that film crew who’ve got their eye on him,’ Mary went on. ‘And I don’t reckon they’ve got this whole “complicated past” thing going on. His place up to Bridport is nice, they might want to shack up with him over there, eyesight or no eyesight.’ She swung round. ‘Here. Bottle of blackberry wine, made it myself last autumn.’ The bottle, filled with a dark liquid that looked suspiciously thick, was thrust into my hands. ‘His sister is absolutely bonkers, mind you, but she’s a good girl. I’m sure they’ll learn to cope with her. Now, you’d better go. I’m going to give Patrick a bit of a brush and then have a nap.’
I took the bottle and went out into the daylight, which, even though it was slightly muted and sunlight-free, seemed almost overwhelmingly bright after the darkness of the caravan interior.
Gabriel didn’t make it over for several days. He texted, apologising and hoping that the pumpkins would keep, but he had to finish a quilt that was on express order.
I went to Bridport and spent more in the supermarket than I had intended. I also went to the big DIY warehouse and bought paint, and started painting the kitchen, to the evident consternation of the resident woodlice.
Outside the weather forecasters were being proved right by the gusty storms that were passing through the county. There was so much rain that the ford at the bottom of our lane had become impassable and access to the other side of the valley had to be via a five-mile detour down the main road. I’d stomped down to stare moodily into the swirling brown waters and texted Poppy some pictures of the depth gauge, which said that the water was 1.5 metres deep. She texted me back a ‘LOL’, I wasn’t quite sure why, but apparently she was working hard in the café, it was busy, and her evenings were spent being taught to bake by Karen.
I had a little shiver of resentment towards Karen. I should have been teaching Poppy to bake! And then I got real and remembered that Poppy had been utterly dismissive whenever I’d tried to entice her into the kitchen to learn any life skills, and had informed me that she’d just ring out for a pizza when she left home and didn’t need to learn to cook. Karen was clearly having more luck than me, or perhaps it was cooler to learn these things when it wasn’t your mother teaching you.
So, on the Wednesday morning, when Gabriel finally turned up, of course I was wearing paint-stained jeans and hoodie and had just got back from giving the ford another good staring at. Which meant that my hair was soaked and plastered to my head and my skin had that strange tight feeling from being subjected to a high wind all the way back up the lane. I must have looked like a Botoxed seal.
‘Hello,’ Gabriel said cheerfully, as I wrenched open the front door with a towel over my head. ‘I’ve come to finish the pumpkins for Friday. I know you’re going down there tomorrow, and I rushed the quilt through so I could come over and get the carving done in time for you to take them down. Why have you got a towel on your head?’
I thought slightly longingly about the slim-fit jeans and the silky sweater that I’d planned to wear for him, and the subtle make-up. The crotch of the jeans I was wearing was somewhere round my knees and the hoodie was so large that it was only a couple of guy ropes short of being a tent.
‘I was outside,’ I said, through towelling. ‘I wasn’t expecting you.’
‘You look like a rapper sponsored by Farrow & Ball.’ He looked me up and down again. ‘Nice colour, by the way. Where’s it going?’
‘Mostly up my legs.’ I led the way into the hall and he followed me. ‘And the rest is on the kitchen walls. It’s been okay’d by Keenan, before you panic.’
I hadn’t bothered to light the stove or the wood-burner, and the inside of the cottage had the patina of damp again. It did, however, smell a bit nicer since I’d discovered Bridport had a lovely scented-candle shop. I’d decided the artistic sprigs of mint made it smell like a chewing-gum factory and thrown them away.
‘Sorry I didn’t text or ring to say I was coming,’ Gabriel looked at the painting detritus spread over the flags. ‘I wasn’t completely