Page 63 of The Midnight Bakery
She grinned at him, eyes shining. ‘Oh, I hope so. I’m just so relieved. I don’t have all the details yet because they’re still finalising them with senior staff, but they wanted to let me know as soon as possible, and I’ve been told that Matron will be in touch soon. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done, and Frankie, for keeping me sane and…’ She flashed Frankie a huge smile before moving to embrace William, who was hanging back a little. ‘Thank you too,’ she said. ‘For everything you’ve done.’
‘Me?’ he replied.
‘Yes, for helping Frankie, and Tam, making sure they’re okay, being a friend. It’s important.’ She pulled a face. ‘Sorry, I’m gabbling, but I’m so happy. Did I say that before?’ Her eyes sparkled with joy.
‘We were just about to have some millionaire’s tarts,’ said Frankie. ‘Would you like one, to celebrate?’
Beth looked torn. ‘Oooh, I would, but…I really want to get home, to Jack.’
Frankie flapped her hands as if to shoo her away. ‘Yes, of course you do. Go on, go…I’ll wrap a couple to take with you, but we need to have a proper celebration at some point.’ She wagged her finger in amusement. ‘And that’s an order.’
Beth whirled around. ‘I promise,’ she said, grinning at them all. ‘And now that we know my job’s safe, Jack will be itching to get stuff done on the farm. Shall I ask him to give you a call, Tam? If you’ve got any free time, we’d love to see you.’
‘Actually, I had thought I might pop over this morning, but perhaps I’ll give you a head start, so you and Jack have some time to celebrate on your own.’ He gave her a teasing look.
‘Good idea,’ she said, flashing Frankie a coy smile. ‘But do come over. I don’t feel much like sleeping at the moment, but I will have to at some point. Are you sure that’s okay? What about work?’
‘Oh…day off,’ said Tam, swallowing his lie.
‘Great, well, that’s settled then. See you later!’
And with that, Beth was gone, rushing out at just the same speed as she’d rushed in. Tam felt quite breathless.
‘Well, now I’m really tired,’ said Frankie, laughing. ‘But what lovely news, I’m so happy for her.’ Her eyes drifted to the side where the rest of the millionaire’s tarts lay waiting.
‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ said Tam.
By the time he reached the farmhouse a couple of hours later, the kitchen table was covered with a multitude of stuff: several notebooks, an iPad, two mugs, pens, pencils, a packet of biscuits, a glass of water and sheets of paper of varying sizes. As he drew closer, Tam could see they held a series of scribbled drawings.
‘Someone’s been busy,’ he remarked.
Jack grinned. ‘I’m knackered and my arse is black and blue but, bizarrely, I’ve got far more energy than ever.’
Tam, who hadn’t, wondered if he would be able to keep up with the pace of Jack’s excitement, but he nodded.
‘What have you been working on?’ he asked, studying a couple of the sheets of paper and trying to work out what he was looking at. ‘Is this the hen house?’
Jack nodded, wheeling himself closer. ‘I’d never be able to get into the current coop, even if it wasn’t falling down. So, I thought about what I might be able to achieve and started to redesign it. Except that led me down another rabbit hole and got me thinking about transport as well.’
Tam took a seat. ‘Okay…where do you want to start?’
‘The transport? I think that might be trickier to put into place. More expensive certainly, and while the quad bike is brilliant?—’
‘For a first attempt…’
‘Yes, brilliant for a first attempt but, ultimately, I need something I can use independently, and preferably something a trailer can be hitched to…’
‘A trailer?’ Tam searched his brain for a solution, mentally adding another set of equations to those already in his head.
‘Yes, because I have no means of carrying anything at the moment. But Imightbe able to get what I need into a trailer and then pull it to wherever I need to go.’
‘So, an all-terrain wheelchair then?’
Jack winced. ‘Ideally, but they’re hideously expensive. We virtually had to take out a mortgage to afford this one.’ He looked down at the wheels beneath his seat. ‘Is there any way we could adapt this? Or the manual one we keep for emergencies?’
Tam thought for a moment. ‘Don’t know…but leave it with me. There must be a way. Or maybe some further modifications could be made to the quad bike…’
‘I thought that, but I find it difficult to balance now, hence why I’m black and blue. Even if we could somehow alter it so I could drive, I’d get thrown about all over the place.’
