He suppressed an envious groan. It would have been far easier if his friend wasn’t such a decent man, but he was. They had grown up together, having fun and getting into all sorts of scrapes. Being friends with Callum had always been fun and, he reasoned, it was hardly Callum’s fault he had been born with both good looks and character.
Callum smiled at Patsy and Melody. ‘We’re going to have to show you both how we entertain ourselves here on the island, aren’t we, Zac?’
Lettie smiled at her guests. ‘He means we can go to the pub and sample their menu over a couple of drinks.’
‘Not necessarily,’ he argued, laughing. ‘Although that might be a good place to start.’
Zac heard his father bellow from the front door. He looked at his watch. ‘Damn, I need to get Mum and Dad to the airport.’ He smiled at them all. ‘I’ll catch you later, Callum. I’ll see you ladies when I get back.’
‘I should get going too,’ Callum said. ‘I’ll walk back with you but maybe we could all go for that evening out sometime soon.’
6
MELODY
She watched Zac and Callum hurry back to the farm briefly before turning back to Lettie.
‘Shall we introduce you both to the rest of Hollyhock Farm and its residents?’ Lettie asked.
By the time Melody and her grandmother had strolled through various fields, been shown the produce they would soon be helping harvest in the vegetable areas and made friends with the goats, alpacas and retired Jerseys and various other waifs and strays Gareth Torel had been unable to resist homing, she was happy to follow Lettie through the meadow down to the stream.
Melody took off her shoes and sat next to her grandmother and Lettie, sighing with pleasure as she lowered her hot feet into the cool running water.
‘Feels good, doesn’t it?’ Lettie asked, leaning back and resting her hands on the warm grass. ‘I think this will be a perfect place to hold a sound bath and a few other events in the programme.’
‘It’s perfect,’ Melody said honestly. ‘This meadow is like something out of a storybook or a film. It’s like a piece of heaven.’
Lettie gave her a beaming smile and she was pleased she had made her hostess happy. ‘I’m so glad you think so. It’s taken me longer than it should to appreciate Hollyhock Farm and all that I’ve grown up with, but now I do I’m enormously proud of the place. It’s become very important to me to make this place work and now we have the incentive to get on and make the event a success, I’m going to give everything I’ve got to make that happen.’
‘And you have the pair of us here to support you every step of the way,’ Melody said, happy to have a purpose to focus on once again.
Patsy leant forward and put her hands in the water, opening her fingers to let the water run through them. ‘I’m smitten by the place.’ She looked at Melody. ‘And I can see by the smile on my granddaughter’s face that she feels the same way. Don’t you, love?’
Melody sighed. ‘I do. I feel very lucky to be here right now.’ She saw her gran give her a quick sideways glance and was glad Lettie didn’t notice her doing it. She wasn’t ready to share her situation with anyone yet, let alone her host who she hadn’t known for long.
‘I’m so pleased. We still have to iron out a lot of details,’ Lettie said, ‘but with your experience in wellness and mine in event planning – albeit arranging fashion shows – and Zac’s in sound engineering, I’m sure we can make this festival idea work.’ She groaned. ‘We need to make it work.’
Melody hated seeing anyone anxious. She had felt that way herself far too many times before. ‘We’ll be fine,’ she insisted. ‘We still need to work out a programme and come up with a list of people we could ask to take part, but I’m sure we’ll find a way to make that happen.’
‘And don’t forget that handsome friend of Zac’s offered to interview you on his radio show,’ Patsy said. ‘So that’s a good start.’
Melody thought of Callum and how generous he had been to invite them onto the show. ‘That’s true.’ She moved her feet up and down in the shallow water, enjoying being able to cool down slightly. ‘I think it all sounds very positive. I have enough experience to help you interview candidates for the rest of the programme if you’d like me to.’
‘That would be brilliant.’ Lettie smiled at her. ‘I’m so relieved you’re both here now. I think I would have found things far more overwhelming without your help.’
‘We’re happy to do whatever you need us to,’ Patsy assured her.
Melody gave the event some thought. ‘Do you know how many days you’d like the festival to last?’
‘I’m not sure whether a weekend will be enough time if I’m to raise the funds I need.’
‘Hmm,’ Melody said, unsure how they would manage to run the event over more than two days when they still had the farm work to do. ‘And when were you hoping to hold it?’
‘I was thinking that with all the necessary planning we’ll need to do for the festival, the earliest we could realistically hold it would be the end of September.’
Melody couldn’t hide her confusion. ‘But that’s only six weeks away, isn’t it? That doesn’t give you much time to put everything in place.’
‘I agree.’ Lettie puffed out her cheeks. ‘But any later in the year and the weather could be unreliable.’
