Page 67 of A Fresh Start at Bramble Cottage
“Oh, not so bad. A few bumps and bruises. And they’ve fitted me up with one of those peacemaker things.”
“A pacemaker?”
“That’s what I said. It’s got a little thing with wires inside me that keeps me ticking properly. What do you think of that, eh?”
“It’s wonderful. I hope it’ll keep you ticking for a very long time. Now I’ve got a surprise for you.” She took out her phone and clicked on a few buttons. “Just a moment...” She held the phone out to him.
“Oh!”
“Hello, Dad.” A smiling face appeared on the screen. “Good to see you. I hear you’ve been a bit poorly.”
“Oh...” For a moment Vicky thought the old man was going to cry. But he recovered quickly. “Poorly? Nah — it was nothing. And now I’ve got a peacemaker in me chest.”
“And lots of young nurses making a fuss of you, I don’t doubt.”
“Of course.” He laughed mischievously. “What’s the point of being in hospital if you can’t have lots of pretty young things around you?”
Vicky left them to chat, and slipped away to find the charge nurse in his cubbyhole beside the ward entrance. He glanced up from his desk as she tapped on the door.
“Excuse me. Arthur Crocombe — he’s looking quite well. How is he?”
“Are you his granddaughter?”
“No — I’m just a neighbour. A friend. He doesn’t have any relatives in this country — his son lives in Canada.”
“Oh, yes.” He turned to his computer and called up the information. “We’ve got that. He’d be his next of kin. I gather he won’t be able to visit.”
Vicky nodded. “Unfortunately not. He had a hip replacement a few weeks ago, so he can’t fly long-haul for another couple of months. But they’re chatting on FaceTime at the moment.”
“Ah — that’s good. Are you Victoria Marston?”
“Yes, I am. Simon said he’d contact you to confirm that it’s okay for me to deal with everything on his behalf.”
“That’s right — he emailed us. I’ve got it here. Okay, the doctor said he could be discharged in a few more days. But if he doesn’t have any other relatives here, is there anyone to look after him? He won’t be fit to cope on his own for a while.”
Vicky shook her head. “I don’t know of anyone. There are neighbours, of course, but...”
“Yeah, okay.” He ran a hand over his face, then nodded. “I’ll see if the discharge social worker can set up rehab for him for a couple of weeks. Then when he goes home they might be able to arrange for a carer to go in a couple of times a day.”
“That would be a big help. Thank you.”
* * *
Saturday night. The night for fun. Discos and wild all-night parties in her university days. Cinema dates and evenings in on the sofa with a movie and a bottle of wine with a succession of boyfriends, some more serious than others. Later, theatre and ballet and elegant little dinner parties with Jeremy.
Tonight she had her laptop for company. Driving back from the hospital, she had had an idea — maybe she shouldn’t be thinking of writing a straightforward biography of kings and queens. That had been done.
Maybe... it might be more interesting to make it a story, a fiction, based within the actual events. She could focus on one of the lesser characters — a lady-in-waiting to the queen. She could give her adventures, a romance — a dangerous love affair with one of the enemy, a commander in the army of Henry VI.
Once the ideas had started to spin in her head she was on a roll. Pausing only to grill a couple of cheese toasties for her tea, she sat down at the kitchen table and began to scribble in her notebook — scenes, character sketches, snatches of dialogue, filling page after page.
It was after eleven when she decided to call it a day. With a yawn she closed the notebook and set it aside. She was about to turn off the laptop, but hesitated. She’d set up the WiFi that morning, and had used it to check the route to the hospital and to dip into some of the research she needed for the book.
But a compelling curiosity had been niggling in her mind. She had done her best to ignore it, but she knew she wouldn’t sleep unless she gave in. She called up the search engine and typed inCullen Organic Mill.
A website came up — a good one. Very professionally done, with a nice colour scheme and clear text. No thick country bumpkin here. The home page had a couple of paragraphs about the health and environmental benefits of organic farming — simple language, nothing preachy.
As she had expected, there was a page detailing the various organic animal feeds the company sold. But there was also a page of dairy products — yoghurt, cheeses, flavoured milk — and another advertising organic fruit and vegetables.
