Amelia was in the supermarket stacking up on provisions before she started back at school, when she saw Dickon slipping a box of magnum ice lollies into his father’s trolley. Jules turned around at the wrong moment, saw him doing it and told him to put them back.
‘But, Dad, it will save us coming shopping again. I’ll only have one at a time,’ Dickon said reasonably.
‘We are not going straight home, I told you. They will melt, put them back,’ Jules said before catching sight of her.
‘Amelia.’ His eyes lit up for an instant, or maybe it was a trick of the light, she told herself.
‘I was just thinking of you.’ He handed the box of ice lollies to Dickon to return to the freezer.
‘But it’s so cold outside, it will be the same as the freezer in the car.’ Dickon tried once more.
‘No, put them back, please, Dickon. We don’t want melted lollies all over the place.’
‘Okay,’ he said, reluctantly taking them back to the freezer.
‘So, as I said, I was thinking of you,’ Jules repeated, in the matter-of-fact sort of tone one might use to a work colleague of little importance.
‘Nothing bad, I hope.’ Amelia was annoyed with herself for feeling so pleased to see him. She glanced round to see if Cynthia would suddenly appear to claim him, but there was no sign of her.
‘No, I just wondered how many of the pets you have left and how they are. The Christmas break is well over now, and they should have all been collected.’ His scrutiny annoyed her now. She’d been foolish to call him out over the tortoises hibernating and then the mouse business, no doubt making him think she was the last person to be trusted with an assortment of pets, if she didn’t know the difference between a male and female mouse, and that tortoises hibernated.
‘Just Ziggy. The others have gone home, all alive and well,’ she said slightly defensively.
He laughed. ‘I didn’t mean I didn’t think you were not capable of caring for them. Though I think there were quite a lot for one person, who…’ He paused, watching her as if to gauge her mood before continuing, ‘is not perhaps used to animals.’
‘I hope you don’t really think that. I had pets as a child and so did my girls, we had a dog, then hamsters and a rabbit, and my parents had dogs when I was growing up. Anyway, it’s just Ziggy now and my younger daughter, Sophie, who you met at Vero’s party, is with me to help out, so all is well.’ She challenged him to provoke her further.
‘Good.’ He smiled at her. ‘My uncle thought, as I closed the place, we should have taken them, and Dickon would have been thrilled. But you were obviously a godsend for all the pet owners who were relying on the kennels to help them out while they were away, as they had, so many times before.’ He sighed. ‘I suppose the next exodus is Easter, so there’s some time for people to find alternative arrangements.’
‘I’m told by my daughter that Rufus, the nephew of the owners of the kennels, is coming here and is looking to reopen them. I’m sure he’ll get it up and running again soon.’ The minute she’d said it she wished she hadn’t, as Jules’s expression became stern again.
‘It’s not as easy as that, Amelia. It depends on how much money he has. If he can afford to raze it to the ground and start over again then fine, but it’s gone too far to be just patched up,’ Jules said. ‘If he wants any advice, I’m happy to help him, but I’m afraid it will be expensive to rebuild. Does he have money, do you know?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ Amelia said. ‘Sophie knows more about it than I do.’
A military-looking man passed them, then turned back and glared at Jules. ‘I must say you have a cheek coming into the district and snatching away Dodi and Jim’s livelihood. They’ve been a pillar of our society for years and you,’ he looked at him as if he were dirt, ‘have the audacity to throw your weight around and send them packing.’
A few other shoppers alerted by the man came and clustered round, some making similar remarks.
Amelia, relieved that Sophie wasn’t there, said in her best school mistressy voice, ‘When was the last time you saw the kennels?’
The man turned on her. ‘Are you his wife?’
‘No, she’s not.’ Jules was quite calm in the face of things. ‘I suggest you go and see them for yourself and decide whether you’d be happy to leave any animal there, before you accuse me of shutting them down unnecessarily.’
The man growled something and walked away, making the small audience move on too.
Jules shrugged and smiled. ‘I know I’m one of the least popular people around, but do you think, Amelia, that I would have shut them down if the place hadn’t been in such an appalling condition?’
‘No, I don’t, though there seem to be so many pointless rules and regs now I wouldn’t know,’ she said, glancing round for Dickon. She was afraid he’d be upset by the scene, but he was inspecting an array of chocolate bars further up the aisle.
‘Anyway, please tell Sophie’s friend to contact me before he does anything. There is no way,’ Jules looked stern again, ‘that it can be reopened in its present state.’
Having made his choice, Dickon picked up a large bar of milk chocolate and came over and slipped it into the trolley under a box of cereal, while his father had his back to the trolley. He caught Amelia’s eye and she winked at him, making him laugh and she wondered if he’d get away with it at the checkout or if Jules would insist he put it back.
‘I won’t hold you up any longer and I must get on,’ Jules said to her. ‘I’ve a lot to do today, but keep me posted, you seem to know more than I do about what might be happening.’ He moved off before turning back. ‘My uncle was asking after you, you must come over again soon,’ he said vaguely, moving off before Amelia could answer.
She too was in a hurry; in a few days she’d be back at work at school and she still had to do her lesson plans. The children in her class were six years old and bursting to learn; she’d be too busy to take time to bother with the fate of the kennels. Sophie was more than capable enough to cope with it, though surely she’d soon want to go back to London to be with Dom?