When she got home, Amelia found Sophie and Rufus sitting close together at the kitchen table, poring over a computer and making notes on a piece of paper beside them.
‘We’re trying to find people to fund us in reopening the kennels.’ Sophie looked up when she came in. ‘We need to find out how many pet owners would use them regularly, and what sort of money punters would get back for their investment,’ she explained.
Amelia was slightly dismayed to see them. She had thought Rufus was moving into his aunt and uncle’s now empty house on the site, and that he and Sophie were going to work from there and not be crouched over the laptop and phone in the kitchen when she got back, longing for a bit of peace after a hard day.
Sophie guessed her feelings and with a slight edge of impatience to her voice, she said, ‘You saw that the place had to be completely gutted and rebuilt to Jules’s satisfaction, so that will need a good lot of money.’
‘And he’s right.’ Amelia was getting fed up with it all. When Sophie settled on something she felt was unjust, she went all out to solve it, which in the past had mostly taken place while she was at university, not round her mother’s kitchen table. There was also another reason Amelia was not admitting to – she didn’t want Jules to think she was part of this scheme of Sophie’s to reopen the kennels that he had closed down.
‘Oh, Mum, you don’t understand,’ Sophie said grumpily. ‘Anyway, where have you been? You’re not usually back so late.’
‘The person who was supposed to pick up Jules’s son didn’t show, so I dropped him home, stayed for a delicious tea with his uncle and then Jules turned up,’ she said, making for the door to avoid any flak.
‘Siding with the enemy, Mum, how could you?’ Sophie half joked.
‘Oh, Soph, it’s not like that.’ Rufus laughed at her remark. ‘You saw how bad it was, you were as shocked as I was. Jules had to do it though I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner when I might have been able to do something, stopped things getting so bad.’
‘Some of the cages would have done, just over Christmas, and it was fully booked. People wouldn’t have done that if it was so dangerous,’ she went on. ‘If Mum hadn’t taken some in, it would have ruined people’s holidays.’
‘There’s no point going over it again and again, Sophie.’ Amelia heard the edge to her voice, but she was getting rather tired of her daughter’s zeal.
‘If you had known Dodi and Jim a few years back you’d have been amazed at their energy,’ Rufus said. ‘They built it from scratch themselves, not that I really appreciated it then, but when I last saw them… um,’ he frowned, ‘about two summers ago, I suppose. Things seemed to be working then, but, as you know I was in Europe for a while, so I hadn’t seen what was going on there, realised that Jim was becoming so forgetful.
‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘I need to make some money to live on, and I think there’s a need for a good place for people to leave their animals when they go away. I’m happy to have the house to live in too. I’ll get in some lodgers to help out.’
Amelia said nothing, leaving the kitchen and going to the living room to sit down and catch up with her messages on her laptop. She didn’t need supper as she’d had so much tea but there was plenty of food in the fridge, if Sophie and Rufus wanted something.
In the end, and a little to her relief, Sophie and Rufus went out and then David rang.
‘I’m so sorry about that evening, or rather for dumping you at home. I was just thrown by that call,’ he said.
‘I’m sad for you that it worked out like that.’ She referred to the call he’d had ending his long affair though realising almost at once that he thought she meant what might have happened between them after their evening together after the concert.
‘I wondered if you’d like to come out again, there’s a new restaurant I’d like to try.’ He went on to explain. ‘It’s having a grand opening in a couple of weeks. February 14th.’
‘Oh, Valentine’s Day,’ she said, involuntarily imagining the restaurant full of red roses and romantic corners for bona fide lovers.
‘Is it? Sorry not really up to speed with dates. But anyway, would you like to come? It has a great chef, so it should be a good evening.’
‘As good friends,’ she said firmly. ‘I don’t want more than friendship, David, it’s so much easier and more lasting,’ she added quickly. ‘So, is that okay with you? We understand each other?’
‘Fine. So, I’ll pick you up around 7.30?’ He sounded relieved.
Her diary was empty for that week. ‘Yes, would be lovely,’ she agreed, glad she’d got her bit in about being friends.
‘Good, we’ll take it from there then. See you.’
He rang off leaving her wishing now that she’d thought of an excuse to turn him down. Why was friendship between the sexes so difficult? The phone rang again, and she hoped it was David changing the date, but it was Vero.
‘What a relief it is you,’ she said, explaining about David.
‘Poor David, you could do worse, he’s a decent man. But I get it that you don’t want a romance with him, though Valentine’s Day,’ she joked. ‘You might get tempted. He’s an attractive man, though, I guess, quite needy, poor love. Well, you can always put on your head mistressy look and keep him at bay.’ She laughed. ‘I rang to ask you to supper next weekend. My cousin Callum and his wife are staying, and I’ve asked Giles and Leonora, if they are still together, and Jules. I do hope you’re free.’
‘All these treats at once,’ Amelia joked. ‘Yes, I’d love to. How are things, bookshop going well?’ Vero had a children’s book shop in Bury.
‘Good clear out over Christmas, now getting in the Easter stock, all bunnies, chicks and eggs.’ She laughed. ‘So, how’s school? I heard Dickon is there, is he in your class?’
‘No, the one above.’ Amelia told her about Cynthia forgetting to collect him from school and how she’d taken him home herself and stayed for tea.
‘No one knows if she just works at the surgery or is also his girlfriend,’ Vero said. ‘I’m sure he’s not short of lady friends and somehow, his predicament, a young, widowed father, appeals to a lot of women. It must be so difficult for him though, he can’t just shack up with anyone, they’ll have to be a good mother to Dickon too.’
‘True and I don’t think Cynthia is that maternal, do you?’
Vero knew her too well. ‘She’s not the slightest bit maternal, Amelia, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if, for some reason, she had to have a child, she’d make some other woman carry it for her.’
‘Oh Vero, what nonsense,’ she said with a laugh. If Cynthia didn’t like children why was she hanging round Jules?