Authors: Jenny Harper
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #General
‘Ben, you’re dripping! For heaven’s sake, let’s get your things off.’
Kath, greeting him at the door a good three hours later, spotted her son coming into the hall and dodged out of her living room to intercept him. Daisy, feeling prim and proper and dressed in her Sunday best, was uncomfortable – more than uncomfortable, seriously awkward. Only her mother’s pleading and the knowledge that with Kath present her father would be on his best behaviour had finally persuaded her to accompany them to the Gillies’s for lunch. That and the oddest feeling that she shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Ben somewhere other than work. Now, though, sitting on the chintzy sofa, waiting for Ben to appear, she felt crucified. What would he think when he found her there? Too late she realised that there should be a separation between work and not work. Sitting in his house, with her parents observing everything, she just wanted to bolt.
‘We’ve got guests, love,’ she heard Kath Gillies say. ‘I’ve asked Janet and Eric round for lunch.’
‘Oh? Right.’ There was a rustle (a jacket being shaken out?) and a couple of clunks (boots?), then she heard him say, ‘I’ll just go for a shower first, will I?’
‘Fine, just pop in and say hello before you go.’
Ben’s head appeared. It had been raining for the past three hours and he looked as though he’d been out in every minute of that time. His thick browny-red hair was plastered to his head and his fair skin looked flushed.
‘Oh! Hi Daisy. Hi.’ Surely his face had gone a deeper shade of pink? ‘Hello Janet, hello Eric. Good to see you. Listen, I’m dripping here, I won’t come in and spoil Mother’s carpet. I’m going to nip up for a shower.’ His head disappeared for a moment, then reappeared suddenly. ‘Good to see you,’ he repeated, weirdly, before Daisy heard the soft thump, thump of him bounding up the carpeted stair in bare feet.
She stared at her skirt. It was an ankle length, swirly affair in dusky blue, with huge diagonal patchworky type squares and raggy bits. Why she’d let Lizzie persuade her to buy it she couldn’t imagine, it wasn’t really her thing, and she felt like someone else in the skirt.
What the hell was she doing here, thinking about a skirt, for God’s sake – and on her day off? She could be at the gym. She twisted her mouth pensively. No, no point in going to the gym today. Jack would be with Iris, though not for much longer with any luck.
Kitten.
He’d called her
kitten.
Purrr.
‘Hey.’ Ben was back. Christ that had been quick. Men seemed to get through the shower-and-change thing so fast.
Daisy smiled. ‘Hey.’
‘Remember I was telling you about that old Cream album? Want to hear it?’
He dressed casually in the office, but he looked even more relaxed now, standing there barefoot in cotton joggers and a soft zipped cardi over a white T-shirt, clean and scrubbed like a small boy just out of the bath – a big version of the Ben she used to play with all those years ago. And abruptly the girl Daisy had been was there with him again, running barefoot off to his room with smuggled treats to play board games or guessing games or just lie on the carpet staring at the ceiling and listen to music. She realised with surprise that she really liked Ben – more than just liked in a ‘He’s all right’ kind of way. He was easy to be with, really comfortable. And actually, it occurred to her, looking like he did right now he was really rather sexy.
‘Daisy? Cream? Crossroads? Baker, Bruce, and Clapton?’
She’d been drifting. She blinked, grinned and said, ‘Sure. Love to. Have we time?’
Kath nodded, smiling. ‘Want to take a drink up with you?’
‘What, you mean legally?’ Ben laughed.
He had the same memories.
They chose white wine, took a bottle and two glasses and pinched a couple of bags of crisps for good measure. It was funny how she was remembering – little things, like how he used to dance like a maniac whenever she put Abba on. God, he’d lacked co-ordination. She looked at his sturdy legs, the broad shoulders, the comforting solidness of him as she followed him up the stairs and wondered whether he’d changed.
‘Do you dance these days?’ she asked as they reached the door to his room on the top floor. A week or two back she would have been puffing but now, she was pleased to note, the long climb hadn’t troubled her.
‘Are you asking?’
She laughed. ‘I’m supposed to say “I’m asking,” huh?’
‘Then I say, “I’m dancing”.’ He turned inside the room and stared at her for such a long moment that she felt uncomfortable. She blushed and turned to pretend to admire the view, then saw that there was someone else in the room. ‘Hi,’ she greeted the dummy involuntarily, then laughed at her mistake. ‘My God, Ben, what’s that?’
‘Let me introduce Nefertiti, my constant companion and chaperone.’
‘Delighted,’ said Daisy, crossing the room to inspect her. ‘Heavens, my friend Lizzie would just
love
her.’
‘She’s a dummy fetishist?’
‘Nope. She’s a textile designer. That looks like one of her hats.’
‘Ah. Got it now. You share a house with her.’
‘More of a tiny cottage, and a cold one at that, but yeah. You’d like her, she’s gorgeous.’ The heavy beat of Ginger Baker on drums filled the room and she closed her eyes to listen to Bruce and Clapton on guitar with the old classics she remembered from her parents’ collection. ‘Jesus, it’s years since I heard this. Fabulous.’
Ben tossed her a pillow on the floor for her to sit on. She subsided onto the floor and leaned back against the bed. Ben screwed the top off the wine, filled her glass, took his own and sank down to the floor with a practised ease, his toes splaying slightly to aid his balance.
Distracted by the sight, she said, ‘You know those tickets that came in to the paper, the ones for the
X Factor
tour concert at Braehead?’
Ben’s foot was tapping the carpet to the strong beat. ‘Sharon won them in the draw, didn’t she?’
‘Yeah. But afterwards she told me she’d realised she had a diary conflict and can’t go that night. She gave them to me.’
‘What, just gave them away? And why you? Pardon me for making the observation, but I hadn’t thought you were the best of mates.’
Daisy grinned. ‘I know it’s not saying much, but I’m as good as she’s got there.’
‘Hmm, you may be right. Sad.’
‘I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?’ The idea had just occurred to her. She would normally have invited Lizzie, but Lizzie was away next week. There was no point in asking Jack, not yet anyway, and Ben was cool, easy to be with.
‘Are you on?’
‘Are you asking?’
‘I’m asking.’
‘Then I’m on.’
Fucking magic. Ben sank back into the pillow he’d grabbed from the bed to lean against the wall in his lowly position on the floor and closed his eyes.
‘Goin’ down to the crossroad
…’ He was at a crossroad all right. Before him lay all sorts of possibilities. The day, which had started early and had looked rather unpromising, had got better and better.
‘Crossroad, crossroad, crossroad.’
He didn’t need to worry about how to ask Daisy Irvine out on a date.
She’d just asked him.
Sales of the
Herald
had slumped. Chantelle in advertising was finding sales harder than ever. Sharon seemed to be constantly grumpy and Daisy guessed things weren’t going too well with Jay because he was irritable most of the time and they hadn’t been spotted in each other’s company.
Out together on a story, Sharon chose – unusually – to confide in Daisy. ‘It all started so well, Dais.’
Daisy, driving to the school in the small rural village of Main where parents were staging a protest against the decision not to exclude a very troublesome pupil (aged six), negotiated a tight bend in the narrow road, squeezing past a tractor coming in the opposite direction. That corner was dangerous. There’d be a serious accident there one of these days. The villagers had organised plenty of protests about it but the Council’s attitude seemed to be to do nothing until there was a fatality to prove the villagers right. ‘Yeah?’
‘I mean, he’s just
gorgeous
, don’t you think?’
‘Jay?’
‘Of course, Jay. And he really took to me, I mean
really
.’
Daisy glanced across at Sharon. ‘Not surprising. You’re very pretty, Shar.’ She was too. If she could just curb her bossiness she’d be a much more attractive person, but she had looks all right.
‘Thanks.’
Sharon sounded surprised. Maybe she didn’t get too many compliments. Was she aware of Sir Cosmo, finding every excuse to come into the office, standing in the corner eyeing her up like a loyal Labrador, his tongue practically hanging out? Daisy thought not. And even if Sharon was aware of Cosmo’s unspoken passion, she’d probably be dismissive of it. He was, perhaps, a bit on the crusty side, but a good scrub and an airing, plus a bit of TLC, and Cosmo would probably come up shining in unexpected ways. He was too much under his mother’s thumb and that was his biggest problem.
‘But it’s a bit difficult. He’s kind of all over me one minute then looks at me like I’m a complete stranger the next. What can I do?’
Daisy passed the small, isolated church that marked half way to their destination. She picked her words carefully. ‘Shar, is it the best idea to be trying to date the boss? You know what they say.’
‘Yeah, yeah, I know, don’t shit on your own doorstep. But I can’t help it Dais, I’m smitten. And to be honest …’ she hesitated.
‘What?’
Sharon’s hesitation, uncharacteristically, continued. ‘Well, to be honest, I don’t like what he’s doing to the paper. I want to leap on the guy and shag him to death, but professionally … I’m worried.’
Daisy, taken aback, admitted, ‘I know. Me too. What can we do?’
‘That’s the problem. I haven’t a clue. I can’t do a thing. If I tell him, I’ll certainly lose him. I’m sure he’s capable, but he’s just getting it so wrong.’
Daisy thought about it. She had to slow down to pass a horse and rider. It gave her time.
‘I think he’s doing it with good intentions. He wants the paper to be great. He’s just made a wrong judgement about how we can achieve that.’
‘Can you help Daisy? Please? You’re so good with people.’
A compliment? From Sharon Eddy? Was the world turning upside down? They had reached the edge of the village. The school was yards away. Daisy could already see the small gaggle of protesters, women mostly, carrying placards. She’d have to concentrate now on the job in hand.
‘I’ll try Shar. I’ll think of something.’
As it happened, an opportunity to talk to Jay presented itself remarkably soon.
It was April Fool’s Day and Daisy woke to a white world. She opened her curtains and looked out on the snow with astonishment and delight. The cottage didn’t have a garden, as such, it was more of a small field, marked out from the farmland beyond only by a low dry stone wall that had deteriorated into ragged humps and bumps over the years. The view out to open countryside, therefore, was a long one. Daisy could see across several fields to a small wood at the foot of the hills that rose beyond. They were all white. Everything glinted and shone in the brightest of sunshine from a clear blue sky. She thought she had never seen anything quite so beautiful.
Hea-ven-ly, she thought, before recalling that she had to drive down to Kelso and negotiating the roads wouldn’t be easy, even in the 4x4. To make matters worse, she couldn’t find Tiny Ted. She spent a frantic ten minutes searching the cottage before realising that she must have left the bear on her desk. She felt naked and vulnerable without him in her pocket. Idiot. She swallowed some coffee and cursed her own scattiness. She really must concentrate instead of letting her mind wander.
Lizzie was away, she had the cottage to herself, and the task of digging the car out of the drift that had built up round it was all hers as well. When she’d finally managed to clear enough space between it and the road to get started, Daisy felt as though she’d had another full workout in the gym. Thinking about the gym naturally sent her mind spiralling to Jack Hedderwick, her beloved Jack. Surely it wouldn’t be long now before they were back together? They’d fallen into a pattern of being at the Fitness Centre on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, six thirty sharp unless work prevented her getting there. She’d upped her repeats several times (which Markie took the credit for) and she actually found that she had begun to enjoy the exercise for its own sake. Sometimes she ran alongside Jack on the next treadmill and even found breath to talk. They almost always had a coffee afterwards. Over the past few weeks they’d fallen back into the kind of closeness they used to have, before the cracks had begun to show. Cracks caused by Iris up-herself Swithinbank. Well, the woman would soon know what a rift between you and the man you loved felt like.
She felt close to Jack again. Only yesterday, she’d asked his advice about Jay. ‘What can we do, Jack? We’ve got to save the
Herald
.’
‘Have you tried talking to him?’
She shook her head. ‘I think he still sees us all as hicks from the sticks. He doesn’t get it.’
‘What does he say about the threatened closure?’
She pondered that before answering. ‘You know, he’s never mentioned it. Not once.’
‘Does he know?’
‘Know? Surely he knows.’
‘Try to find an opportunity – informally if you can – to talk about it, huh? Soon.’
‘I will. Thanks Jack.’ She tried to put all her love into her eyes when she looked at him. Did his clear blue ones show the same? She held his gaze for a long tingling minute and felt the thrill of it lift the hairs on her neck. Talk about a meaningful look! He hadn’t said anything yet, but that didn’t signify anything. He would soon, it was just a matter of time. Their reunion was inevitable.
Jackanddaisy. Daisyandjack.
They were meant to be together. The gym was just a start and it wasn’t really the place for romance, she had to find a way of meeting him somewhere more intimate. And she would.
On the road to Kelso, she began to think. Jay Bond was playing with the
Herald
like a new toy, not handling it like a fragile one. She had to find out how he was planning to rescue the paper. Maybe she could work in a word for Sharon at the same time. Why not? It could be her good deed for the day.
The conference she was photographing turned out to be dull in the extreme. The paper was doing a special supplement about the day-long meeting. It was good money and heaven knows they needed the income, but finding ways to make groups of people talking or keynote speakers speaking look interesting was always a challenge, and it was not one that Daisy felt particularly inspired by today. She did her best though, and at four, packed her cameras away and stepped out of the hotel for the first time since she’d arrived at nine. The sunshine had gone and the sky was heavy with the threat of more snow. Across the square, she could see her car. There had clearly been a heavy fall at some point during the day and she had to spend five minutes scraping the windows. As she swung the car out of the square, the first flakes drifted down from the grey skies and two minutes later the snow was swirling down heavily. At home, in the cottage, she’d have watched it with childlike pleasure. But now, all she could think about was getting back to Hailesbank in one piece.
Three miles up the road, the snow developed into a blizzard and she was struggling to see through the windscreen. The car felt steady enough, but a van, coming the other way, slid and skidded towards her and she turned the wheel in alarm. A second later, she was in the ditch, cursing.
‘Sod it!’ She stuck the car into reverse and revved up. Nothing. The wheels were simply spinning. Daisy peered out of her window. There was no sign of the van, she was on her own. Cautiously, she opened the door and hopped out. There didn’t seem to be any damage but the angle of the car had left one back wheel in the air, leaving the other to take up the traction and the soft snow was compacting into a mass of ice as she tried to rev, making it impossible to get out.
‘Shit! What am I going to do?’ she wailed uselessly up into the swirling snow. Ben. He’d know. Stumbling back to the car, she found her mobile and dialled the office.
‘
Hailesbank Herald
, how can I help?’ Somehow she’d got straight through to Jay Bond.
‘Oh Jay. Hi. Hi, it’s Daisy,’ she was flustered. ‘Is Ben there please?’
‘Sorry, Daisy, I sent everyone home early. The snow’s pretty bad here. You OK?’
Bother, she’d have to tell him, she didn’t really have any other option. ‘No. Not really. I’m stuck in a ditch. Well, in a snowdrift in a ditch, I guess.’
‘Where?’
‘Just outside Kelso.’
‘Can you leave the car there and walk back in?’
‘When I say just outside, I mean four or five miles. I don’t fancy walking in this blizzard.’
‘No. Wouldn’t be sensible. Can you hitch a lift?’
Daisy looked out at the road dubiously. ‘Apart from the van that forced me into the ditch, there’s not been anything past for ages.’
‘OK, Daisy. Listen, I’ll come and get you.’
‘Yes?’ Daisy’s heart lifted at the thought of rescue. ‘That’s really kind, Jay, but how will you get here? I mean, the weather’s totally rubbish.’
‘I’ve got my Discovery. I’ve been dying to give it a proper test.’
‘Oh. Great.’ How Jay had managed to blag a really smart vehicle in the current economic climate, heaven knows. ‘Well, if you’re sure, Jay, that’d be brilliant.’
‘I’ll be there in half an hour. I just need to close everything up here and I’ll be with you. Keep warm, won’t you?’
‘Will do.’
Daisy looked around. The snow had stopped and a break had appeared in the clouds. Now that she’d stopped panicking about being stranded, she realised that there was something magical about the view. If she walked another thirty or forty yards up the hill, she’d have a spectacular line of sight right across to the countryside. It was too good to miss. Grabbing her camera, she rammed a woollen hat on her head and climbed out of the car.
Twenty minutes later, it didn’t seem like such a great idea. The snow was up to her knees and her jeans were soaked. The climb, though, proved to be worth it. Although the light was grey, the scene was majestic. She lifted her camera, photographed the gnarled tree at the top of the hill, its branches laden with snow. A few forlorn sheep stood and stared at her. Black and white, on white. She took pictures of them too. Below her, in the distance, her car, its rear end in the air, half buried in snow, looking like a wreck. Who could have guessed that the scene of desolation would offer so many fantastic opportunities?
By the time she’d finished, the snow had started again, but even so, getting back to the car was easier than the climb had been. It was downhill and she had already beaten a kind of a path that she could follow. There was still no sign of Jay. She turned the engine on. At least she’d had the sense to throw an old wool coat in the back, as well as one of Lizzie’s fabulous silk and velvet scarves. It didn’t matter that it was red, a colour she never dared wear, it felt luxurious and cosy. She huddled behind the steering wheel, listening to the radio and rubbing the steamed-up window from time to time to peer out.
Jay arrived shortly before six, inching along the road with great care. Road? She could hardly see it. The edges had long since disappeared. White lines? The only white line visible was the broad swathe of snow between the tops of the walls that marked the edges of the fields.
‘Hi! Thank God you’re here.’
‘How much further to Kelso?’ Jay looked strained.
‘Not more than four or five miles. I did it in ten minutes on the way out.’
‘We’ll have to head for there, Daisy. There’s absolutely no way I’m going back the way I’ve come. Grab your camera gear and hop in.’
They rolled slowly down the hill. Half a mile on, they wound their way between a thickly wooded stretch of forest. Here the way was clearer and, fifteen minutes later, the first houses on the outskirts of Kelso appeared. They might even be able to walk now if they had to.
It didn’t come to that. They crawled back into the square at a quarter to seven, nearly three hours after Daisy had left it.
‘We’ll have to hole up for the night and hope it’s cleared a bit by morning,’ Jay said, switching off the engine. He looked exhausted. His shoulders had slumped and he no longer had the arrogant air that she’d so disliked when she’d first met him.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘I don’t have any clothes with me though.’
‘Nor me. Never mind. Let’s find somewhere to stay.’
They tried every hotel, but with no success. Other travellers had beaten them to the accommodation. At the last hotel they picked up a local tourist brochure with the telephone numbers of a dozen or more guest houses and phoned them all, but with no luck.
‘Right,’ said Jay determinedly. ‘We’ll go back to the hotel in the square. I’ll insist we camp down in the lounge if we have to.’
When they returned to where they’d started, their luck turned. ‘Someone’s just phoned to cancel their reservation, sir,’ said the clerk on the desk. ‘Seems they can’t get through. The snow’s quite bad, I believe.’
‘Tell me about it,’ grunted Jay. ‘Can we take the room?’
‘Certainly sir.’ He signed them in and handed them the key.
A room? One room? Just one room for her and for Jay? Christ. She’d have to share a room with her boss. Perhaps he would offer to sleep in the lounge.
‘Can we help with your bags?’
Jay laughed. ‘Bags? I don’t think we need help. Can we purchase a couple of toothbrushes?’
‘I’ll put them on the bill, sir.’
They made their way upstairs. Daisy prayed that the room would, at least, be a twin and in that her luck held out, but as the door swung to behind them, she stood inside, gripped by unaccustomed shyness and embarrassment.
‘Looks all right,’ Jay flicked a switch and twin lamps came on at either side of the two beds.
Daisy stood, still rigid. Turning, he caught sight of her face. ‘You all right?’
Then, the situation he’d put her in evidently dawning on him, he said hurriedly, ‘Hey Daisy, I’m sorry. I should have asked. Are you OK about this? I promise you, absolutely, I have no agenda here, but … listen …’ he stepped away from her hastily. Maybe he had had a sudden vision of a sexual harassment suit, or even worse, a rape charge, ‘… you can sleep in here. I’ll grab some rest downstairs. It would be nice to be able to snatch a quick shower before I decamp, though?’
Daisy’s hand stole into her pocket for the comfort of Tiny Ted’s presence, but of course it was empty. ‘It’s all right,’ she said in a small voice. ‘You can stay.’