Coming Home to Cuckoo Cottage Read online

  ‘Morning,’ grinned Mags, the second I opened the door. ‘And how are we feeling this morning?’

  I bent to grab Minnie’s collar, thinking it would be better to keep her out of the way until the hens were settled, but she was far too quick for me and darted between my legs and out into the far brighter than usual, to my mind, sunshine.

  ‘Hungover,’ I admitted, grateful for the protection the sunglasses afforded, ‘and a bit embarrassed, to be honest.’

  ‘Nice glasses,’ winked Jake, as he unloaded a straw bale and some bags of feed.

  I stuck out my tongue and he laughed, looking ridiculously bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

  ‘What are you embarrassed about?’ frowned Mags as she handed me the basket I had used to transport my bread rolls to the party.

  ‘Putting my foot in it with you and Liam, of course,’ I said, dumping the basket in the hall and slamming the door behind me.

  The noise made my head thump again and I thought I’d perhaps better take a couple more painkillers when I offered everyone tea.

  ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ tutted Mags, linking arms, ‘I wouldn’t worry about that. People are always doing it, and how were you to know we aren’t together? We’ve never talked about it, have we?’

  ‘Well no,’ I shrugged, wondering again that if it was so very obvious to the rest of the world that they were made for each other, then why couldn’t they see it. ‘I suppose not. I just felt a bit silly, that’s all.’

  ‘You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d seen the state Henry was in when he left,’ Jake chipped in, having only caught the end of our exchange.

  ‘Oh really?’

  ‘Really,’ Jake laughed. ‘Jessica was furious with him. They’re supposed to be heading to her parents’ for some big fancy family get-together today, but Henry can’t even open his eyes yet. The poor bugger.’

  ‘I blame you and that cider jug,’ tutted Mags. ‘You were far too generous with it last night.’

  ‘I think you might be right,’ mused Jake. ‘Jess told Amber on the phone this morning that she had to stop twice on the journey home.’

  ‘Too much information, thanks,’ I said, waving my hand. ‘Now, come on, Ed. Tell me what I have to do with these chickens.’

  The little coop and run was quickly checked over, thanks to Ed’s expert attention, and it was soon time to release the hens from their box. They had been patiently waiting in the shade where I could hear them clucking quietly and no doubt wondering what on earth was going on, as was I, to be honest. How had I even ended up with three hens so soon after moving in? Minnie sat close by, overseeing proceedings, but not with any intention of getting in the way. She was calm and poised and seemed to be taking everything in her stride and I resolved to try and follow her lead.

  ‘I thought you were going to be bringing them in pet carriers,’ I said to Jake, a sudden flashback of the conversation we’d had the night before popping into my head.

  ‘We were,’ he said, ‘but then Amber found this box in the barn and we thought it would probably be a bit roomier for them.’

  ‘Right,’ I said, my mind still grappling with what else might have been said.

  ‘OK,’ he said, pointing at me, ‘you go in the run with Ed and I’ll pass you the box.’

  I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, but the sooner I got stuck in, the better, I guessed.

  ‘Don’t we have to shut them up for a bit?’ I asked.

  I could remember once seeing something on TV about letting chickens get used to their bearings before setting them free.

  ‘No,’ said Ed, ‘it isn’t like you’re keeping them completely free-range. They’ll soon work out where things are for themselves, and besides, it would be a bit hot to keep them cooped up today.’

  ‘Of course,’ I agreed, deferring to his words of wisdom.

  He gently opened the lid on the box and out jumped the little dark hen. With much clucking and feather-shaking she began to explore her new home, but the other two sat tight, huddled together in a corner.

  ‘Come on,’ said Ed, reaching inside and indicating that I should do the same.

  He gently picked out the little grey and I tentatively put my hands around the lavender. She was as light as a feather and zipped off after her friends the second I set her down. I stood back up, a sudden thud reminding me that I still wasn’t out of the woods on the headache front, and admired my latest additions to Cuckoo Cottage. They looked rather pretty strutting about and I liked the sounds they made as they began to scratch and explore.

  ‘Ed has made you a “what-to-do-with-them” sheet,’ said Mags, from her viewpoint outside the run. ‘I’ll get it out of the van.’

  ‘Thanks, Ed,’ I said. ‘I think I’m going to need it.’

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ he said, with the certainty of someone far older than eleven. ‘They’re really easy.’

  ‘You must tell me how much you want for them,’ I said to Jake as I followed Ed out of the run and locked it behind me.

  ‘A cup of tea and a bacon sandwich will probably cover it,’ he winked.

  ‘Seriously?’

  ‘Seriously.’

  With a plate of more of my wonky rolls filled with the delicious Skylark Farm bacon Jake just happened to have brought with him, and a pot of tea, the three of us sat under the cherry tree while Ed headed off with Minnie to inspect the field.

  ‘So you had a good time last night, then?’ Jake asked.

  ‘I had a brilliant time,’ I confirmed. ‘Thank you so much for inviting me and thank you for the lift there, Mags.’

  ‘And you haven’t forgotten about our deal over the minivan, have you?’ she said, eyebrows raised.

  ‘No,’ I sighed, looking at the little custard yellow contraption and thinking it was far bigger than I remembered. ‘I haven’t forgotten.’

  I wondered if Will would still be willing to give me driving lessons now we had crossed swords, yet again.

  ‘Excellent,’ said Mags, clapping her hands together and reaching for another roll. ‘Because we’d like to have everything sorted as soon as possible, wouldn’t we, Jake?’

  ‘Ideally by the end of next week if we can manage it,’ Jake confirmed.

  ‘The end of next week,’ I spluttered, ‘but that’s just five days away, and we haven’t even talked about how much you want for it yet, Mags.’

  ‘Don’t worry about that,’ she said, shaking her dark head. ‘We can come to some arrangement.’

  ‘And I can give you a hand sorting out insurance and everything,’ said Jake kindly.

  I hadn’t even thought about the added cost of insurance on top of everything else. I’d been too worried about the thought of daring to drive.

  ‘Right,’ I said, thinking back to the promise I’d just made to myself to take everything in my stride. ‘End of the week, then. I suppose I’d better tell Chris to call off the search, hadn’t I?’

  ‘If I know how things work around here,’ said Jake, ‘and I think I can safely say that I do, I dare say he knows by now.’

  ‘Um,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘You’re probably right.’

  I wondered if he was still on the hunt for a potential husband and hoped that having found myself four wheels so soon didn’t mean that he would pour all his efforts into seeking out two legs.

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Mags, ‘and if he doesn’t, I’m sure Matt will soon fill him in.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well,’ she expanded, ‘I saw him at the farm collecting his van a minute ago and he couldn’t wait to tell me how he’d helped sort you out when you got back here after the party last night.’

  ‘He didn’t stay,’ I said, my face flushing at the thought of him going around telling everyone a different version of events to the one he had told me. ‘He came back this morning,’

  Mags held up her hand to stop me.

  ‘Don’t panic,’ she quickly added. ‘I don’t think he was trying to suggest that anything had
happened, not that it would have been anyone else’s business if it had.’

  ‘But it didn’t,’ I said firmly.

  ‘I’m just mentioning what he said to make you aware that nothing, absolutely nothing, stays private around here, Lottie, OK?’

  ‘OK,’ I said, ‘thanks.’

  ‘And that some people would be more than willing to put their own spin on things.’

  It was a timely reminder that even though everyone at the party had been lovely, there were still those folk in Wynbridge who weren’t happy about my arrival at Cuckoo Cottage and that they would no doubt love a dollop of juicy gossip to fire their suspicions about me further.

  ‘Right,’ said Jake. ‘I’d better get home. Amber’s having a lie-in this morning. She’s pretty tired at the moment.’

  ‘But she’s all right, isn’t she?’ quizzed Mags, gathering together the empty mugs and plates. ‘She isn’t coming down with anything?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so,’ said Jake, turning as red as I had been just moments before. ‘She’s just been busy, that’s all.’

  Evidently they had somehow managed to keep the fact that she was having another baby a secret, in spite of the well-established Wynbridge bush telegraph, but if Jake carried on turning cherry red every time someone asked after his other half, they wouldn’t for much longer.

  Chapter 16

  With the hens soon settled and Mags’s words ringing in my ears about taking the van off her hands by the end of the week, and also not forgetting the need to order a new shower, of course, I knew another bike ride to Wynbridge was inevitable. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the journey, but on the plus side the trip would at least give me the opportunity to talk to Jemma about the plans she had hinted at for the Bailey.

  Since Matt’s visit to assess the work, and the party, I hadn’t had a chance to pay the caravans much attention at all, but I couldn’t wait to turn my focus back to them, especially now with the extra expenditure adding up. My spirits were on the rise again and now more than ever I needed to find a way to make my new life at Cuckoo Cottage pay its way, and I hoped I would be able to do that without having to travel further afield for work. In my heart I still really believed that there was some gold mine of an idea just waiting for me to strike upon and set me off on a new and exciting path. One, I hoped, that Gwen and Gran would have been proud of.

  Fortunately for me, the week dawned cloudier and with the lengthy cycle ride ahead I was grateful that the dial had been turned down on the searing summer heat. Just as before, Minnie refused to be left behind and stood, front paws perched on the very edge of the bike basket, like some regal figurehead, rather than my scrappy little companion.

  There was no sign of the hare as we slowly made our way along the drove road and it wasn’t long before Minnie was panting and turning around in the basket trying to get comfy.

  ‘Don’t you dare tell me you’re wishing you stayed at home,’ I told her crossly as I wiped my brow, wobbling a little as I pedalled one-handed.

  If she was thinking of her bed in the cool shady kitchen she didn’t dare let on, but I was surprised by how hot it still was, even though the sun was hidden.

  ‘I should think not,’ I said, my own temperature rising with the exertion and my ears conscious of a vehicle approaching from behind.

  Thankfully it was moving at a snail’s pace so I could get away with just pulling over rather than stopping completely. I might have been reasonably fit, but the bike was old and heavy and getting momentum going again would take more effort than I wished to exert at this point in the journey.

  ‘Can I give you a lift?’

  It was Will. He slowly pulled alongside and Minnie jumped back up, her tail wagging and her tongue lolling the second she caught sight of her former caretaker.

  ‘Hello, Minnie,’ he laughed as I grabbed her collar lest she leap out of the basket and into his cab.

  ‘I’m heading to town,’ he said with a nod in the general direction of Wynbridge. ‘Let me take you the rest of the way so you can save your legs for the journey home. Assuming that’s where you’re off to?’

  ‘Yes,’ I nodded, thinking what a different response Minnie gave Will when compared to the one she inflicted on Matt. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Let’s see if we can make it as far as the market square without falling out again, shall we?’ Will smiled as he loaded my bike into the back and opened the passenger door.

  ‘Well, I suppose that rather depends on whether or not you’re going to quiz me about the work I’m having done at the cottage, doesn’t it?’

  ‘I’m not going to say another word about it,’ he said, jumping in and turning over the engine again.

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Other than . . . ’

  ‘Oh here we go,’ I sighed.

  ‘Other than,’ he continued, one hand stroking Minnie’s head as she tried to climb on to his lap, ‘that I hope two of the things on your list are the shower and that dodgy fuse box.’

  ‘Well, in that case,’ I said, lifting Minnie back on to the seat next to me, ‘you should be well pleased that Matt has come to my rescue.’

  ‘So you’re definitely giving him the work then?’

  ‘Because,’ I carried on, ignoring his suspicion of the builder I still couldn’t really remember employing, ‘both of those things were at the very top of his list. In fact, that’s why I’m heading to town today,’ I added with a sniff. ‘I’m going to order a new shower.’

  ‘Brilliant,’ Will smiled. ‘Just don’t go for anything too powerful. The water pressure isn’t great and . . . ’ he looked across at me and shook his head. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘It’s none of my business. How are the hens?’

  I was pleased he had changed the subject, especially to one that I had quickly become so fond of.

  ‘Enchanting,’ I told him. ‘They’re so funny.’

  I didn’t mention that they were also extremely pretty as I wasn’t sure Will appreciated their aesthetics as much as I did.

  ‘I’ve had two eggs already,’ I said, thinking of the smooth, warm beauties I had discovered when I went to let them out of their coop earlier that morning.

  ‘So you’re pleased you’ve got them?’

  ‘Definitely,’ I nodded. ‘Even though I was rather railroaded into it, I think we’re going to get along just fine.’

  ‘And what about taking on Mags’s minivan?’ he asked. ‘You were rather railroaded into that too, weren’t you?’

  ‘Sort of,’ I said. ‘Although I have to admit I was slowly coming round to the idea of buying a car. I just didn’t expect it to happen quite so soon.’

  ‘Sometimes,’ he said, carefully negotiating the bridge over the River Wyn, ‘I think we all need a bit of a shove in the right direction.’

  ‘Are you speaking from experience, by any chance?’

  ‘You have no idea,’ he said, ‘but I meant what I said about driving around with you until you get your confidence back.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I swallowed. ‘I had wondered if you might have changed your mind about that.’

  ‘Not at all,’ he said, competently pulling into a parking space. ‘And I promise I won’t come over all sergeant major if you over-rev the engine a time or two.’

  I couldn’t help but laugh. That was exactly what I had been worried about.

  ‘Well, thank you,’ I said, ‘and thanks for the lift. That distance from the cottage alone is enough to make me think that I’ve made the right choice about the van.’

  ‘I’m sure you have,’ he said, hopping out to retrieve my bike.

  ‘And if you need any help with anything,’ he said, as I climbed out and took hold of the handlebars, ‘anything at all, then please just ask.’

  ‘I will,’ I nodded, not quite able to meet his gaze.

  Perhaps we really had just got off on the wrong foot. I mean, stark naked wasn’t usually how you’d introduce yourself to your new neighbour, was it? There was bound to be some initial
awkwardness after an encounter like that, wasn’t there?

  ‘I’m sure Gwen would have wanted us to be friends,’ he said huskily.

  ‘I’m sure she would,’ I agreed.

  He was right, of course. Gwen was the best judge of character I had ever known. If there had been anything even remotely remiss about her neighbour she would have sniffed it out in a heartbeat.

  ‘Thanks for the lift,’ I said, lifting Minnie back into the basket.

  ‘Any time,’ he smiled, stroking Minnie’s head. ‘See you later, Lottie.’

  ‘Lottie!’ called Jemma in greeting, the second I pushed open the café gate and carefully wheeled the bike and Minnie inside. ‘I’m so sorry I haven’t had a chance to get back to you. We’ve been run off our feet here.’

  ‘Not to worry,’ I said, propping the bike out the way of the other customers and lifting Minnie out of the basket. ‘I’ve been rather busy myself.’

  ‘So I heard,’ she laughed. ‘Hens now, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yep,’ I confirmed.

  ‘Quite the countrywoman already, aren’t you?’ she teased good-naturedly.

  ‘Apparently,’ I laughed, wondering if I was ever going to share a single piece of news that everyone didn’t already know. ‘And I’m almost sorted with a car.’

  She nodded but didn’t say anything, so I guessed she was already privy to that little titbit as well.

  ‘What can I get you?’ she asked. ‘I’m still doing breakfasts if you fancy a rasher or two after the ride in?’

  ‘I’m all right, thanks,’ I said, thinking I’d had enough pork courtesy of the hog roast and morning-after rolls to last me a week or two, ‘and I didn’t cycle in, actually.’

  Jemma looked at the bike.

  ‘Will gave me a lift.’

  ‘Did he now?’ she said, her eyebrows raised in interest. ‘You two are finally getting along, then?’

  ‘So just a coffee please and some toast and the Wi-Fi code, if that’s OK?’ I said, thinking it really wasn’t necessary to add any more fuel to her fire. ‘I’m looking for a new shower.’