Page 81 of A Year at Appleyard Farm
Willow stared at the room around her, feeling quite overcome with emotion. ‘I’m absolutely gobsmacked, Merry. I can’t believe that you’ve done all this for me. It’s perfect.’ Her eyes were shining, but she made no move to wipe the tears away.
Merry clasped her hands. ‘It’s perfect for us too, you know. The shop needed something to make it stand out—’ She caught sight of Willow’s face and laughed. ‘Yes, apart from the décor! We needed to find a niche in the market that would set us above being simply the village shop. I wanted this place to be something special, and you and Freya have provided the perfect start for us. I’ve spent the last few days touring the villages and towns locally, and I’ve found the most amazing suppliers, from cheeses, to wines and everything else in between, and all from small businesses within a twenty mile radius. I want to turn us into a gourmet food centre. We can offer the products online and do food demonstrations and—’ She stopped suddenly. ‘What’s the matter, Willow? Are you okay?’
Willow was aware that her mouth had dropped open. She closed it, a huge grin immediately swamping her face as a tide of excitement swept over her. ‘I don’t suppose you need any extra space for these demonstrations…or courses even…’
Merry narrowed her eyes. ‘Why, what are you thinking?’ she asked.
‘Only that Peter and I were chatting the other day, like you, trying to come up with something that might make us a bit different from the competition. Purely by chance, one of his friends gave us the most brilliant idea.’
‘Go on,’ said Merry, intrigued.
‘I had a few of Peter’s friends over for a day recently to help us pick elderflowers and gooseberries. One of them, a young girl, seemed quite nervous to start with, but as the day went on, forgive the pun, she really blossomed. I’ve just had a message from her to say thanks for giving her the opportunity to help out, and how much she had enjoyed the experience. It struck me that we could offer residential cookery courses or retreats, perhaps in exchange for help to make our products. We could incorporate all kinds of things so that people learn new skills or have a chance to brush up on old ones, and while we’re doing that, we get a ready workforce. We’ve got that huge barn we could transform as time goes on, and if any of your suppliers would be willing to come and teach their skills as well, then—’
It was Merry’s turn to have her mouth drop open. ‘Oh, my God,’ she said slowly. ‘We have to make this work, Willow.Country Livingare going to love this! They want to talk to me about what we’ve already done here, but also what plans we have in the future to develop the shop. They’re very keen on the flourishing rural business angle. If we can come up with ways like this of linking all our businesses, it would be perfect.’
‘When are they coming?’ Willow breathed.
‘Next Friday, a little over a week away. We’ve probably just got time to pull something together for them. It doesn’t have to be concrete, but we would need to show how it might work, how we would set it up in principle, what resources we have, that kind of thing. Would that be possible, do you think, or are we just plain mad?’
Willow gave an excited squeal. ‘Mad!’ She laughed. ‘Mad as March bloody hares, but we have to do this, Merry, we have to!’
The journey back into town passed in a blur of wild ideas, and Willow had parked the car before she realised that she couldn’t even remember turning into the High Street. She was desperate to get back home and speak to Peter, but she needed to stop and get some extra cash out for him. It was payday at the end of the week, but he had put in so many extra hours of late that a little bonus was the least she could do.
Willow snatched up her bag from the passenger side and was only about fifty metres or so from the bank when she realised that Jude was standing on the pavement outside, and he wasn’t alone. He shook Henry’s hand, his left arm reaching out to grip his shoulder in the classic configuration of a deal just sealed. She would have waved, had her ears not been filled with a sudden roaring, and for a moment she was completely disorientated.
Somehow, she made it back to the car, where she sat for a little while, shaking, before starting the engine and drawing away as slowly as she could. She needed time to think and had no desire to be seen by anyone she knew, least of all her husband. She drove at a snail’s pace along the back road and eventually stopped the car just over the bridge into their village, throwing open the door and drawing in lungs full of fresh air. She breathed deeply for a few minutes, trying to calm the voices in her head. Voices that mocked and derided her. How could she have been so stupid, so complacent? So very wrong.
After a few minutes, she drove off again, more purposeful this time, heat gathering at the back of her neck, and a burning anger swelling inside her. In the past, her dreams had been little more than pointers, a heightened sense of intuition perhaps, but always clear in their meaning. They had never sought to mislead her or caused her any real anxiety, but these past few weeks had been so different. The visions had been vivid, powerful even, consuming her senses for several minutes at a time, and in the last couple of days not confined to night-time either, when her perception was surely at its greatest. But still she had missed something, perhaps the most vital thing of all. She had seen a glimpse into a future, of that she was sure, but until today, she had mistakenly believed Andrew to be at the root of it all. It had never crossed her mind that it might be someone else…She needed to see more, had to know if what she’d seen today was the truth, and there was only one place she could do it: by the very fields that were the source of her vision.
The driveway was empty as she turned up to the house, and she abandoned the car at an angle, keys still in the ignition. In a matter of minutes, she had reached her destination and she stood in front of the five-bar gate that lead onto the track and the open land beyond.
It was here that she had first seen the horrific sight of their fields torn asunder to make way for row upon row of houses. The meadow-land with its wild flowers and grasses, home to so many, all gone; ripped away to make homes of a different kind. She put her hands on the gate, dropped her head and closed her eyes.
She had expected the vision to come to her straight away. Sometimes at night now it clamoured for her attention so much she had to fight to push it away, but now all she felt was a deep and languid peace, quite the opposite from what she had been expecting. It confused her even more. Here, in the very place she had seen in her dream, the images should be stronger than ever, but even as she sought to empty her mind of chatter all she could see were the tall heads of the grasses gently swaying in the breeze, livestock nibbling at the fresh green shoots of spring and the march hares leaping in their ritual dance. There was nothing of the carnage that had filled her head so recently. She felt her breathing begin to ease until all that filled her head was the rushing of the wind in the trees.
A light touch on her arm made her jump.
‘Willow?’
She opened her eyes to find Delilah looking at her anxiously, her voice gentle. She had the feeling it wasn’t the first time she had spoken to her. The two dogs milled around her as she stood, a nervous smile on her face.
‘Are you okay?’ Delilah asked. ‘You look like you’re away with the faeries.’
Willow swallowed hard, looking backwards and forwards between the gate and the face in front of her. Maybe Delilah was right. Maybe that’s exactly where she was. In the land of the faeries, being deluded by visions and a certainty that what they showed her was the truth. Too busy chasing dreams instead of dealing with the reality that was under her nose. And now she was more confused than ever. She had believed that what she was trying to achieve was the right thing for her and her family, for the way in which they lived their lives. To help Jude turn away from a downward spiral into money-grabbing materialism, towards living a simpler, more nurturing and sustainable way of life. In doing so, she had reached out for help to someone she had thought to be a friend. She never imagined for one minute that Henry would be the one to betray her.
Warm fur brushed against Willow’s legs and she became aware of Delilah’s anxious face still studying her. She needed to be anywhere but here.
‘Sorry,’ she started. ‘I came over a bit faint there for a minute. I’m okay now, though.’
Delilah regarded her suspiciously. ‘Are you sure, ’cause you still look a bit peaky to me.’
Willow waved an airy hand. ‘Honestly, I’ll be fine. I didn’t have much for lunch, and I think the heat got to me a bit.’
‘You could come inside and have some water,’ added Delilah. ‘Sit down for a minute.’
The dogs were still milling aimlessly.
‘No, don’t worry. You go and enjoy your walk. I’ll just wander home and have a glass of something cool.’ She smiled as reassuringly as she could, beginning to back away down the lane. ‘I’ll catch you later,’ she added. ‘I haven’t forgotten about my offer of dinner. We should fix something up.’ She gave the dogs a final pat and turned away.
