Winter bit with a vengeance. Amelia woke up to a white coating of frost icing the garden and the car. She searched through the downstairs cupboard for a scraper to get the ice off her windscreen before she set out for the school. She’d been meaning to tidy out this cupboard for ages and hadn’t got round to it and it took some time to find a scraper, which was buried under a box of spare lightbulbs.
Rufus, who always got up early, saw her backing out of the cupboard with the scraper in her hand. He insisted on taking over the task of de-icing the car for her.
‘You don’t want to get frozen before you start work,’ he said, pulling on his wellingtons, not bothering with a coat, before unlocking the front door and letting in an icy blast.
Relieved and touched that he had taken this cold and tiresome chore from her, Amelia made a large cafetiere of coffee and sat down with a bowl of muesli and the newspaper on her iPad. She heard Rufus come back in, shutting the front door behind him and stamping the snow off his boots on the mat. He came into the kitchen shivering, rubbing his icy hands.
She got up and poured him some coffee to warm him up.
It was the first time they’d been alone without Sophie, and she took advantage of it.
‘How likely do you think it is, Rufus, that you will be able to rebuild the kennels to Jules’s exacting standards? I’m sure there are many more health and safety rules and regs now than there used to be when your aunt and uncle started the place, and you’ll need to raise quite a large sum of money to do it.’ She hoped she sounded casual and non-judgemental; her daughter seemed so quick to take offence when none was intended.
He shrugged, cupping his hands round his mug of hot coffee to thaw them out. ‘It might be tough, but we are going to give it our best shot,’ he said. ‘Sophie seems very determined.’ He smiled. ‘I don’t see her giving up without a fight.’
‘But are you determined too?’ she asked, wondering now if he was only trying to reopen the kennels as he thought it would please his aunt and uncle, or even to impress Sophie who she suspected he was attracted to.
Vero had asked her why she thought Sophie was showing such an interest in the kennels. ‘Has she got her eye on Rufus, perhaps?’ she’d asked.
‘I think it’s more likely he’s got his eye on her,’ Amelia had said. ‘You know how keen she is on causes and this is quite a good one.’ She’d explained that Sophie was also an animal-lover and had had lots of pets before she went to uni and then moved in with Dom.
‘I don’t know how long Sophie will stay here, Rufus. I’m sure she’ll soon want to get back to Dom in London,’ she continued, ‘but you know how hard he’ll have to work at this job and she’ll have to find one herself, so maybe, just now, she’s finding the kennels more interesting.’
Rufus shrugged. ‘She hopes he’ll come down here for a weekend, but yes, it would be good to get it going again and bring in some money. I enjoyed helping out when I went to stay there as a child. The kennels were always full in the summer and at times like Christmas. Sometimes they had to turn people away, it was so popular. It was quite a money spinner and I need to find a way to earn more myself.’
‘So, if it comes off, who will run it? Will you, or will you find others to do it, though then you’ll have to pay them?’ She pressed on.
Sophie appeared, catching the last bit of the conversation. ‘Don’t try and put us off, Mum. I hope you won’t side with Jules and try and discourage us.’ She frowned. ‘We’ve got some good ideas on how to raise money, so at least give us a chance.’ She poured herself a mug of coffee and sat down at the table nursing the mug in her hands.
Amelia got up. ‘I’m not siding with anyone, now I must get on or I’ll be late. Have a good day.’ She smiled at them both. ‘Thanks again for defrosting my car, Rufus.’
She put on her coat and scarf, picked up her bags and made for the car. The cold air enclosed her, and she sat a moment to let the engine warm up before backing out, the frost crunching under her tires as she set off. The roads from her house, as yet unused, were very icy, the hedgerows stiff and frozen. She drove slowly, the ice crunching under her wheels, thinking that at this rate she would hardly have time for another boost of coffee before she started the first lesson. There was nothing she could do; she would not go any faster and risk skidding.
She arrived at last and joined a small stream of children wandering in. A few came for breakfast and some were dropped off by their parents on their way to work.
As she walked across the playground to the door, she saw Jules and Dickon ahead. They reached the door and opened it and Jules turned around and saw her. He smiled.
‘Morning, Amelia, it was a tricky drive this morning, I wasn’t expecting it to be so icy.’
‘No, me neither. Fortunately, Rufus is still staying with us and he defrosted the car for me.’
‘Hope we can build a snowman.’ Dickon was looking more like the cheerful, talkative boy he’d been when she’d first met him. ‘I wanted you to come and watch Britain’s Got Talent with us but Dad forgot to ask you.’ He frowned at his father.
‘What a lovely thought,’ she said, surprised, smiling at him.
At the same moment, Jules said, ‘It was such short notice and I expect you are busy at weekends, but you must come over another time.’
‘Thanks, but I should have you all over to my house,’ she said.
‘Will any animals be there?’ Dickon said.
‘Look, you’ll be late, off you go, enjoy your day.’ Jules patted him on the shoulder, saying he’d come pick him up.
‘Bye, Dad.’ Dickon took a deep breath, went to the staircase and up to his classroom.
Amelia watched him go a moment, her heart going out to him. She must get on, she still had time for a coffee before her class.
Jules asked, ‘Did you enjoy the concert the other night?’
‘Yes, it was wonderful, though,’ she shrugged, ‘I’m not very knowledgeable about music and I couldn’t really get to grips with the second half.’
‘Me, neither.’ He watched her a moment, seeming poised to leave and yet he did not. ‘So, all well with David? I haven’t heard from him since that evening,’ he asked lightly.
She paused, children, some with parents, nannies or au pairs, swarming round them. She said, ‘Just as we left the concert, his girlfriend or ex-girlfriend, whatever, rang and said she’s getting married. It really upset him.’
‘Lucile?’ Jules frowned.
‘I think that was her name. Perhaps he thought after a short time apart they’d be back together. He’s never really spoken about her… though he did say something about relationships having a life span. This news obviously came as a blow.’
Jules looked thoughtful. She went on, ‘He was pretty shaken, I was worried about him driving home alone. I don’t know where he lives, but Sophie and Rufus were in the house and he didn’t want to come in.’
‘I’m sorry. I always thought that Lucile was a rather fickle girl, the sort of “you’ll do until a better bet comes by” person. I’ll call him.’ He put his hand on her shoulder, his expression serious now. ‘Thanks for telling me, Amelia. I’d better get on, got a string of animals to see today.’ He grinned. ‘Only farm ones, though, no pets. See you.’ Then he was gone, striding through the crowd of children streaming through the hall, and she realised she was watching him until he was out of sight.
She pulled herself together. If she went quickly now to the staff room, she’d have time to have that coffee. She felt a hand on her arm. It was Mrs Russell, the mother of Will who’d fallen over in the playground and grazed his knee last week. There would be no time for a coffee now.
*
The day had seemed very long, the children were excited about the snow and dashed out into the playground at break, but by then, what snow was left was slushy and soft and useless for building anything. Many fell over and came back inside wet and cold.
Amelia, on pick-up duty and sorting out the wet clothes for the children to take home, saw, to her disappointment, Cynthia crossing the hall to collect Dickon. Seeing her, Dickon opened his bag, pulled out a green scarf and thrust it at her.
‘You left this behind on Saturday. Uncle Giles said to give it to you.’
‘Oh, thanks.’ She took it from him. ‘Right, are you ready?’ She sounded impatient.
Amelia busied herself in sorting out Andy’s shoes which he’d put on the wrong feet. She remembered Dickon saying he wanted her to come round on Saturday, but would Jules really have asked her if Cynthia was there?
Dickon came to shake hands with her before he left, and he said. ‘Will the kennels be open again soon? They were very unsafe, weren’t they? All the animals would have got out, with all those broken bits and the roofs off.’
‘They are a complete waste of everyone’s time,’ Cynthia said, eyeing her coldly as if she was responsible for trying to open them again. ‘Jules has far more important things to do than put up with crowdfunding and various other time-wasting efforts to get them open. The old couple has retired and left the district, so the best thing for it is to sell the whole place.’
Amelia, standing up after changing Andy’s shoes, said, ‘Now their nephew has arrived and will be living there, it’s surely up to him and the owners what to do.’
‘Then Luna could go there when we go on holiday, unless we leave him with you, Amelia… Mrs Meredith.’ Dickon remembered he must call her that at school.
‘Let’s see what happens.’ Amelia smiled at him.
Cynthia threw her a scorching look. ‘Just don’t keep bothering Jules with all this, he’s sick to death with it all.’