Josephine Cox 3-Book Collection 2: The Loner, Born Bad, Three Letters

Just then the doctor returned with a wheel chair in tow. ‘Right, it’s all in order.’ Hands on hips, he looked down on his patient. ‘We’re off to the X-ray room.’ And without more ado, he bundled Frank into the wheel chair and whisked him away.

‘These are busy people,’ he nagged. ‘Think yourself fortunate they’ve managed to squeeze you in.’

As they turned the corner, Dave and Lucy could hear Frank ranting on at him. ‘There’s no need for you to stay. I’ve got my daughter here and she’s more than capable of pushing me along the corridor. In fact, I’d rather hobble on my knees than have you treat me like a baby!’

‘Stop your moaning and thank your lucky stars I’m taking the time to stay with you. There are far more important things I could be doing than listen to your moaning and grumbling.’

‘Are they always like that?’ Dave wanted to know.

‘Always,’ Lucy chuckled. ‘Argue, argue, argue. If one says it’s day, the other will swear it’s night. They’re worse than a couple of kids.’

‘Known each other a long time, have they?’

‘Yes, for ages and ages.’

‘Who’s this Maggie you spoke of?’

‘She’s our housekeeper and cook. She’s worth her weight in gold. You’d have met her before, but she has gone shopping in Bedford today.’

‘So he’s not likely to send her down the road with her wages then?’

Lucy shook her head. ‘Dad would never do that – he thinks the world of her. He might pretend to threaten hell and high water, but he couldn’t do without her and neither could I. She’s the salt of the earth, is Maggie.’

‘You sound really fond of her.’

‘I am – we all are.’ She then explained, ‘The man you were looking for, Ted Baker who passed away – well, Maggie’s his widow. When Daddy amalgamated Greenacres Farm with its neighbour, she was offered a cottage here and a job in The Willows, and now she’s like part of the family.’

The girl had noticed how awkward the stranger seemed in the presence of others. ‘You don’t care much for people, do you?’ she asked.

Dave shrugged. ‘Never had much to do with folks,’ he answered. ‘I’ve always found my own company good enough.’

Now it was Lucy’s turn to fall silent. She didn’t know quite what to make of him. There was no denying she was attracted to him, and she was pleased that her father had taken to him. All the same, she got the feeling that Dave was not happy in close surroundings. ‘You prefer to be outside, don’t you?’

‘I do, yes. The open roads and the countryside is where I belong.’

‘Then you’re bound to feel comfortable at the farm,’ she assured him with a bright smile. ‘As we’re out in the middle of nowhere.’

Just then they heard the sound of the two men approaching. ‘What a fuss!’ That was the doctor chiding the patient. ‘A grown man whimpering and complaining about being put under the X-ray machine, whatever next?’

‘I was not whimpering!’ Frank was at the end of his tether. ‘Three times they had me on and off that damned contraption! It’s bloody painful, I might tell you, being dragged from pillar to post, especially when your foot feels like it’s parted company with your leg. Three times! God Almighty, you’d think they could at least get it right the first time!’

Ignoring his friend, the doctor informed Lucy, ‘I have an urgent appointment to attend, but I’ve taken the liberty of ordering a taxi to run you back to the farm. By my reckoning, it should be waiting outside.’ Considering his duty done for the time being, he then delivered Frank to his daughter, and was quickly gone.

‘Can’t get rid of me quick enough, can he?’ Frank grunted.

‘Could that possibly have anything to do with the fact that you are being so ungrateful and argumentative!’ Lucy enquired, with a saucy wink at Dave.

Frank got back to the matter in hand. ‘So, let’s get down to business, young man.’ He looked Dave straight in the eye. ‘Have you thought about my offer? Are you prepared to come and work for an old codger like me?’

Lucy laughed. ‘Not if he’s got any sense, he won’t.’ Though she had her fingers crossed behind her back, and every nerve in her young body was aching for Dave to say yes. And when he did, she could hardly believe it.

‘Thank you, Mr Thomson, yes – I’d like to come and work for you. But first, I’ll need to find lodgings.’

Lucy was quick with an answer. ‘I’m sure we can help.’ She turned to her father, asking hopefully, ‘We can, can’t we, Daddy?’

Frank hesitated for the briefest moment while he discreetly scrutinised Dave; he had wanted a son, but it was not meant to be. He had wanted his wife to grow old with him, and now she was not here. But Lucy was here – and she was everything he imagined a daughter would be, honest and loyal, and born with the same fierce love of the land as himself. Whatever she wanted, he would give her, if he could.

‘Daddy?’ Lucy’s anxious voice shattered his thoughts. ‘We can find lodgings for Dave, can’t we?’

‘Well, yes, I imagine so.’ He addressed the lad. ‘First we need to get back, so’s you can have a look around. I’ll ask Seamus Macintyre to show you the ropes. He’s my head groom, and what he doesn’t know about horses isn’t worth knowing.’ He turned to Lucy. ‘Isn’t that so, love?’

The girl gave a small smile, and though her father missed the way she dropped her gaze to the floor, Dave was quick to notice the change in her manner. He couldn’t help but wonder whether she had any liking for this man called Seamus.

‘For all we know, you may not want to stay,’ Frank was saying. ‘The job may not be what you’re looking for. And if it turns out that way, I won’t hold you to anything. So – is that a deal?’

Dave was grateful. ‘Fine by me, Mr Thomson.’ And they promptly shook hands on it.

Lucy had a favour to ask. ‘Will you let me show Dave round, Daddy? I know the stables and yards as well as Seamus.’

‘All right, but don’t make an issue of it with Seamus. You know how protective he is of his little empire.’

‘I won’t say anything,’ she promised. ‘But Seamus has a way with him, and I don’t want him to make trouble for Dave.’

‘I’m not sure what you mean by Seamus making trouble. If he seems worried by Dave being about the stables, tell him you’ve agreed it with me. As long as Dave gets shown the lie of the land, I don’t mind who does the showing.’

‘Good. That’s settled then!’ Hardly able to hide her excitement, the girl stood up, ready to leave. Right from the first, she had felt drawn to Dave.

And the longer she spent in his company, the closer she felt to him.

A short time later, with Frank seated in his office, his foot bandaged and propped on a chair, and going through the business of the day, Lucy set about showing Dave the ropes. ‘We’ll start with the kitchen, then the stables, and after that if you want, I can take you to the fields where we keep the stallions.’

‘Sounds good to me.’ Dave was surprised at how easy he felt in her company.

As they went through the house and on to the kitchen, where he was to meet Ted Baker’s widow, Dave was amazed at the sheer size and beauty of this great house. Every room was flooded with sunshine, and he could imagine the laughter and joy that must have echoed from those walls. ‘We used to have lots of parties, when I was little,’ Lucy informed him as they travelled through, ‘but not for a long time now.’

Dave assumed the parties must have stopped when Frank’s wife was lost to them.

‘This is Mummy.’ As though reading his thoughts, she drew him to a beautiful painting hanging above the fire place in the drawing room. For what seemed an age, she fell silent, looking up at the woman she had known for such a cruelly short time, and whom she still missed terribly. ‘She was lovely, don’t you think? Dad told me that in Hebrew, Ruth means “friend”, like the Ruth in the Bible, and that’s how I think of her, as my friend.’

When she now turned to him, and he saw the tears bright in her pretty eyes, Dave’s he art swelled with sympathy. He knew how sad she was feeling, for didn’t he feel the same way about his own mother?

In that peculiar, intimate moment he felt a great affinity with her; a need to hold and protect her and takeaway the pain.

‘Lucy Thomson, you little devil!’ Ted Baker’s widow Maggie had never lost her strong Scottish accent. ‘Whatever d’ye think you’re doing! I’ve only just finished vacuuming that sheepskin rug. It took me ages to get the hairs standing on end again, and now you’re crushing it all underfoot! Have ye no soul? Don’t ye think I slave hard enough in this house, without you following on and undoing all my hard work? And who, might I ask, is your friend?’ Her quick eyes pinned Dave in a shrivelling glance. ‘I don’t suppose for one minute, he wiped his feet at the door!’

Like a rabbit caught in the headlights, Dave couldn’t take his eyes off her. With a voice like a Sergeant Major, he expected to see a burly woman with arms resembling tank-turrets and feet like shovels. Instead, this woman whom he assumed to be the dreaded Maggie, was remarkably handsome, with twinkling light-brown eyes, a shapely, ample figure and only the occasional grey streak in her brown hair. ‘I did wipe my feet,’ he said lamely. ‘Twice.’

‘This is Dave Adams.’ Lucy quickly stepped off the sheepskin rug, while behind her Dave bent to brush the flattened areas where he and Lucy had been standing. ‘He was the one who saved Daddy from Madden, and now he might be coming to work here.’