‘Look. It’s been a hell of a night and, as Frank pointed out, albeit politely, I’m in the way here, so I’m going to go and look at the garden room in the back and see about tackling that. If you need me, just call. Is that all right? Also,’ I continued without giving him a chance to reply, ‘even for a novice like me, it’s obvious that there’s a lot of work to be done, and I know they’re all saying they owe you favours but, as I’ve said, those are your favours, not mine. I have some money, but I need estimates so that I can plan and budget.’
‘I’m not using the favours so you may as well have them.’
‘But you might need them in the future.’
He drew himself up, planted his feet squarely and crossed his arms. ‘Then I’ll deal with that when and if it happens. I’m not arguing with you about this. Right now, your bloody roof is falling in so that’s what we need to focus on.’ He turned away.
‘Jesse!’
‘Felicity.’ He looked back towards me. ‘Could you for once just accept some help? You don’t and won’t owe me anything. There’s no worry that I’m going to think you’re beholden to me. Like I said, it’s what we do around here.’ His boots crunched on the gravel as he strode back to where there was a hive of activity buzzing around my house, including an operator climbing into the cab of a small crane that had trundled up and was now secured in place. Jesse really did seem to know everyone.
I was left standing with my mouth open, catching flies, as Nanny would have said. Hearing those long-ago tones in my head, I snapped it shut and stomped off towards the garden room.
On my way, I stopped at the chicken coop, hooking my fingers in the diamonds of the wire fence that surrounded it, watching as the hens scurried around, their sharp beaks contrasting with their fluffy, feathered legs. Their soft clucking and mumbling sounds soon began to soothe me, my anger scale sliding back down as I observed them scuttling about, pecking and hurrying over towards me to see if I had goodies for them.
‘No food, I’m afraid.’ I crouched down on a level with them. ‘I fed you earlier, if you remember.’ They continued to blink at me with their dark and beady eyes. ‘I’ll be back later with something, all right?’
They studied me a little longer, realised I wasn’t offering anything of interest after all and toddled off back to their pecking. I watched them go, feeling oddly thankful for their strangely calming presence. Prior to my arrival here, had anyone even suggested that I even be in the vicinity of a hen coop, let alone crouched down having a conversation with the inhabitants, albeit a one-way one, I would have thought they’d quite lost their marbles. But the strange thing was, having previously been almost laser focused on doing what people would approve of and disapproving of the same as all my peers, I was surprised at how quickly the wish to do that was fading. And how much easier life was when I wasn’t second-guessing everything I said, did or wore.
I looked down at the wellies a size too big for me as I plodded through the squelchy grass that was in need of a mow, but that Jesse had said was still too wet to cut, and began laughing quietly to myself. Prior to my arrival at Paradise Farm, the thought of wearing anything other than my Le Chameau wellington boots was something not to be even contemplated. Hunters at a push. But this? Shoving my thrice-besocked feet into the found wellies – because I was yet to unearth my own from the boxes piled in one of the spare rooms – was beyond comprehension. Admittedly, it still wouldn’t be my first choice, but I could hardly step out into the mud that was apparently my driveway and hand over drinks in my five-inch Dior stiletto shoe boots. Not that I knew where they were right now either.
I reached the garden room, reeled in my giggles – it was possibly on the point of turning hysterical, so definitely was best to rein it in – and pulled open the unlocked door. Peering inside, I thought perhaps leaving it unlocked was a good strategy. With a bit of luck, someone might actually steal the contents. I could live in hope. I looked around. Where the hell did I start?
* * *
‘Hiya!’ The cheery voice made me start and I tripped over my oversized boots as I turned and landed in an undignified heap on the ground.
Julie rushed towards me, holding out her hands to help. ‘Oh God, sorry! I didn’t mean to make you jump! Here.’ She helped haul me up. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Fine.’ I smiled, brushing myself off as I stood. ‘Don’t tell me Jesse’s roped you in too?’
‘Marjorie’s filling in at the café. She’s got her sister staying with her and although they’re close, I think she needs some breathing space. She rang up earlier practically begging me for a shift so I thought I’d pop over and see how things were going here. What you up to?’
‘Staying as far out of the way of the house as possible.’
‘Not a bad idea.’
As she spoke, the roar of a diesel engine chugging into life followed shortly by the raising of the crane arm made us turn.
‘Oh God. What if it goes through the rest of the house?’
‘It won’t. Jesse won’t let it. He trusts those blokes. He wouldn’t use them if he didn’t. Come on.’ She turned me around by the shoulders, away from the house. ‘What are we doing here?’
‘We?’
Julie shrugged. ‘I’ve nothing better to do and it’ll be a good way to get to know you more. If you don’t mind the help?’
‘Mind? Why would I mind?’ I asked.
She screwed her nose up a little. ‘Jesse said you’re very private and warned me not to come charging in but what can I say? I’m nosy.’ When she smiled, dimples appeared in her cheeks and her grey eyes, copies of her brother’s, sparkled with mischief. ‘And,’ she poked her head in the garden room, ‘it looks like you could do with a hand.’
Once again, in an action the complete opposite to my standard response, I told Julie that some help would be brilliant as I hadn’t a clue where to even start.
Over two hours later, everything that had been stuffed into the garden room – which sounded grander than it currently looked – was surrounding it. Thanks to teamwork – something which up until now hadn’t exactly been my first choice – the job had gone far quicker and been a lot more fun than it would have been had I been on my own. Julie was great company, always ready to laugh, and as open a person as I was closed off. But in her company, it felt much easier to crack open that door in my defences and peer out. The only blip in the proceedings was coming across a large, hairy spider the size of Jesse’s dog, which had us both tripping over one another to get out of the door.
At the sound of screaming, Jesse and another man came running over, their faces grim, but their pace slowed as they saw us clinging to each other in fits of laughter.
‘What the hell?’ Jesse asked.
