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Arnold looked at his watch. ‘I can’t really. I’ve got a quick turnaround with another lesson in less than half an hour. You can go if you like, get a walk in.’
‘Really?’
‘I’m not that much of an arse. I want you to teach, I’ll moan about it again some time, but for now all I really want is one of Celeste’s roast beef and horseradish cream baps and an ice-cold can of Coke.’
‘Ah, an ulterior motive. I’ll go with it, and thanks, I could use the walk.’
She didn’t have to wonder whether her dad had mentioned something because Arnold told her, ‘I know I’m hard on you but it’s only because I care.’ Somehow her dad had managed it so discreetly during their conversation that she hadn’t picked up on it.
She put her arms around him. ‘Love you.’
‘Don’t get all soppy on me.’
Perhaps now was a good time to bring up James’s suggestion. ‘Talking of moving forwards, James says he has someone who might be really well suited to working here for a while, until I get back on my feet.’
Arnold had picked up the pitchfork but clanged it down on the concrete. ‘Does he now?’
‘He’s trying to help.’
‘Trying to control, more like.’
‘He knows I’m struggling and he knows you are too.’ When Arnold eased off on the accusations, she said, ‘Something to think about.’
‘I’m not really sure it is.’ His defences were back up. ‘I don’t want a stranger here working and up until now, I didn’t think you did either.’
She didn’t, not really, but things were becoming more desperate. ‘We have stable hands who help out.’ The justification might help if the only solution was to take on an instructor.
‘That’s one thing, it’s on a very casual basis and basically for the grunt work. They’re not interested in how we run the place, they don’t try to change things.’
‘No, they don’t.’ And it was for those reasons she didn’t want an outsider either.
‘I want to run this place with my sister,’ he went on. ‘What’s so wrong with that?’
‘Nothing. It’s what I want too, it always has been.’
‘Don’t agree to anything, Hazel. Not until you’ve had a chance to sort through how you feel. And I can take more weight on my shoulders for a while, it won’t be forever, right?’
‘Right.’ She managed a smile.
‘Now, where are we on that beef bap and cold drink?’
She picked up the handles of the wheelbarrow. ‘I’ll get rid of this and then I’ll head into the village and get those for you.’
‘Cheers, sis.’
But as she heaved the wheelbarrow and its weight all the way from the school to the purpose-built compost shed, she knew that his shoulders wouldn’t take the weight much longer. And she hadn’t even told him about the other enquiry into lessons.
* * *
The weather had been gorgeous all day and the sun was still shining. Still in navy jodhpurs but with a fresh lilac T-shirt – she hadn’t felt she could embrace the village and the bakery in the T-shirt that had signs of manure on it after she dumped the latest load for Arnold – and her sunglasses nestled in her blonde hair, Hazel walked from Heritage View House all the way through the country lanes and emerged onto The Street, waving to Zara from the ice-creamery, who was putting up the umbrella at one of the round tables out front for a customer as Hazel crossed over to go to the Twist and Turn Bakery.
‘I need bread,’ she told Celeste who greeted her with a warm smile, ‘but Arnold is after way more than my usual two wholemeal loaves.’
‘Don’t tell me, the beef and horseradish cream bap.’
‘He’s predictable, isn’t he?’
‘Love it when people adopt a favourite.’ Celeste, tall and willowy, with a clear porcelain complexion, had already found a bap and started to make up the order. ‘What can I get for you?’
