Page 4 of Sunny Sundays at Primrose Hall

‘I’ll be five minutes!’

Katy sighed, frustration bubbling up inside. Why was it when she had organised rare precious time to get on with her own work that Brad was always dragging his heels, leaving everything to the last minute? She knew he had a busy job, that there were always emails to reply to or pressing research work he needed to get on with, but her time was just as important as his. It wasn’t fair on her or the children that they all had to wait around until he was ready.

With the children wrapped up in their coats, Katy called again, trying to keep her voice even.

‘Brad, come on. The kids are ready and waiting.’

Moments later, he came bounding downstairs with his normal wave of exuberant energy.

‘Are we ready?’ A big smile on his face, his enthusiasm radiating from his broad masculine physique. ‘Are we going to have fun?’

‘Yes!’ the children squealed, their high-pitched screams like a drill through Katy’s head. She pressed her lips together and winced. At least it would be Brad who would have to deal with their high jinks, their over-excitement and the inevitable exhausted and fractious slump that would come later.

‘I could really do with getting on with some work afterwards,’ he said, as an aside to Katy as he bundled the children into the back of the car. ‘Are you okay if we come back before lunch?’

‘Brad! You promised. How often do I get a chance to have some time to myself? I won’t get anything done once you bring them home. I’ll have to pack all my gear away.’ Brad woulddisappear upstairs to his office and Katy would be left to deal with two overwrought children. ‘You said you’d take them out for lunch and then into town. I’ve got my first stint at the stables coming up soon and I really need the time to get everything organised.’

‘Fine. It just means I’ll have to work tonight. Sorry, Katy, but there’s a lot of preparation I still need to do for next week’s conference.’ He kissed her on the forehead before climbing into the car. She plastered on a smile and waved to Rosie and Pip, who were grinning from the back seats.

Of course, she realised the importance of Brad’s job. He was a senior lecturer at the university, a demanding and time-consuming role, and it was that which paid the bills. Her fledgling design company had started out as a hobby but it was so much more than that now. It was her escape, her passion, something of her own that she could put her energy into, where she could express herself creatively. On those rare occasions when she had the opportunity to work on her projects, she would completely forget about everything else going on in her life. For that short space of time, she wasn’t mum to Rosie and Pip, or wife to Brad, she could simply be herself, Katy.

When the car was out of sight, she returned to the table and set to work, feeling a load leave her shoulders. Her task for today was to turn her recently drawn illustrations of woodland creatures, rabbits, deer, foxes and ducks in bright eye-catching designs into individual and packs of cards. She was also putting together colouring cards for children, which she knew might be popular if Rosie’s reaction had been anything to go by. It was two weeks until the first of the craft fairs this year at Primrose Hall and Katy was excited to get back to the stables to meet up again with the other traders. Last year they’d formed a lovely little community and those Sundays selling their hand-crafted wares to the visitors had been such enjoyable and positive dayswith a group of people she now considered to be her friends. There’d been so much laughter, chatter and support and she’d missed those sessions over the winter period. In the meantime, she’d been as busy as her limited time had allowed, adding to her range of products, and she couldn’t wait to put them on sale to gauge the reaction from her customers. She only hoped Brad had remembered that the craft fairs would be fortnightly from now on, which meant he would need to step up for childcare duty. She sighed and took a sip from her mug of coffee. Well, she had told him often enough and if he hadn’t remembered then he would get a sharp reminder very soon.

4

‘Ooh, look at this!’ Pia was sitting at the kitchen table, poring over her mobile phone. ‘It sounds as though Ronnie and Rex are having a whale of a time. They’ve had a few days on the coast and they’re off to Rouen tomorrow for a bit of sightseeing. Then they’re going to drive all the way down to the south to find a campsite. The photos look amazing.’

Pia scrolled through the stream of pictures that Ronnie had sent over, feeling a pang of longing for them both.

‘Do you want to see?’ Pia held the phone over to Jackson, who took a cursory glance. ‘I’m so pleased they’re enjoying themselves, but it’s very quiet around here without the pair of them dropping in and out of the kitchen at all hours of the day, don’t you think?’

‘I know, it’s great, isn’t it?’ said Jackson, with undisguised glee.

Ronnie lived in her well-loved motorhome, a van that had transported her to many destinations around the UK and Europe, but had been happily parked up in the grounds of Primrose Hall for the last couple of years, ever since her son Jackson had moved into the newly refurbished hall. She’d beenoffered her own living quarters inside the grand house, but Ronnie had insisted she would prefer to stay in the van, which was decked out, in her distinctive style, in colourful fabrics and cushions, with all her knick-knacks around her. It gave her a sense of freedom and independence to know that she could head off in the van if ever she needed to. It was something she’d often done in her younger years, especially when Jackson was growing up, leaving her son to live with her sister Marie, while Ronnie had gone off to follow her dreams, but in recent times she’d given up on her wanderlust tendencies.

That was until Rex popped up again in their lives. He’d turned up in the village after several years living on the Continent and had found a place to stay with some old friends, eager to build bridges with the son whose childhood he had largely missed out on. He hadn’t known that his ex, Ronnie, was in residence in the grounds of the hall, and getting to know each other again had been fraught with tension, with all their past grievances being brought to the surface. It had only taken a few weeks, though, before Ronnie was charmed all over again by Rex’s cheeky chappie persona and while Jackson had been very wary about his parents rekindling any kind of relationship, not relishing the idea of revisiting the drama he remembered from his childhood, they had done exactly that, in spite of him. Towards the end of last year, Rex had accepted Jackson’s invitation to move into the hall and Pia, for one, loved living alongside Jackson’s family, probably more so than Jackson did, if you were to believe all his mumbles and grumbles.

‘I miss them.’ Pia let out a heartfelt sigh, putting the phone down on the table. She suspected Jackson did too, but she knew he would never admit to such a thing. ‘I hope they don’t stay away too long.’

‘Don’t worry, they’ll be home before we know it and it will be as if they’d never been away. You know, we could surprisethem.’ Jackson reached across the table and took hold of Pia’s hand. ‘We could take some time off and go and get married somewhere. Just the two of us. It would be romantic, don’t you think?’

Pia flashed him a glance to check that he was joking, but saw from his expression that he was absolutely serious.

‘No! You can’t mean that? Just think how disappointed your mum would be if we presented it as a done deal.’ Pia glanced down at the diamond sparkling on her left hand. It was a few months since Jackson had proposed unexpectedly and she still hadn’t got used to the sight of the ring on her finger.

‘But it shouldn’t be about anyone else. It should be about us. What we want?’

‘Oh, Jackson!’ She leant out of her chair and flung her arms around his neck. ‘I know that. And it’s exactly what I want, sharing our special day with all our family and friends. Don’t you?’

Jackson shrugged noncommittally.

‘To be honest, as long as you’re there on the day, I’ll be happy.’ He gazed across at her, his dark brown eyes sparkling with intent. ‘You do realise Ronnie will want to take over. She’ll be absolutely unbearable.’

‘No, she won’t. She’s just happy for us. And why shouldn’t she be? It’s not every day that her only son gets married and it’s to be expected that she would want to play a central part in the preparations for the wedding. Here at the hall. You can’t deny her that small pleasure.’

They’d already hosted a couple of weddings in the renovated oak barn at the hall, one for Pia’s brother, Connor, and his wife Ruby, and another for Pia’s friend Abbey and her husband Sam. They had been joyful, intimate occasions made all the more special by the beauty of their surroundings. Why would Pia want to get married anywhere else?

Jackson sat back in his chair and puffed out his cheeks.

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