Amelia drove over to Vero’s supper party. It was a bleak night and she still found it an ordeal to drive far in the pitch-dark on her own. She never thought twice about it when she lived in London. She still had not got used to the utter darkness of the country at night. The fields and woods, unbroken by lit windows. She rather wished she could stay at home, though, as her mother used to say, ‘It will be fun once you get there.’
She arrived at Vero and Ben’s house, her headlights catching the white open gate in the dark lane. It was up a long drive. Once it had been a farm though now much of the land had been sold, some to a woman with horses and a riding school, which kept the house surrounded by fields and woodland instead of being snaffled up for masses of new houses, which had been built further away.
Ben opened the door to her. ‘Amelia, as lovely as ever.’ He kissed her. He helped her off with her coat.
‘Good to see you, Ben.’ She’d known him forever and was very fond of him.
There was another couple already there. She recognised Rosalind who owned the shop where she’d bought her curtains. She’d last seen her at Christmas at Giles’s lunch party. This time her husband, Hamish, whom she’d never met, was with her. Amelia recognised his type at once, the leering sort and she saw too that Rosalind seemed uneasy.
‘How lovely to meet you, the merry widow,’ Hamish said, taking her hand and almost lifting it to his lips, his eyes sweeping over her in an insolent way.
Amelia inwardly froze. She disliked this sort of man, showing off and flirting with other women in front of their wives, making them miserable. She’d no idea they were friends of Ben and Vero. She made a quick excuse and escaped to the kitchen to greet Vero, leaving the couple with Ben.
Vero was panicking in the kitchen. ‘Something is wrong with the oven, it’s not hot enough and the meat will take ages to cook,’ she moaned after embracing her. ‘Callum you know, and this is Evie his wife.’
Amelia greeted them both. Callum was quite a few years older than her girls and his wife, whom he’d recently married, looked even older, though she was a glamourous woman, blond hair to her shoulders and a great figure. She remembered Vero telling her that Callum had fallen in love with his boss.
The meat was chicken breasts in a sauce and Evie suggested that they start them off on the hob and then put them in the oven. The doorbell went then, and she said she’d deal with it while Vero and Ben entertained their guests.
‘Evie is a cordon bleu cook,’ Callum said proudly. ‘Bad luck though, the oven conking out just when you’re having a party.’
‘That’s when it often happens, at an important time. Not as bad as Christmas I suppose when you have a whole household to feed and no chance of getting anyone in to mend it for days,’ Amelia said, following Vero out of the room.
Amelia could hear Jules talking in the hall. She wondered how he was getting on with Cynthia since that day she had forgotten to pick up Dickon, a very black mark against her if Dickon was to become her stepson.
She, Callum and Vero went into the living room. Giles came over and gave her a hug. ‘Amelia what a treat to see you. You know Leonora and Jules, what a fun party this will be.’ He smiled round at them all, delighted as a child.
Leonora greeted her. ‘Ah, the saintly woman who took in half the country’s pets over Christmas. Jules told us all about it. Saved lots of people from cancelling their Christmas plans.’
‘It was nothing,’ Amelia muttered, annoyed with Jules who, it seemed, had entertained all sorts of people with her lack of knowledge about animals. Being caught out by two mice of the opposite sex having babies and that tortoises hibernated.
Jules looking a little sheepish said in his defence, ‘I wasn’t making fun of you, Amelia. You did marvellously. I’m afraid Dickon started it by telling Giles you didn’t know how babies were made, well, animal babies. I don’t think he’s quite grasped that it applies to humans as well.’
‘I think you were wonderful, taking them all in,’ Vero said robustly. ‘I remember those kennels with affection, my little dogs were always happy there, in fact I sometimes thought they’d rather be there than with us here.’
Ben, doing the rounds replenishing their glasses, said, ‘It’s a terrible story, sad too that no one realised what a bind the owners were in. How did you know about it, anyway, Jules? You’d barely arrived from France!’
Amelia was interested to hear his side of the story, she’d heard other versions from other people all no doubt embellished. Before Jules could tell them, Hamish pushed in.
‘Ah, so you are the fairy godmother who gave house room to the local pets.’ He eyed her up again, and Amelia was aware that Jules was watching for her reaction.
‘So how did you come to get involved in all this, Jules?’ She turned to him.
Jules shrugged and glanced round as if he thought the story would bore them.
Leonora said enthusiastically, as though she was part of it, ‘It was all so lucky, just fell into place, didn’t it, Jules? Tell them about it.’
‘Okay, well Dickon and I were coming back and Giles heard that the old vet was past it, in fact he’d had an accident – the vet, I mean, not Giles.’
‘Thankfully not me,’ Giles said.
‘Giles got me a job or two to look after some of the farms, which snowballed. Dodi called me in herself as their cat had a poisoned paw. I couldn’t help seeing the state of the place and when I heard they were going to take in animals over Christmas, I knew I had no choice but to close it down immediately.’ He paused. ‘The rest is history, but poor Amelia bore the brunt of it, by having the pets dumped on her.
‘The saving angel.’ Hamish leered at her.
‘So, it all worked out in the end.’ Leonora beamed round at them all, as if she was the fairy godmother who had somehow arranged it all. ‘The old couple’s nephew is hoping to get it started up again.’
‘Well, that might work out,’ Ben said. ‘So does that mean Sophie wants to be a sort of zookeeper?’ He laughed. ‘I didn’t know her fiancé was Dodi’s nephew.’
‘He’s not, that’s Rufus who is going to live there. Dom works in a financial firm in London. He might be sent to the US.’
‘That will be fun for them.’ Vero had spent some time working in the States before her marriage, enthused. ‘And you can go and visit. Whereabouts might they go?’
‘Other halves are not allowed. They are so young, you see, it’s just the beginning of their career and I think the firm wants them to go on their own,’ Amelia said.
‘Oh, that’s a bit mean,’ Vero said, ‘but she’s engaged, not a random girlfriend.’ She frowned. ‘Do you think it will work out between them?’
‘True love will outlast anything,’ Leonora said cheerfully, ‘though maybe it’s not to be.’
‘They’ve been together since almost the first day at uni,’ Vero said. ‘It will be a test, but as you say, Leonora, true love conquers all.’
Amelia wondered if it did, but she didn’t say anything. Absence did not always make the heart grow fonder, and today there were so many choices, people to meet and exciting places to go. Sophie seemed so deep in this kennel thing with Rufus and she’d seen how he looked at her. She suspected that without her daughter’s energy, Rufus might not have fought so hard to reopen the kennels. He had a book he wanted to write and now a house to live in, rent-free. He could let out some of the fields to have enough money to pay any bills, but that wasn’t enough for Sophie. Her new mission in life, she’d decided, was to get the kennels up and running again.
Amelia sensed that Jules was watching her. When Hamish approached her and began flirting in rather a menacing way, Jules moved a step closer to her. She felt awful for Rosalind who watched them miserably. How demeaning for her to have such a husband as this. It was a relief when they all went into the dining room for supper.
Amelia was relieved not to be sitting anywhere near Hamish. Jules and Ben were either side of her. Hamish, now the other side of the table, leered at Evie, much to Callum’s consternation.
‘How are they getting on raising funds, Amelia? It least it would save you being plagued by pet owners hoping to foist their pets on you when they go away, and Easter’s coming up,’ Jules asked as they ate the chicken, now beautifully cooked, thanks to Evie.
‘I’d be happy to have Ziggy, even Osbert as I’ve occasionally fed him when Gloria is away working, but I wouldn’t want the rest. I’d feel a bit mean about it, as some of the owners, like Micky’s mum, really deserve a break. Though my older daughter is coming home in a few days, so I’ll be busy with her.’ She wondered if she would or if Grania and this new man would go off into the sunset together. ‘But you’d probably put a stop to me doing it again, wouldn’t you? You were rather shocked, that I was left in charge of so many pets. Probably something to do with dreary old health and safety.’ She teased him.
‘You managed very well,’ he said, his look inscrutable. ‘We do need a kennels in the district, but I don’t see this one opening any time soon.’
‘So, you approve of them reopening? Sophie, my daughter thinks you wouldn’t.’ She faced him.
‘If they are rebuilt properly, with no short cuts, or cobbled together on the cheap, then, yes I do,’ he said, ‘otherwise there is no way I’d let them open again. Anyway,’ he smiled, ‘you might all be shot of me soon if I decide to take that job I’ve been offered in Hampshire.’