The Country Escape - Jane Lovering Page 0,51

being silly, and before I could change my mind again I went out, gathering my fleece at the neck against the penetrating rain.

I knocked on the van door and, to my astonishment, it was opened by Poppy. Inside the van sat Granny Mary and Gabriel.

‘Are you playing Sardines?’ I asked.

‘There’s plenty of room. Romanies raise families in these vans,’ Granny Mary replied, eyeing the biscuits. ‘Those for us?’

I put the plate on the table, handed her the mug, which she added to the considerable collection on the table in front of her.

‘Gabriel is showing me how to stitch,’ Poppy said. ‘Sharon gave me this red dress, and Gabriel’s showing me how to do the gold embroidery for my Cersei costume.’

Gabriel had his needle threaded and a swathe of fabric on his knee. He looked a bit embarrassed to be caught in the act again. ‘I’ve drawn the design on in tailor’s chalk,’ he said, to Poppy. ‘If you do those stitches I’ve shown you over the top, I reckon it will be good enough for Halloween. If you want anything more detailed, I can make you a costume, but it takes a while. We’ve only got a couple of weeks before the disco, so this will have to do for now.’

Granny Mary ate a biscuit. It was warm and snug in the van. The stove was belting out heat and there was a smell of something cooking in a pan. In the grey rainy light, the paintwork shone, more muted than by bright sun, and it all felt very cosy. Much nicer than the cottage, in fact. Mary and Gabriel were sitting at the table on the low bench seat, Poppy was perched on a brightly painted stool. I hovered in the doorway.

‘Come in and sit down,’ Granny Mary ordered. ‘You’re making the place look untidy standing there. Here.’ Another stool shot out from under the table and I sat, lower down than they were on their bench, feeling like an adult at primary school parents’ evening.

‘So I’m wearing the red dress and Gabriel’s showed me how to sew it up so it’s got these big sleeve things, and I’ve got that huge belt that looks like a corset and I’m going to wear my heels and Rory’s got this necklace thing that he bought from Exeter this one time that’s just like Cersei’s, and I’m going to do my hair all up…’ She pulled her hair up and back and demonstrated, all breathless excitement and wide-eyed anticipation. ‘And it’s going to be so-o-o-o-o cool.’

‘And breathe,’ said Granny Mary, but with a hint of amusement in her voice. ‘Surprised you don’t run out of words, way you carry on.’

If I had said that, Poppy would have rounded on me and accused me of trying to spoil her fun, or of criticising the way she spoke or something. From Granny Mary, apparently though, it was a huge joke.

‘You should so come!’ Poppy addressed her. ‘You could get Patrick to pull the van down to the car park and you could tell fortunes!’

Granny Mary side-eyed her. ‘Young lady, I am not a charlatan.’

Poppy looked blank. ‘It means a fake,’ I said.

‘Oh. Nah, everyone would know it was just made up. You could have a crystal ball and one of those scarf things and just tell everyone you could see someone tall, dark and handsome in their future. It’d be ace!’

Granny Mary’s eyes flicked over to Gabriel, quietly stitching away, and then on to me. ‘Tall, dark and handsome,’ she said to no one in particular.

‘Yes. Oh, go on, Granny Mary! You’d be brill.’

‘Ach, I’m a bit old for play-acting, child. You’ll be fine without me. There’s always plenty to do at the Halloween fair.’ Mary ate another biscuit. I watched Gabriel’s hands, capable and long-fingered, laying down fine gold thread work.

‘That’s beautiful,’ I said.

‘I did this bit!’ Poppy held up a swathe of fabric from the other end of the dress. ‘Gabriel showed me how.’

‘Since when did you do sewing?’ I asked her.

‘Mémé taught me, a couple of summers ago.’ She picked at the fabric. ‘Mum, for my birthday, could I have a sewing machine? And a pony?’

It figured that Luc’s mother would have had Poppy sewing. It was what she considered a good girl should do competently. A good wife should sew and cook. The other things she should do for her husband I devoutly hoped had not been mentioned, let alone lessons given. But in Mémé’s favour, she never considered