Village Secrets (13 page)

‘You may be right, but …’

‘Yes?’

‘This mail-order business. I’ve built that up myself. Agreed, it stemmed from an idea of yours, but the work and the success has been mine – agreed? I’ve felt fulfilled making a success of it. I love Harriet’s Country Cousin marmalades and jams, and the labels! I get a thrill every time I look at them. And the Christmas hampers are bliss! It’s about the only thing apart from you that I can look back on as an achievement which is wholly mine.’ Harriet nodded. ‘I can hardly bear the thought of giving it all up, which I would have to do.’

‘I can’t stand the idea either. I’d have to get someone else to do it.’

‘Obviously I’d give you my shares.’

‘Well, thank you. I shall miss you and so will Jimbo.’

‘I haven’t said yes yet.’

‘No, but I think you will. At the very least you’d keep a rein on his more blatant excesses.’

Sadie looked annoyed. ‘What on earth do you mean?’

‘You know, buying himself a position here in the village.’

‘Oh that. They all know what he’s up to, so why not if the village benefits?’

‘Why not indeed!’

Sadie sat for a while staring at the carpet. She finished the last of her whisky and then said, ‘I might say yes. I could very well say yes. You must understand that my will leaves everything to you and the children, so I wouldn’t want you to worry about that. Craddock has quite enough. He doesn’t need my money, neither do you really, but it’s all yours.’

Harriet got up and went to give her mother a kiss. ‘Your money is the last thought in my head. If you do decide to go for it I hope you’ll be very happy. I hold no brief for my father so I certainly shan’t get in the way if it’s what you want. Mr Fitch would definitely be able to keep you in the style to which you would like to become accustomed!’

Sadie grinned. ‘I shan’t let him take my grandchildren over, though. Definitely not – they’re mine. I do hope it won’t make a difference to Jimbo’s business relationship with him.’

‘I shouldn’t think so.’

Sadie stood to go. ‘Harriet, before I leave you in peace, I should tell you that there was a scene in the Store today.’

‘Really?’

‘Jimbo’s new assistant was serving and I could hear a lot of noise and shouting, so I went to take a look. Simone Paradise was in there with that crowd of little louts she calls her sweeties. They were causing mayhem. Pulling the greetings cards off the shelves and throwing them down. Picking up chocolate and sweets and trying to open the packets up. One took a bite out of an apple … I can’t remember all they did. I protested and told her to get them all out. She hitched the baby up in that ridiculous sling thing she makes from her shawl and said in that slow drawling way she has, “Sweeties, come on we’re leaving now.” I was furious. I asked her what about the cards they’d stamped on and we can’t sell, and the apple they’d bitten a piece out of? To say nothing of the sweets. She said she couldn’t afford to pay for them and it was our fault for having the goods displayed where the children could get hold of them. I’m afraid I saw red. Did my Dame Edith Evans bit, you know the kind of thing. Told her in my most superior manner that she needn’t come back in the Store again with her horde of brats because her kind of business we could well do without. Time she got them under control. Et cetera. Et cetera. Simone fixed me with what can only be described as the evil eye. I’m shuddering now when I think about it. I’m not an imaginative person but I felt as though time had stood still. Then it jerked back into rhythm again and there were the children standing beside her angelic and quite still.’ Sadie visibly pulled herself together. ‘However, what I was going to say was, do watch out for her. She really is odd. Night, night, my dear, take care.’

‘I will. I’ll tell Jimbo. Good night, Mother. Thanks for talking to me about it. The decision is yours in the end, you know.’

‘Yes, but it’s nice to know you would approve if I said yes, which I probably shall. I love you for it, my dear. I hope to be as lucky as you. I adored your Jimbo from the first moment I saw him; you did well there, my love, very well. And thank you for all my grandchildren, too. I’m so proud of them all.’ She leant forward and kissed Harriet and patted her arm. ‘Good night, Harriet. See you tomorrow.’

Harriet closed the door after her mother and decided she couldn’t go back to concentrating on accounts and in any case the boys would soon be home. She switched off the computer and sat for a while in Jimbo’s armchair – his ‘thinking chair’ he called it. If her mother could be as happy as she was with Jimbo then she should go right ahead. Sadie had endured years of loneliness, somewhat alleviated by coming to live in the village just after she and Jimbo bought the Store, but even that wasn’t quite the same as sharing one’s house and one’s bed. A stepfather. Wow!

Harriet felt glad to have been consulted. It wasn’t often her mother let down her guard and spoke of herself and her feelings; it had indeed been a rare moment between the two of them.

The news that Sadie had died in her sleep that night shocked the entire village. More than one of them had been on the receiving end of Sadie’s forthright opinions, and she had in the short time she’d lived in Turnham Malpas become something in the way of a legend. But Sadie
dead
? Her strong life-force, cut down at one stroke? No one could remember ever having seen her looking anything but at her best, always full of pep and get-up-and-go. And so stylish. They’d envied her style. It wasn’t that she spent loads of money on clothes, just that she knew what would flatter her and she’d worn it well. Chic was what she was. Every customer spoke of their horror at the suddenness of her going, or savoured over and over again the times when they’d clashed with her. And no chance to say goodbye even – that was sad, real sad. But then Sadie would have hated any kind of sloppy sentimentality so maybe it was best she went the way she did. All the same. So suddenly …

On the day of her funeral the church was packed with mourners. Not a few noticed that Mr Fitch, grim-faced and silent, was there sitting with the family. But then he would be grim-faced, wouldn’t he? He’d no heart. But what was he doing, sitting with the Charter-Placketts? That he was a close business associate of Jimbo’s they all knew but in the front with family mourners …?

It was the three grandchildren for whom the villagers felt the most compassion. They were devastated and quite uncomprehending of this terrible blow, for Sadie must have been a real fun grandma to have. The two boys wore their Sunday suits and little Flick, bless her, that new coat she was so proud of with its fur collar. They remembered how distressed Sadie had been when Flick had her accident. But it was Sadie now they were mourning.

When the service was finished and Sadie had been laid in her grave, they all noticed that Harriet went to speak to Mr Fitch. Funny that; she’d drawn him to one side so they couldn’t be overheard. Pity – would have been nice to know what they had to say to each other.

‘Craddock, thank you so much for coming,’ Harriet said gently. ‘I do appreciate it. The night before my mother … died, she told me about your proposal.’

‘Did she? Did she?’ Mr Fitch blew his nose and turned away his face and looked across the churchyard towards the yew tree, so she could only see his profile. ‘What did she say about me?’

‘That she found you fascinating.’

He turned back to face her. ‘Was that all?’ The longing in his face overrode anything Harriet might have decided to say and she impulsively said ‘She told me she was going to say yes.’ No one but she knew Sadie hadn’t absolutely made up her mind, but the grief in Craddock’s face was unbearable, and if she could give him some comfort, why not?

‘Really! I’m so glad. When we were young I loved her very much. My word, she was a spirited young thing. Still is. Was, I mean. If we’d married then, we’d have had some rare old fights. But now it would have been very rich, but without the fights. I think. Maybe not! I’m very sorry for you, Harriet, but it was a lovely way for her to go. She would have hated being less than herself – you know, crippled or senile. This was the best for her, but not for you and me. Thank you for telling me that.’

He clasped both her hands in his and then raised them to his lips and kissed them. ‘Thank you, my dear. You would have made a lovely stepdaughter. I should have been proud. So proud.’

Harriet kissed his cheek, Mr Fitch turned away and left the graveyard. Then Jimbo gathered the children and Harriet, and took them home, so the other mourners never did find out what they’d said, but then they remembered that Sadie and old Fitch had known each other years ago. That’s right. That’d be why.

‘I’ll pick up Fran and we’ll take off these black things and put on something jolly. It’s what she would have wanted, Harriet.’

‘We ought really to be having a big party with lots of drink and fun. She always loved parties.’

‘I know, but we both agreed it would be too hard on the children. They wouldn’t understand.’

‘No, perhaps you’re right. Oh Jimbo!’ Harriet laid her head against his shoulder and wept the first tears since her mother’s death. Jimbo hugged her tightly until the tears slowed. ‘There, there, darling, you’ll feel better for that. It’s no good thinking we shall all be over it in no time at all; it’s going to take an age, but she wouldn’t have wanted us to be miserable, she’d rather we were brave and carried on. She’s left such lovely memories for us all.’

‘I know, but I shall miss her. She was so young to die. I thought she’d be a grand old lady for years and years.’

‘So did I. I had the distinct feeling she’d outlive us all, but there we are.’

‘I’m so glad she came to see me the night before. We had the closest conversation we’ve had in years. Do you think she had a premonition?’

‘Bit too practical a chap I am to know about those kind of things. Just be grateful she did come and you did talk.’

‘I can hardly bring myself to speak about it, but you know the post mortem? Well, it wasn’t really conclusive, was it? They couldn’t really find out why her heart had stopped, could they?’

‘No. All very odd. Felt sorry for old Fitch.’ Jimbo wiped Harriet’s face for her. ‘All that happiness snatched away.’

‘I told him she’d definitely been going to say yes.’

‘That was a bit of a fib, darling.’

‘Only a teeny weeny bit of a fib, but it did bring him comfort.’

Flick appeared in the hall. ‘There, look, I’m wearing the dress Grandma bought me in the summer. She loved it and so do I. It still fits me, look. Mummy, Fran won’t remember Grandma, will she?’

‘No, darling, she won’t.’

‘Don’t cry any more, Mummy, please. I’m going to get lots of photos and put them in an album and call it Grandma’s and then we can show it to Fran when she gets older, and we’ll tell her about playing cards for big money, and all the naughty things Grandma did, like having her hair dyed, although you’d never have guessed if you didn’t know, would you, and such.’

‘Thank you, Flick, that will be lovely. I think you’d better put a cardigan on, darling, or you’ll be cold.’

‘All right, I will. Daddy, who will do the mail-order now?’

‘I haven’t worked that one out yet. Do you have any ideas?’

‘If I was older it could be me.’

‘You’d do a very good job, I’m sure. I shall have to put my studying cap on.’

‘It’ll have to be someone good. Grandma wouldn’t like it all to fail, would she?’

‘No, she wouldn’t.’

Suddenly Harriet was crying again and she fled upstairs and shut the bedroom door with a slam.

‘Daddy, shall I …?’

‘No, I’ll go and collect Fran from the rectory then we’ll make a cup of tea and take it up to her in a little while, that’ll be best.’ Jimbo patted Flick’s shoulder and strode away to the rectory. Little Fran screamed when she saw her Daddy had come to collect her. She wanted to stay with the twins and she wasn’t going home. No! No! No! But Jimbo insisted. He knew that cuddling Fran would be a great comfort to Harriet right now.

‘Thank you, Sylvia, thank you very much. Hope she’s not been too much trouble.’

‘Certainly not. Good as gold.’

Trying to get the mail orders off in between all his other activities was too much for Jimbo. He knew Sadie had liked to send orders off by return if it was at all possible, and he was failing dismally on that score.

The morning after the funeral, Barry Jones’ mother came in and asked him how he was coping.

‘Not too good. One never really appreciates how much work people do until they’re not there any more. The mail orders are piling up and Sadie would be angry if she knew.’ He took off his boater and rubbed his bald head in agitation. ‘Now, what can I do for you?’

‘What can I do for you, more like. If it’s just a question of reading an order, picking the items out and packing them up in them lovely boxes you ’ave and addressing a few labels, I could do that temporary like till you find someone. Wouldn’t be any good with accounts or anything, but the rest is a question of common sense, isn’t it, really?’

‘Do you mean that?’

‘Wouldn’t say it if I didn’t. You and I, Mr Charter-Plackett, have not always seen eye to eye, but I don’t mind ’elping someone in trouble. A bit of extra money towards our Barry’s wedding would be very useful too, but we’ll discuss that later when we see if you’re satisfied with what I’ve done. What do you say?’