Half an hour later they were sitting on a bench in front of
the wisteria covered farmhouse drinking tea with Edgar. He’d found a packet of Hob
Nobs in the cupboard too that he’d been keeping for a special occasion and
having these youngsters here was a real treat.
Alice curled her fingers around the warm mug as they
recounted their exploits and Edgar told them something of the history of his farm.
It had been in the family for generations but sadly there was only his niece left after he'd gone and while Vicky was full of
ideas she wasn’t prepared to put in the hard work it took to keep it going.
“You never married then? No family of your own?”
Edgar shrugged, a resigned look in his eyes. Alice desperately wanted to dig a bit
further but they were interrupted by a car pulling up sharply in the driveway,
gravel spraying in all directions.
Melanie jumped out and marched up to them.
“Nice surprise seeing you here too, shall I fetch another
cup?” Edgar appeared oblivious to the fierce scowl on her face, eyes focused on
Sebastian like lasers.
“Sorry?” She snapped turning her head sharply, she seemed surprised to
see her genial host. “No I need to speak to Sebastian, urgently. Do you delight
in not answering your phone; you understand that you are actually working
today? This isn’t just a jolly tea party in the country.”
Sebastian pulled his phone from his pocket. It was wet.
“Sorry, we fell in the river, well actually Alice fell in and I went to rescue
her.”
“Oh yes my knight in shining armour grinning from ear to
ear, I had to teach you a lesson!”
“So then Alice pulled me in and my phone obviously got wet
in the process.”
Sebastian and Alice were looking at each other, lost in a
shared moment of laughter and mayhem.
“Oh spare me your silly little tales. You had one simple task
to do, to bring the picture boards for Edgar’s approval.”
“I’m really pleased with them.” Edgar managed to interject
as she took a short breath.
“Well that’s wonderful, absolutely bloody marvellous!”
Melanie was waving her arms in the air but her words and actions didn’t match.
“Mel, what’s wrong?” Sebastian had dealt with her hysteria
before and it was not pretty. He was
suddenly most fearful of what she might say in front of Alice.
“We can’t use the campaign now. I’ve been speaking to Celia,
remember her, your ex. Seems like she is pretty upset that you took a date to
the ball wearing her Aunt Ada’s dress! And by upset I mean absolutely furious
but not half as furious as I am. All the hours we have put into this, ruined!”
“Hang on a minute. Sebastian didn’t give me the dress. My
friend Clare bought it from a charity shop.” Alice suddenly turned to Sebastian
for an answer.
“Oh this just gets better and better.” Melanie’s voice had
reached a high pitched squeal.
All eyes were now on Sebastian, even Edgar was intrigued.
Nothing like this had happened here at the farm for, well forever!
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