The Country Escape - Jane Lovering Page 0,84

hooves making a sink-plunger noise in the wet mud and the rain dripping off points in his mane and forelock. His coat lay in wet dreadlocks across his back and his feathers had formed strings down his legs. I patted him and then wiped my hand down my hastily donned jacket; he’d been rubbing against the trees and his neck was green with moss and lichen in the half-light. It was getting rapidly dark now. We’d been in bed for longer than I’d thought and no wonder we were hungry.

‘Mary?’ Gabriel knocked on the van door.

‘What are you doing outside on a day like this?’ The grumble approached and the door opened. ‘You’ll dissolve, the pair of you. Well, come in, don’t stand there letting the rain get ahead of you.’

Her gaze flickered off Gabriel and on to me. She didn’t say anything, and her eyes barely waited, but I saw her give a half nod and a tiny self-satisfied smile. ‘We just thought we’d pop over and, er…’ He tailed off.

‘Offer to make you a cup of tea,’ I finished. She’d clearly already got the picture, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to put it into words yet. Gabriel and I, as a couple. How the hell were we going to make this work, when he couldn’t drive and lived twenty miles away, and I had a teenage daughter who was not going to thank me for proving that I had any kind of life left in me, let alone of the sex variety.

Doubt started to creep over me.

‘Don’t be bloody daft, I’ve got a kettle.’ Mary began bustling around the stove.

‘We’ve not seen you out and about much. Are you all right?’ I asked. There was something somehow slower about Granny Mary today, almost as though movement hurt. Today’s band T-shirt, a rather terrifying Megadeth one of skull and crossbones, looked crumpled and her hair hadn’t been brushed.

‘Of course, you haven’t,’ she snapped, putting the kettle on the burner. ‘Have you seen the weather out there? I’ve only been going out to check on Patrick. I have no desire to be blown away or soaked to the skin, thank you very much. An acorn between the eyes often offends.’

‘Ah. Right.’ I sat down on the bench, then held on to the table as the whole caravan swayed in the wind.

‘And how are you, young Gabriel?’ Mary’s voice softened. ‘That daft sister of yours improving at all? Or is she still trying to sell knitwear’s answer to The Call of Cthulhu down in the village?’

‘Oh, you know Thea,’ he answered comfortably. ‘She thinks there’s nothing that can’t be summoned with a blood sacrifice and a number three hook.’

‘Radio says there’s trees and branches all over the roads too,’ Mary continued, as the kettle began a rather squeaky boil and she fiddled with the mugs. ‘It’s been a wild one this year. Very atmospheric for the Halloween do down at Steepleton. There’ll not be a candle that stays alight down there tonight.’

All three of us looked up at the dark square of window. While I hadn’t forgotten forgotten that today was Halloween with all that entailed down in the village, I’d managed to keep the actual details from my mind. Admittedly, I’d used energetic sex to distract me, but even so… ‘I hope Poppy is all right,’ I said, almost as a reflex.

Granny Mary ‘tch’d’. ‘She’ll be having the time of her life.’ She put a mug of steaming tea down in front of me.

‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ I said darkly.

‘Ah now, it takes less to have a good time at her age. A cheeky sip of alcohol, bit of a dance and a kiss from someone nice – that’s living it up at fourteen, isn’t it?’ She frowned, bringing another two mugs to the table. ‘I’m a bit out of touch, mind.’

Gabriel met my eye. ‘Sounds good to me,’ he said. ‘And the Halloween fair is well supervised – there’s loads of people around and most of them are local. It’s Halloween in Steepleton, not Carnival in Rio.’

Mary sat down heavily next to me. ‘Just because you made daft mistakes when you were young doesn’t mean she will,’ she said, bending her fingers around her mug of tea. ‘She’s got her head screwed on right, your daughter. You did a good job with her.’

From Mary this was practically praising me to the skies. I felt a warmth rise up through me. ‘Thank you.’ I sipped my tea.

‘So, you