Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage (6 page)

‘Come and sit down,’ she said, pointing to the chairs around the table. ‘All the animals have been fed and now it’s our turn.’ There was a half-filled glass of wine at her elbow and a slight slur to her words.

‘Can I help?’ Viv asked, not used to being waited on.

‘You can get a bottle out of the fridge,’ she said. ‘This is the potato wine but there’s beetroot and raspberry as well, if you prefer. Selwyn Stanbury, the barber, makes it. It’s the lightest of all his concoctions. I lost three days with his parsnip wine once. And as for his potato vodka . . .’ She raised her eyebrows and blew out her cheeks. ‘I swore I’d never drink again after that particular sampling session.’

Viv opened the fridge and selected the potato wine from the three bottles that were in the door rack.

‘Glasses are in the cupboard above your head,’ Geraldine directed, moving over to the pot on the stove and ladling out some soup. It arrived at the table with a swirl of cream on it and a sprinkle of herbs and looked delicious.

Geraldine sat down, then raised her glass.

‘Welcome, Viv,’ she said, clinking it against Viv’s as soon as she had lifted it. ‘I hope you’re happy here with us. I think Isme would approve of you.’

‘I hope I have better taste in men than she did,’ said Viv as she picked up her spoon and began to eat. The soup tasted wonderful.

‘Do you have a young man?’ asked Geraldine, ripping into the bread.

‘Not any more,’ replied Viv. She noticed Geraldine’s face fold in sympathy. ‘Oh it’s okay. We realised quite quickly we weren’t Mr and Mrs Right-for-each-other. I’m in no rush.’

‘That’s very sensible,’ said Geraldine. ‘Take your time. And don’t settle for anything less than the best just to stave off loneliness. Unless you’re ninety-seven and can have both parents at your wedding.’ She laughed and Viv decided she liked Geraldine, very much. And likewise, Geraldine thought she and Viv would get on very well and hoped she would stay. It would be lovely to have a friendly female to talk to.

‘Please tell me that I didn’t put you off with what I said about Heath earlier,’ said Geraldine.

‘I promise you that you didn’t.’ Viv reached for some bread and the butter fresh from the farm. She could have eaten the whole loaf. ‘You mentioned his father earlier on? Is this an old family concern?’

‘Yes, the Merlos have lived at Wildflower Cottage for a hundred and fifty years. Heath’s a vet by profession but when he lost his father four years ago, he came back to take over this place. He’s still registered, but the sanctuary takes up most of his time.’

He was a vet and yet he chooses to work in the back of beyond, looking after a crippled donkey and a few owls? Surely not
, thought Viv.

‘The Merlos are one of the three old families of this area.’ Geraldine checked off their names on her fingers. ‘The Merlos and the Leightons, of course. And the Cooper-Smiths, although their line ended two years ago with the death of poor dear Kate. She was the woman who bred Wonk. It’s thanks to her legacy that we’re surviving. Just.’

Geraldine emptied more wine into her glass. It was loosening her tongue beautifully.

‘Their land adjoined the Leightons’, but the two families hated each other because Kate was jilted at the altar by Jasper Leighton, the present owner’s grandfather. Kate never recovered from the rejection, especially as Jasper married almost immediately afterwards and brought his new society bride to the family castle. Talk about rubbing her nose in it. So, when Kate became infirm and had to leave Cooper House, she refused to sell it to the Leightons.’ Geraldine suddenly realised she might have been talking too much. ‘I’m sorry, am I boring you with all this, Vivienne?’

‘No, not at all,’ Viv protested. ‘I want to hear it. It’s interesting.’ The more she knew about the Leightons, the more it might help her in her quest. ‘And please, everyone just calls me Viv. Unless they’re annoyed with me, then I get the full three syllables.’

Geraldine gave a small laugh. ‘Okay, Viv . . . Right, where was I? Oh yes. Well, it wasn’t that hard for the Leightons to acquire the land in the end using a third-party agent. They bulldozed Kate’s house and nothing could be done about it.’ Geraldine sighed heavily. ‘Kate was heartbroken by their underhandedness. She hadn’t been in the nursing home above a few months when she died.’

‘How very sad,’ said Viv.

‘Ruthless. That’s what the Leightons are,’ said Geraldine with a snap in her voice that Viv guessed was foreign to her nature. ‘Kate Cooper-Smith loved animals though. She knew how much we needed an injection of cash to survive and thank God she gave it to us. She threw us a true lifeline.’

‘Have you never opened up to the public?’ asked Viv. ‘Hawk displays, petting zoos, that sort of thing.’

‘No, nothing like that.’ From Geraldine’s reaction, that wasn’t a popular suggestion.

‘Don’t you get any funding to help you?’

‘Not any more, the Leightons have seen to that. They’ll be cursing Kate for doing what she did for us because they’ve tried consistently to cut off our financial blood supply. There isn’t much left in the coffers now, but at least it enables us to go on until the bitter end.’

‘The bitter end?’ Viv queried.

Geraldine’s hand flew up to her mouth. She really had said too much. Viv suspected that Geraldine had been starved of company and whatever secrets she was holding were weighing heavy on her. It only needed the slightest of nudges for them all to come tumbling out.

‘You can trust me to keep my mouth shut,’ Viv said.

‘Oh what the hell,’ said Geraldine with a resigned shake of the head. ‘It’ll all be common knowledge soon, if it isn’t already. Heath doesn’t own the land here. He leases it and that lease is up in July. It’s all such a mess, Viv.’

Viv could see there were tears gathering in Geraldine’s eyes. She was confused. She could have sworn Geraldine told her the house had been in Heath’s family for generations. ‘So, who does own the land then?’ Viv asked.

‘The Leightons, of course. They own everything around here. The land around Wildflower Cottage is the last piece of the jigsaw for them. And this is land that they know they can make a fortune out of.’

‘I’m not sure I understand.’

Geraldine’s hands came together with a soft clap.

‘Let’s go back to the beginning, one hundred and fifty years ago,’ she said. ‘Cecilia Leighton, the then heiress to Ironmist Castle, was in love with Heath’s great-grandfather, Alfred Merlot, but he was only a lowly groom in the stables. She wasn’t allowed to sell or give away any of the estate but she could lease some of it out. So she had documents drawn up to give her lover the maximum one-hundred-and-fifty-year lease on this land so he could build them a home to escape to, but for propriety’s sake, the house was to be listed as a sanctuary for the animals which they both so dearly wanted to protect. But poor Cecilia died before he had finished building this house, so the estate passed to her impoverished cousin Jasper, who no doubt couldn’t believe his luck. Obviously, he tried to claim back the land from Alfred Merlo, but Cecilia had made the lease watertight. So long as there were animals residing in this place that needed a sanctuary, the lease would stand.’

‘Poor Cecilia,’ said Viv, genuinely touched by her story.

‘Terribly sad and romantic, isn’t it? The lease, I imagine, was a formality they wouldn’t need when they defied convention and married. Or, if that proved to be impossible, they could live out their days in their own little world here. Alfred grieved for her for years. He eventually married a young girl from the next village who reminded him of Cecilia, because she also loved animals.’

‘Heath’s great-grandmother, presumably?’

‘That’s right. Nicholas Leighton wants to build a housing estate here, Viv. And once our lease is up, they will do it because they have everyone and their mother in their pockets,’ Geraldine continued, her lips tight with fury.

‘Why would they want to ruin this lovely place?’

‘Money. As if they haven’t got enough already. But that’s what the Leightons are like. They covet.’ She sighed heavily. ‘But we have to soldier on. I believe that we have powerful forces of nature on our side because this land was always meant to be a sanctuary and we will fight the Leightons for it. I have never thought that we wouldn’t win in the end.’

So the sanctuary might be closing down soon?
That didn’t leave Viv a lot of time.

‘I might have only lived here for four years myself but it’s my home now and the only one I will ever want,’ Geraldine went on.

‘Where are you from originally?’

‘Down south. I can’t tell you what a special place this is, Viv. You’ll discover that for yourself very quickly, I think.’

Viv smiled politely, but knew she wouldn’t. She would not be here long enough to let Ironmist get into her system.

‘The Leightons have to have what someone else owns, even if they don’t want it themselves. Land, people . . .’ She tucked her hair behind her ear and again Viv saw that silvery line of scar. ‘I hate them. I hate them for what they want to do to this beautiful valley.’

The phone gave a shrill ring and interrupted Geraldine’s flow. It couldn’t have been worse timing when they were knee deep in such an involved conversation.

Viv watched with some amusement as Geraldine picked up the telephone reticently, as if she were expecting it to explode in her hand.

‘Yes, she’s arrived,’ Geraldine was saying. Viv guessed this was the mysterious Heath, and he was firing a salvo of questions about her, if Geraldine’s somewhat guarded replies were anything to go by.

‘Nice . . . very good . . .Yes, a good choice . . . no . . . yes, Armstrong’s been wonderful . . . I don’t think that would be possible . . . still here . . .’ Geraldine was answering yet more questions, aware that she was being listened to at her end of the phone.

‘Oh, that’s a shame, well, we’ll see you when we see you. Take good care. Goodnight and may your dreams take flight.’

What a lovely expression
, thought Viv.

‘That was Heath,’ said Geraldine, coming back to the table and collecting the empty soup bowls. ‘He wanted to know if you had landed and were still here.’ She gave a little laugh. ‘It wouldn’t be the first time that someone arrived and drove straight off again.’

Viv was intrigued by him and wished he would hurry up and arrive so she could get a handle on him. She had always prided herself on being easy to get along with. She didn’t want any enemies here. She had enough to contend with, without that as a side issue.

‘So shall I start at nine in the morning then?’ she asked.

‘Or thereabouts,’ replied Geraldine. ‘We don’t have that rigid a timetable. The office is next door. I think a clever girl like you will be able to do the job in her sleep. I’ve made a list of what we need you to do. I’m not very computer savvy but I’m sure you are.’

Viv yawned. She hadn’t exactly exerted herself physically today but her brain had been extra busy collecting, storing and dissecting information and it had exhausted her. In mental terms, today had been the equivalent of a double-marathon run.

‘You get yourself off to bed,’ replied Geraldine. ‘I expect I’ve worn you out with all my talking. I’m sorry if I’ve spoken too much. You have to forgive me. Today is a date that I like to celebrate . . . Selwyn’s wines should be sold to the military as truth drugs.’

‘Is it your birthday?’ asked Viv.

‘Sort of,’ replied Geraldine with a soft smile. ‘Now, you go and relax and thank you for your company. I so want you to settle in and be happy here.’

‘I promise I will do my very best,’ Viv said and meant it, albeit temporarily. She wondered what a ‘sort of’ birthday was.

*

Geraldine washed up the soup bowls and dried them, looking out of the window as she did so. She never failed to be aware of what a beautiful place she had found in this sanctuary for the discarded, the unwanted, the damaged. Was it her birthday, Viv had asked her. Yes, it was. The third of May. Her
birth-day
. The day the new Geraldine had been born, the happier Geraldine,
free
Geraldine. Before that date four years ago, Geraldine Hartley had not existed at all.

Chapter 7

Viv woke to the sound of absolutely nothing. She hadn’t realised how much background noise there had been at home because she’d grown accustomed to it, but here there was only silence. She opened her eyes and just for a split second expected to see her own desk and chair, not the unfamiliar furniture of her new home, and her heart felt like a large stone in her chest. She didn’t want to be here at all and had to keep in focus that this was likely to be a very short-term appointment.

She swung her legs to the floor, crossed to the window and opened the curtains to see wisps of that low mist snaking around the hundreds of blue flowers. The sun was high and bright and shining on the hillside and on the rooftops of the houses which flanked the road up to the castle and beyond onto the moors. It was like looking at a beautiful picture square-framed by the wood of her window.

It was eight o’clock and her working day was to begin at nine. She had a dribbly shower and made herself some poached eggs and toast for breakfast. Geraldine was already in the kitchen when Viv walked in at ten to nine.

‘Morning, sleep well?’ Geraldine smiled a welcome. She was wearing another long hippy dress and Viv presumed that must be her usual style.

‘Very,’ she replied.

‘I’ve just brewed some tea. Would you like some?’

‘Yes ple— OH!’ Viv shrieked as something wet touched her hand and she whirled around to find the huge dog Pilot standing there, his long tail wafting gently from side to side.

‘He’s just saying good morning,’ chuckled Geraldine. ‘He likes to press his nose in your hand. It’s just a thing he does.’

Viv noticed Bub in his furry basket, looking at her through the slits of his eyes. The owl was in his ornate white-wire cage, standing on one leg, eyes closed.

‘Armstrong is out feeding the animals,’ replied Geraldine. ‘I’m grateful for his help because it doesn’t look as if Heath will be back today after all. Wonk isn’t walking right on her new leg yet.’