,’ she trilled – ‘The pleasure will be all yours,’ muttered Amy – Amy and Ben drew a collective sigh of relief.

‘Thank God for that,’ said Ben, putting his spade down and wiping his brow. ‘I thought she’d never go. I’m sorry for bringing her, but she insisted.’

‘It’s okay,’ said Amy, thrilled that Ben had found
Caroline’s presence as irksome as she did. ‘Does she always do so little work?’

Ben laughed. ‘Yup. She had me digging this allotment over more times than I can count, and she just used to stand watching me, directing operations. And, muggins that I was, it took me a long time to realise I was being rooked.’

‘Oh dear – you could say the same about me.’ Amy looked up at him, shielding her eyes from the sun, which was burning quite hot now.

‘Oh, I’d never think that.’ Ben leaned forward and tucked a stray curl behind Amy’s ear.

Her heart lurched, and she felt a sudden sensation of the world shifting on its axis. He thought more of her than of Caroline. Caroline was no threat to her.
She
was the threat to Caroline.

‘You’ve got mud on your face,’ she said. ‘Here, let me clean it for you.’

She moved closer to him, and wiped the dirt off his brow. For a second they stood, staring at each other. It was as if there was no one there apart from them.

Gently, Ben brushed his lips against hers, and she found herself responding with an instant passion. The kiss went on and on, dizzyingly intoxicating. The sun shone down on them and Amy was vaguely aware of birdsong in the background. She wanted to bottle up the moment and keep it forever.

Eventually they pulled apart, laughing.

‘Erm, sorry,’ said Ben. ‘I don’t know where that came from.’

‘I’m not sorry,’ said Amy.

‘Really?’

‘Really,’ Amy insisted, kissing him again to prove it.

‘What about Josh?’

‘Ever since you diagnosed a broken arm, you can do no wrong,’ said Amy, enjoying the sensation of being held as she happily laid her head against Ben’s chest. It had been so long. ‘I think if I explain things to Josh, he’ll be fine.’ If only such moments could last. If only she could keep them safe. And never ever lose them.

They pulled apart again.

‘This won’t get your seedbeds dug,’ said Ben.

‘No, it won’t.’

‘Right, to work then,’ Ben suggested.

‘To work,’ Amy agreed.

But still they stood there, unwilling to leave the moment. This precious moment when finally their feelings for each other had been laid bare. They held each other’s gaze for what seemed like an eternity.

‘Come on then,’ said Ben eventually, reluctantly turning away. And started to dig. Amy went back to filling holes, strangely disappointed and achingly aware of the closeness of Ben to her, of his muscular body, and of how much she wanted him.

Saffron had left Pete with the kids for a while as she went out to check on her allotment. As she approached her allotment, she noticed with dismay that the fledgling broccoli plants she had put out the previous week had been squashed flat, and something had marched
right across the seedbed where she had recently planted carrots and parsnips.

‘Bloody foxes,’ she muttered, peering at the soil to make sure that the seeds hadn’t been disturbed, and trying but failing to prop up the broccoli. She went into her shed to get out a rake and spade, so she could get on with preparing a bed for her lettuces. The door wasn’t properly shut.

‘I must make sure Pete doesn’t forget that padlock,’ she muttered to herself. Then, ‘Bloody hell!’

Saffron opened the door to a scene of utter carnage. Her tools were scattered everywhere and someone had piled up several hessian sacks in the corner, as though for a pillow. There were more chip papers and a pizza box in evidence, several empty cans of beer and a couple of empty bottles of wine.

It appeared that someone was camping out in Saffron’s shed.

‘Harry, Harry!’ Saffron burst into Harry’s hut, where he was politely listening to Caroline’s woes about DBtB and Ben’s lack of interest in her.

‘Are you all right, my dear?’ he asked, looking delighted to see her. It was unlike Saffron to be so flustered. ‘Not really. My intruder’s back, and it looks like the cheeky bugger’s been camping out in my shed. Do you know if anyone else has noticed anything strange?’

‘I’ve been asking around, since you told me about the last break-in,’ said Harry. ‘But no, there’s been nothing. Have you rung the police?’

Saffron pulled a face. ‘It’s not important enough to warrant a police officer actually coming out here, apparently. They said it was probably a tramp.’

‘Well, I suppose it could be …’ Harry looked doubtful.

‘Exactly, that’s what I thought,’ said Saffron. ‘It’s not as if Nevermorewell has a reputation for being cardboard city.’

‘Then, if not a tramp, who?’

‘The only other person I could think of was Scary Slug Man. He is a bit odd,’ said Saffron.

‘Oh, surely not,’ Harry replied. ‘Even if he were camping out on the allotments, he’d probably do it on his own, there’s enough ground cover there, and he’s got enough wood on it to build himself a perfectly decent shelter.’

As Scary Slug Man’s allotment was overgrown with bushes and brambles, homemade compost heaps and a series of half-built sheds, it was a valid point.

‘You’re probably right,’ said Saffron. ‘But it’s beginning to freak me out a little. First my intruder, now this. And I still haven’t got to the bottom of why Amy and I are losing so much business. It feels as though someone has it in for me.’

‘Ooh, I do love a good mystery,’ said Caroline gleefully.

‘Er, hello, Caroline, how’s things?’ said Saffron, who hadn’t noticed her before. Saffron hadn’t got round to calling on Caroline yet. When she’d heard her business partner was back in town she had shuddered. She didn’t want to work with Caroline again, not one bit. Amy had shown just what a mug she had been before. Luckily their business arrangement had been fairly loose, so there weren’t many ends to tie up. ‘Well, you might not find it so entertaining if it happened to you.’

‘Can I do anything to help?’ Harry offered, trying to cut the tension between the two women.

‘No thanks, Harry. Whoever it was has just left a big
mess, so I’ll bin it and put a padlock on the shed to make sure they don’t come back.’

‘I’ll put the word out that everyone needs to be more vigilant,’ said Harry. ‘If we all keep our eyes and ears open we may be able to track the intruder down between us.’

‘Thanks,’ said Saffron. ‘It just beats me who would do such a thing.’

‘There’s nowt so queer as folk,’ said Harry. ‘I have to say, whoever it is must be pretty desperate. I can’t imagine wanting to doss down out here of an evening.’

‘And you really have no idea who it was?’ Amy wanted to know, when she went to pick Josh up.

‘Not a clue,’ said Saffron.

‘Are you worried?’

‘Not exactly,’ said Saffron. ‘But it does leave a nasty taste in your mouth.’

‘My money is on it being that nutty old man who hangs about in the high street, shouting abuse at people,’ said Pete, walking in at that moment.

‘But do you think he’d have the wherewithal to wander up here though?’ Amy asked. ‘He always looks as though he’s about to keel over. I can’t imagine that he’d survive a night in your hut.’

‘Good point,’ said Pete. ‘But the key thing is, what, if anything, are we going to do about it?’

‘We could stake out the hut,’ said Amy. ‘Take it in turns to see if anyone pitches up.’

‘Sounds a bit drastic,’ said Saffron, ‘and I’m not sure if I want to spend a chilly evening on the allotments. What happens if we find him and he turns nasty?’

‘Ah, then you’ll need some big burly, hunky men to tackle him,’ said Pete, preening.

‘What, like you?’ Saffron snorted.

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence. If Ben, me, the Guys and Harry took turns we could probably sort out your intruder quite easily.’

‘I think it might be quite an adventure,’ said Amy, her eyes sparkling, the thought of spending an evening under the stars with Ben in the allotments not being without its charm.

‘Oh go on then,’ said Saffron. ‘I suppose we’ve got nothing to lose.’

‘You really are the bloody limit!’ Caroline was shrieking into her mobile as Ben unlocked the front door. He and Amy had cleared the seedbeds, and then she had gone to get Josh. He had badly wanted to suggest going for lunch somewhere, but with Caroline still hanging about he felt sure she would have ended up tagging along somehow. She clearly wasn’t going anywhere for a while, so whatever was going on between him and Amy – and from this morning’s events there clearly now was something going on – was going to have to wait till Caroline had left. As long as she was around it felt like he was part of a cumbersome and unwelcome threesome.

Caroline snapped her mobile off and flounced moodily to the sofa.

‘Bloody Dave,’ she said.

‘What’s he done now?’ Ben felt obliged to ask, when really he couldn’t give a hoot.

‘He’s only insisting on coming over here to see me,’ she said. ‘He wants to patch things up apparently.’

‘Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?’ said Ben, thinking,
Come Dave, come. Take this problem off my hands
.

‘No. It Is So Not a Good Thing,’ scowled Caroline.

‘Why not?’ Ben was puzzled now. Ever since Caroline had got here all she had done was moan about the fact that DBtB had ditched her.

‘Because … because …’ she was practically panting the words, and looking at him in a distinctly seductive way. ‘I’ve unfinished business here.’

‘Oh?’ Ben felt his heart sink.

‘You must feel it too, Ben,’ said Caroline, getting up and slowly moving towards him.

‘What?’ Ben backed off in alarm, hands in the air. Good God, was she about to make a play for him? Couldn’t she see how things stood between him and Amy? Or maybe she couldn’t. Caroline was so self-obsessed, it was probably impossible for her to imagine that anyone else might have taken her place in Ben’s affections.

‘The chemistry between us,’ she said in a playful manner. ‘Come on, Ben, I know it’s not just on my side.’

‘Oh, but it is, Caroline, it is.’ Panic was making Ben blunter than he would have been under normal
circumstances. ‘I’m sorry, but whatever you imagine was between us, it’s over. I’m not in love with you, if I ever was. I’m in love with Amy.’

I’m in love with Amy
. The words had just tumbled from his mouth and he meant every one of them. ‘And I also think you should stop playing silly games with Dave and decide just what it is you want from life.’

Caroline crumpled instantly, as if he had slapped her on the cheek.

‘You can’t mean that,’ she wailed, tears flowing freely. How did she do that? It was a real talent.

‘I can and I do,’ said Ben. Flight was now clearly the only option. ‘So get used to it.’ And so saying he turned round and fled from the house, leaving Caroline to curse her misfortune.

Amy’s heart leapt when the doorbell rang and she heard Josh say, ‘Mummy, it’s Ben.’ She had been going to ask Ben back for lunch, but they had been disturbed by Caroline and Harry coming to tell them about Saffron’s break-in. And then she couldn’t quite work out a way of inviting Ben and not the other two without appearing rude. So she had said nothing, gone to pick up Josh and hoped that Ben would contact her. And now he had.

‘I’m not intruding, am I?’ Ben followed her into the kitchen. He seemed a bit out of breath and flustered.

‘What do you think?’ Amy said with a grin. ‘I was hoping you’d come. I hope you like pasta salad. I’ve made enough to feed an army. And fusspot in there –’
she indicated the lounge where Josh was trouncing monsters on the PlayStation ‘– has today decided that, having been his favourite, he no longer likes it.’

‘Pasta salad sounds fabulous,’ said Ben. ‘Mind you, the way I feel at the moment, anything sounds fabulous. Especially anything cooked by you.’

Amy blushed, but she felt warm all over.

‘Where’s Caroline?’

‘I left her at home, sobbing on the sofa because her boyfriend’s ditched her and I showed no inclination to take his place.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’ Ben came over to her and put his arms around her. ‘I told her my heart belonged to another woman.’

‘Is that so?’ Amy replied.

‘It certainly is,’ Ben said, and started kissing her.

‘Caroline! What a nice surprise,’ Saffron said, with more enthusiasm than she felt, as she opened the door to her one-time business partner. Ever since Caroline’s return, she had acknowledged that they would inevitably have to meet up at some point to discuss business, if only to work out a way to dissolve their partnership. For a while there, Caroline had been making a healthy profit while doing sweet f.a. and swanning round the world, but since the drip, drip loss of their clients, her profits (and Saffron’s too) had plummeted.

The difference was that Caroline had wealthy parents, whereas Saffron did not. And while Saffron’s contribution to the family’s income wasn’t huge, it was welcome, and she and Pete were beginning to miss it sorely. God knows how Amy was managing. Saffron was guiltily aware that Amy might have to do some more supply teaching if this carried on, and wished more than ever that she could get to the bottom of who was badmouthing them. With all of that worry, the last thing she wanted to have to deal with was Caroline wanting to know why the business was failing so badly.

As it turned out, she needn’t have worried. Caroline hadn’t come to talk about business. She just needed an audience for her woes.

‘Oh, Saffron,’ Caroline burst into loud noisy sobs as Saffron took her through into the kitchen, ‘why is my life such a mess?’

Because you thrive on it? Because you create the mess? Saffron bit her lip to prevent herself from blurting out a few home truths. Instead she put on the kettle, sat Caroline down, gave her the obligatory hug, while simultaneously sitting Ellie in her high chair, letting Pete know that he should stay out of the kitchen if he knew what was good for him, and starting the tea. Becky and Matt had both gone to a party. Caroline carried on regardless. She barely paused for breath when Saffron re-entered the room, indeed, Saffron had the sneaking suspicion that Caroline hadn’t even noticed she’d gone. She’d certainly not noticed Ellie, whom she’d not yet met.