Page 80 of Forgive Me Not
Suddenly Gail was at her side, patting Emma’s shoulder. ‘You really do talk too much.’
Emma gave her mum the tightest hug, burrowing her face in Gail’s shoulder.
‘There, there…’ said Gail, stroking her hair as if her daughter were Dash. ‘How about some fish and chips?’
Chapter 29
Due to the soup run, Stig was now a dab hand in the kitchen and helped Emma prepare the food for the barbecue. For once, the bank holiday delivered the sunniest weather. Mrs Beatty had stopped crossing the road when they met, and gave Emma a discount on some pretty paper napkins and plates. Bill the butcher even gave her some discarded cuts to be cut up for the rough sleepers’ dogs. In return, she gave them both some surplus fruit from the farm. All the village businesses had continued to help each other out. Emma could sense a common bond strengthening at the prospect of their first Sunday market in the autumn.
She had insisted on paying for the barbecue and reckoned Aunt Thelma would have approved. She’d been looking into veterinary nurse courses and it had helped that Phil had reduced her rent. She was going to help him with a business proposition he had for Andrea, to build proper animal kennels on part of the farm’s unused land and run them. He was coming round tomorrow night with his plan. And eventually the international arts festival would be over and the rough sleepers would migrate back to the city. Her soup runs would be redundant. Perhaps then she could look for a part-time job to juggle alongside everything else.
At the back of Gail’s recipe book the wad of blank pages continued to rapidly diminish. Instead of Andrea illustrating, Emma took a photo of every finished dish, printed it off and stuck it in. The barbecue provided the perfect opportunity to be creative, and she veered slightly from Gail’s menu. She made a large raspberry tart with lemon drizzle over the top, as well as the chocolate one and the mocha muffins. Stig put his mind to making the cheese and caramelised onion quiche. Gail carried out the safe tasks like washing tomatoes. She also enjoyed folding the paper napkins several times over.
Stig set up a couple of trestle tables in front of the barn, and found as many chairs as he could – Andrea had invited a couple of extra friends, such as the chemist, who was very informative explaining Gail’s various tablets. Stig lit the coals and set out the meat. Soon smoke wafted into the air.
Emma looked at her watch. Quarter to three. Joe had already arrived, and after a catch-up had headed over to Stig to help with the grilling. The remaining guests would be here any minute. They were lucky with the weather, which offered that perfect combination of blue skies and a pleasant breeze.
The first car to pull up belonged to Bligh. They hadn’t seen him for a week. He’d announced he needed a break. In his absence, Stig had been a godsend. He’d helped with the heavy manual tasks and lightened the evening atmosphere with his tales about travel. He would sometimes read to Gail in front of the barn. He and Emma had picked up a load of animal stories he thought suitable from the charity shop. They were never sure if she took them in, but the steady sound of his voice seemed to calm her before bed.
‘Looks good,’ Bligh said to Emma as he walked past the trestle tables. Dash ran around barking, the Duchess trying to keep up. ‘How have things been?’
‘Fine. Stig’s got stuck in with the harvesting and has learnt how to make jam.’
‘Great, because I’ve come back with some fresh ideas on how we can expand our range of online products, so it might mean that for the foreseeable future I’ll be working at the computer. Perhaps you, Andrea and I could have a meeting in the next day or two. We can discuss the plans you had about introducing seasonal ranges for Easter and Christmas, and widening the sweet range, such as making fruit biscuits. I think you may be onto something there.’ His voice sounded business-like.
He jerked his head and they moved away from everyone else.
‘I’ve thought about things, and firstly, I want to apologise for that time I said I preferred you drunk. I wasn’t myself. You coming back… it’s taken a bit of getting used to.’
‘You don’t need to—’
‘Please. Let me finish. I feel you should know… the so-called cancer specialist in Germany – it turned out to be a scam. We found out after Dad passed away. So even if we’d got him over there, in the end it wouldn’t have made any difference.’
Emma put a hand to her throat. So she hadn’t been involved inanyone’sdeath.
‘I probably should have told you sooner,’ he said in a strained voice, ‘but you still took away his hope, and mine, during those last days.’
He gave her a hard stare before heading inside to take a look at the new boiler that had been fitted while he was away.
‘Are the guests arriving soon?’ asked Gail, who was standing nearby fiddling with a chocolate wrapper.
‘Yes. Any minute now,’ said Emma. Her voice wavered. She pulled a tissue out of her trouser pocket and dabbed her eyes.
Gail tilted her head and studied Emma’s face. ‘You’re a good girl – even with all that talking.’
Their eyes locked. Emma took her mum’s hand, blinked away tears and lightly squeezed.
Andrea came outside. ‘Did you remember to make ice cubes?’ she asked sharply. ‘I’ll bring the lemonade out in a minute.’
‘Yes,’ replied Emma. ‘Three trayfuls. Hopefully that will be enough.’
Andrea nodded. ‘Mum’s got a slight sniffle. Polly wants me to go to the cinema with her tonight, but I’m not sure.’
‘Go, Andrea. You said yourself it’s months since you last saw a film. If anything happens, I’ll text you immediately. I can stay here as late as you want, and I was going to get that ironing done anyway.’
‘I’ll decide later,’ Andrea said. Her jaw set in a determined line.
Ted arrived with his wife and grandkids, who immediately headed off to pet the rabbits. Polly and Alan were next. Alan marched straight past, but Polly stopped.
