Another chapter, the penultimate one in fact (although I am planning on writing an epilogue too) as always thanks to North200 for his editing skills and his dry wit, his feed back can be very entertaining.
Ivy was packing the dodge up, ready to go to the festival. It was the first time she'd driven the truck any great distance since the clutch had gone and she was nervous. She climbed into the cab and fired up the engine. There was no way of being absolutely sure the clutch was going to last the distance. She'd crawled underneath and had a look and it while she was checking the brakes and even though it had
seemed
okay, she'd spoken to Geoff and he'd said he would be available as a tow if anything did go wrong. She let the engine run for a while so every thing would have time to warm up.
Normally Ivy moved around a lot more, especially in the summer and she'd gotten so settled in the few months she'd been parked up. So getting ready to go was more convoluted than usual. She'd always had a few plants, it was feasible to find a space in the truck for a few pots when she needed to move, but her collection had really gotten out of hand since she'd started working with Kev. It was lovely to finally have a small garden of her own, but she had no idea which ones she would keep and which ones would go when time came to move on.
But this time Ivy was coming back, so she could leave a lot stuff behind. This wasn't a luxury she normally had. The threat of eviction always loomed on travellers sites so leaving stuff behind was a risk. You could make arrangements with neighbours if you weren't going for long, but you could never leave much. And even then there was no guarantee these things will be remembered in the chaos of an eviction. Sometimes you found out when the bailiffs were going to days before but sometimes you didn't even get hours. Occasionally the bailiffs were happy to wait while you packed but more often they weren't.
Despite the safety of Cartwright Hall, Ivy still loaded everything she valued and everything she needed to live. She took her bow saw and her axe even though she wasn't going to chop any fire wood and all three water butts though she need only have taken one. As the saying went, old habits die hard.
She looked at the temperature dial on the dashboard, the engine was warm and the orange light indicating the break cylinders had reached full pressure had clicked on while she'd been lost in thought. She frowned, it would have been helpful to know how long that had taken, but never mind. She put it in to gear, pulled forward and slowly pushed the break pedal to the floor, they seemed fine but she repeated the action a few times to be sure.
When she was finished, she wandered over to Ruth and Alex's
"Everything okay?" Ruth called when she saw her.
Ivy nodded "We should head off soon. I want to get there while its still light. I might grab some of Sally's flapjack for the journey first though."
Ruth laughed. "You have it for lunch at work every day."
Ivy grinned "But I like it."
The flapjack was nice, it was true but she wanted to say goodbye too, she'd grown very fond of Sally and her dad had been under the weather recently. Ivy wanted to check up on her before she left. She was planning to come back of course but things could change and very often did in her world, she'd learned not to depend on things staying the same. Old habits.
Before she set off for the farm shop she helped carry Ruth's bags over to the truck.
"Heard from Richard?"
"Yeah, he's at a wedding this weekend in Cotswolds."
Ruth looked at Ivy. "Oh?"
"He did invite me, but I didn't want to go."
"Ivy! I can't believe you didn't take him up on his invitation!" Ivy winced, Ruth's voice reached a higher pitch when she was excited, or surprised, or, well quite a lot of the time really. "We could've totally managed without you."
"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been fair on you all."
"I could've helped cover your shifts."
"I know, but it wasn't just that."
"Then what? Posh hotel, free food, I bet there's loads of coke, I bet they'll be snorting coke off the bar with fifty pound notes."
Ivy tried to imagine Richard doing coke and failed.
"I don't like coke anyway."
"I wasn't suggesting
you
did the coke."
"It just feels like too much too soon, being there, for the whole weekend, with all his posh architect mates, anyway, I don't like weddings."
"Yeah, I get that. It can be pretty intense to spend a whole weekend at a wedding with someone you've only just starting shagging."
~
When Ivy arrived at the shop Sally was pacing around and glaring at her phone.
"What's wrong Sally, are you okay?"
"I've had a missed call from the hospital, but the battery just died so I can't ring them back," she sighed "I'm probably worrying about nothing."
Sally's dad lived in a residential home and had recently had a stroke.
"You can use the shop phone?"
"I can't get the number though."
"Oh... then go back to yours and get your charger, it won't take a minute, I'll keep an eye on the shop."
Sally grimaced. "But you're about to leave, Ruth and Alex must be waiting for you, Roger is starting his shift at four I'll go then."
"Sally that's not for ages. Just go, I can be here, it doesn't matter if we leave a bit later, Ruth and Alex will understand."
"Okay thanks, I'll be as quick as I can" Sally smiled briskly and rushed off.
"Take as long as you need Sal!" Ivy called after her. The bell on the door clanged as it swung shut and Ivy wasn't sure if Sally had heard her.
She wandered around the shop, pausing to study a new display of locally produced jams. She admired the pickled walnuts, lined up in their jars on the shelf above. Ruth had designed the labels, and they looked great, really professional. When she heard the door open she spun round assuming it would be Sally, back, sooner than expected.
But it wasn't Sally, it was William -Richard's younger brother. He was glaring at her as he stalked across the shop towards the counter and she was reminded of his furious expression when he'd seen her dancing with Richard at the gala. She'd decided that evening that she was taking it too personally, when she'd assumed his mood had something to do with her, but now she was confronted with him again she wasn't so sure.
"Sally's not here." Why did she feel like she owed him any sort of explanation? It was none his business. "I'm just keeping an eye on the place, she needed to make an important call." She'd nearly said urgent, but she was conscious Sally might not want Will to know her personal business and a word like urgent invited too many questions.
His resemblance to his sister was uncanny and it made her want to trust him. They had the same eyes, except where Caroline's were warm and kind Will's were hard. As he watched her she could feel his gaze crawling over her skin. He reminded her of a snake.
Suddenly he smiled, but it was a cold, desolate smile. She wanted to leave, to get away from him but she couldn't abandon the shop.
He prowled towards her, dragging a hand along the counter, the action seemed casual, but the look in his face wasn't and her sense of trepidation grew.
"What a nice thing to do. You're so nice aren't you? Everyone likes you." He spat the word nice out as though it tasted as bitter as it sounded. "Did you know that my father won't stop talking about you? My sister thinks you're the best thing since sliced bread. And Richard," he gestured with his hand, an exaggerated ... flourish. "Richard is mooning about the place like someone's hit him over the head with a cricket bat."
She took a deep breath, he seemed to be enjoying his role as the evil brother and it was quite a performance, she wondered if perhaps he should join an amateur dramatics society but before she had the chance to deliver the sarcastic barb he was speaking again.
"And now you're minding the shop for Sally," he was talking in a funny childish singsongy voice and it was coming across as a bit demented. "Is there anyone here you haven't wormed your way in with?" The words flew across the room like tiny, fast moving arrows. "Well you haven't fooled me."
There was a hysterical edge to it all, his voice seemed to be creeping higher as he continued and she wondered if he had been drinking. He didn't seem drunk, he was too focused, but he was angry, very angry and she couldn't work out why.
And still the words came; like poison, dripping from his lips.
"I can see right through you even if they can't, I bet you're going to get up the duff and make him marry you. You think you're going to go from living in your crumby little caravan to living in my home. You think you're going to get rich on the back of my family."
Ivy's mouth fell open. He'd moved so close to her she could feel the spit flying out of his mouth. His face had gone beetroot red he was so furious.
"But I'm not interesting in— I don't—" she didn't sound as assertive as she'd meant to, this new direction he'd launched off into had come as a shock.
He carried on as though she hadn't spoken. "Well you're not. He's not stupid you know, he's not going to marry you, he'll get bored with you soon enough, you're just his bit of rough. He stands to inherit the title, and your just some waif that's drifted in and caught his fancy. You're not one of us, I bet you didn't go to a decent school, Can you even read and write?"
She staggered backwards. She couldn't breath. It felt like he'd punched her in the stomach. She gripped the counter. How dare he? Who did he think he was. She wanted to tell him to fuck right off but she couldn't form the words, her head was starting to spin. But then a red mist descended, and with it came the clarity she needed.
