Page 5 of Best Summer Ever

‘No thanks,’ I said lightly, as I sat opposite him and pushed it back, trying not to let the shock of how much he seemed to have aged show on my face, ‘I’d like a bigger bowl than that. I haven’t eaten for hours.’

Mum ladled out a generous helping of her chicken and tarragon soup from the vast pot on the always-warm Aga and then cut a great chunk of fresh bread to go along with it.

‘Butter?’ she offered.

‘Yes, please.’ I nodded. ‘And why don’t you have some soup too, Mum?’ I suggested. ‘Dad had left you a note at the cottage, saying he’d missed you when he had his lunch, so I know you haven’t had anything since breakfast.’

Algy looked contrite when I said that.

‘I suppose I could,’ Mum agreed, quickly setting herself up. ‘Iamhungry.’

The soup was as sublime as I remembered, and Mum and I hadn’t eaten much before Algy also picked up his spoon, as I had hoped he would, and began to slurp. Mum gave me a knowing side-eye, which I didn’t return in case Algy saw and for a minute or two we all carried on eating in silence.

‘So,’ I said, reaching for the butter and a knife, when I’d had almost half of my soup, ‘what’s been occurring here then? I’m afraid I haven’t been in touch as often as I should have been just lately.’

‘Your father and I assumed that was because your new job was keeping you so busy, Daisy,’ Mum said, between mouthfuls. ‘How’s it going?’

The fact that I’d randomly turned up on a Monday was all the answer she should have needed and I felt annoyed withmyself for pulling her thoughts back to me when I’d done such a decent job of diverting her before.

‘I took a bit of a tumble while I was out in the garden,’ Algy said, kindly and no doubt, knowingly, coming to my rescue, just like I’d tried to come to his. ‘No real harm done. Just a bit of a bump on the head but everyone seems to think I need treating with kid gloves as a result.’

‘Oh, Algy!’ I gasped, playing devil’s advocate. ‘You had a fall.’

He looked at me and shook his head.

‘I prefer to call it atumble,’ he said snootily, as some of the more familiar light started to twinkle in his blue eyes and he readjusted his paisley-patterned cravat, ‘as I’m sure you are well aware because I’ve just described it as such.’ I grinned at that. ‘A fall makes me sound decrepit and I’m not that.’

‘But you will be if you don’t eat your soup up like a good boy,’ I teasingly nudged. ‘You’ll be so weak, you’ll need one of those walking frames to get about.’

‘Daisy!’ Mum admonished, sounding shocked.

‘Can you imagine?’ Algy groaned.

‘Yes,’ I winked.

‘I’ve already got a stairlift,’ he then tutted, sounding disgusted. ‘Had it put in last year.’

‘Did you?’ I clapped. ‘Can I have a go?’

‘Daisy!’ Mum scolded again.

‘Oh, she’s all right,’ said Algy, defending me, just like he used to when I got into scrapes when I was growing up. ‘It’s very slow, but you’re welcome to play on it if you really want to.’

‘Come on then,’ I said, clattering my spoon in the bowl. ‘Let’s go and have a look at it and see what it can do.’

By the time Mum and I walked back to the cottage later that afternoon, I’d been up and down the stairs three times at a snail’s pace and there was some colour in Algy’s previously pale cheeks.

‘You’ve always been able to twist him around your little finger,’ Mum said, linking her arm through mine. ‘I haven’t been able to get him to eat a thing and then you show up and he’s suddenly stuffing his face.’ We’d also had tea and a huge slice of carrot cake before we’d left. ‘Andhe’s up to mischief again.’

‘What can I say?’ I laughed. ‘I have a gift.’

‘You have many,’ said Mum, squeezing me closer. ‘I just wish you could find a job where you can put them to good use. I take it you haven’t driven all the way back to Wynmouth on a single day off? You haven’t been with your new employer more than five minutes, so you can’t have accrued some holiday already and where exactly is Laurence?’

The barrage of questions made me realise I wouldn’t be able to put my explanation off for much longer.

‘I’ll tell you and Dad together.’ I swallowed. ‘Look, here he comes now.’

As Dad started work so early during the summer months, he generally finished around four in the afternoon. Well, I say finished, he still went out in the evening to check gates were locked, water the containers and baskets, and close up the greenhouses and cold frames.

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