When all the lunch guests had departed, Jules had just settled down on the sofa to look at a couple of books he’d been given, when he had a call from a local farmer.
‘So sorry to bother you on Christmas Day, Jules, but I’ve got a calf stuck, looks like I’m going to lose the mother. Can you come out?’
‘Of course, remind me of your address.’ He was instantly alert and when Cynthia came towards him suggesting they meet up tomorrow, he said he couldn’t think now, he had to get to Strawberry Farm.
‘Surely not on Christmas Day, really some people are so inconsiderate,’ she grumbled.
‘Tell that to the cow,’ he said briskly, steering past her and going to fetch his coat, calling out to Dickon that he was needed for a medical emergency.
‘Oh, I’m sorry it’s happened today,’ Leonora said, coming into the room carrying the Christmas cake she’d made.
‘Can I come, Dad?’ Dickon asked, following behind her carrying some plates. ‘What animal is ill?’
‘No, you stay here in the warmth. Have a slice of that delicious-looking cake Leonora has made,’ he said, ruffling his hair as he passed him.
‘What’s wrong with the animal, has it had an accident?’ Dickon, still carrying the plates for anyone who wanted some of Leonora’s cake, followed him into the hall. He always showed interest in such matters; perhaps he was a budding vet himself.
‘A calf has got stuck trying to be born,’ Jules said, pulling on his boots.
‘Damn shame it’s happened today.’ Giles appeared. ‘But of course, you must go. Dickon you can open the presents your grandparents sent you, now the lunch party is over.’ He smiled as Dickon thrust the plates at him and whooped with joy, running to fetch them from under the tree.
Jules was relieved fate or rather a cow in labour, had saved him from watching him opening them. It seemed so unfair that Marina’s parents were still alive while she was dead. Her father often said, when he took Dickon to see them in their home in Wales, that it should have been them, instead of her. They had lived a long, productive life and were ready to go, while she had so much to live for.
Both his own parents were dead, had been for some time, but since he was a child, he’d always been close to Giles, his uncle. He’d never stop missing Marina; it had got easier as time passed, though it was as if there was a space beside him, where she should be. She’d been so ill, and there was no chance of her getting better, and it had been a mercy for her when she had gone.
It was pitch-dark as he started the car and turned on to the road. The farm was about fifteen minutes away on the country roads, which were thankfully empty as there were times where you had to stop to let through a car coming from the other way, the road being too narrow for two cars to pass each other at the same time.
The lunch party had gone well, Giles and his latest lady friend were good at entertaining. Giles always liked a full house for Christmas, scooping up people who were on their own. Amelia came to mind, as he thought of all those animals she’d been landed with. He’d hated shutting the kennels down, understood what an important part it played in the old couple’s life, but it was better for them that he got them to agree to do it, before they were had up for animal cruelty. He knew that they didn’t mean to be cruel; things had just spiralled out of control. Later, when Dodi had time to think it over, he felt that, though it was a dreadful wrench for her, it was also a relief. The two of them had quietly left the district to go and live with her recently widowed sister.
Amelia seemed to be coping with the varied pets she was looking after, and surely everyone would soon be back to relieve her of them? It made him smile as he recalled her concern for the tortoises.
As he drove through the pitch-dark road, lit only by his headlights or a hint of light peeping through the drawn curtains of an occasional house, he wondered how long she’d been a widow. She was an attractive woman and probably had a boyfriend, lover, whatever. David seemed quite taken with her, he’d watched them both at lunch. He was a good friend and recently broken up with his girlfriend, Lucile. Now he was back in the field as it were, perhaps he and Amelia, if she didn’t have anyone else, would get together. They seemed to be getting on well at lunch.
He’d reached the farm, and his headlights picked out the name, Strawberry Farm, by the drive. He slowed down and turned in. All thoughts of his friends were taken over by the fight ahead to save the cow and her calf.