A Place in the Country (9 page)

Caroline suddenly gave in. This was Issy's world and she had a right to it. She would call the mother, it would be okay. “So, what are you going to wear?” she asked, smiling.

She called Arabella Tsornin, who was cool and polite and said she was glad she had called and please not to worry, she would take good care of her daughter. “There'll be fifty of them,” she explained. “Lysander said he needed a celebration, he's at a tutorial in Oxford and it's hard work. Anyhow, tell Isabel to arrive at teatime. We'll be expecting her.”

Caroline sat back in the chair and looked at her daughter, wide-eyed and expectant. “They'll expect
Isabel
at teatime Saturday,” she said.

“Ohh, Mom
, thank you, thank you
…” Issy was in her lap, her arms around her neck.

Caroline looked at Maggie. “You said
three
things. I hope the other two are better than this.”

“Georgki called to say that the stonework is completed. He's got a blower and is cleaning up the mess.”

“More like shifting the dust from one place to another.”

“And he wants to celebrate. With you. At The Swan in Pangbourne.”

“Uh-uh!”

“I told him you were working but I'd give you the message. And he said to come over and take a look because you're not going to believe it. At least that's what I think he said with his accent. I can never quite tell.”

“Me either. Oh, Mags, what shall I do?”

“I think you should go,” Issy spoke up. “You owe him, Mom.”

She was right. “Okay. But
I
will take
Georgki
out for dinner.”

“And three,” Maggie said, ticking the numbers off on her fingers, “Jim Thompson called.”

Caroline's ears seemed to stretch forward, waiting for her next words.

“I said you'd call him back.” Maggie leaned smugly back against the sofa cushions.

“Hah!” Caroline didn't want to say too much in front of Issy, but she couldn't help a pleased smile.

“So call him, too, Mom,” Issy said, adding generously, “It's time you got out a bit more.”

It was the first time her daughter had even acknowledged the fact that her mother and her father were no longer a pair.

 

chapter 17

“I won't call him
back right away,” Caroline told Maggie later. “That would look pushy.”

“Trust me,
amiga,
push.” Maggie gave her a long look that meant just get on with it.

She went outside to make the call, tapping her black-booted foot nervously while it rang. And rang, and rang. Didn't the man have an answering machine?

“Jim Thompson.”

She was taken aback when he finally did answer. Suddenly nervous, she ran a hand through her newly-cut hair, and said, “How very formal. I only ever answer ‘yes.'”

“Then how does anyone know who you are?”

“I expect they know because they called me.”

He laughed. A nice round sound. Warm, she thought.

“You're right, Caroline Evans, and I did call you. Look, I'm sorry I haven't been around lately, but I was away, on business. I did my best for you though, got you all the good workers. And Georgki.”

Oh my God …
She remembered the dinner with Georgki … She said, “Yes, thank you. The barn's just about finished. I can move in soon, maybe next week.”

“I know a guy who can help you.”

“I might need two guys.”

“One like me, young and strong, does the work of two.”

Caroline laughed. “How old are you anyway?”

“Twenty-seven.”

Jesus!
Twenty-seven.
She wished she'd never asked.

He said, “So how old are
you,
then?”

“Let me tell you I have a daughter almost your age.”

“No you do not. Issy is fifteen.”

“How do you know about her?”

“I made it my business. That's how I know about you too. Live in a village, hang out at a pub, and everybody knows everything about everybody else. No secrets in Upper Amberley. Veronica Partridge is the worst. Gets all her info from church, she tells me. And the post office.”

“I'll never go there again,” Caroline said, thinking now he knew all about her anyway, she might as well relax into it. “So, I'm thirty-eight. And divorced,” she added.

“And still not over it,” he said.

Caroline felt herself freeze, this was becoming way too personal. “So, why did you call, anyway?” she asked sharply.

“I wanted to invite you to dinner, Saturday night. I was hoping you might be interested?”

“Ohhh,” she said, thinking about it.
She hadn't been out with a man other than James in seventeen years. She wasn't sure she still knew how to be a simple woman on a date.
“Dinner,” she said. “How lovely. Thank you.”
She was accepting, not even hesitating. God, she hadn't changed; she still jumped in with both feet.

“Wait a minute,” she added. “I work Saturdays. I can't do it.”

“Don't worry, I'll bribe Maggie. Look, it's actually a dinner party, sixteen people. I think you'd like them, well, some of them at least. Maybe you even like me enough to say yes?”

“Okay,” she said, laughing now.

“I'll pick you up at seven thirty,” he said. “Oh, and by the way, don't wear the yellow sweater.” He was laughing too when he rang off.

Caroline ran back into the pub, slamming the kitchen door behind her.

“I have a date,” she said, with a note of wonder in her voice.

“Then you'll need a new dress too, Mom,” Issy said.

 

chapter 18

Ever since
she'd seen Mark, Caroline had been mulling over his offer of financial help. She desperately needed it but was reluctant to give up her new independence, and besides, she didn't want him to think she was interested in a closer relationship. Finally though, he called and said, “Listen, it's not just restoring the old barn, you'll need a proper restaurant kitchen and that costs. Plus you'll need to get it into shape, furnished, y'know chintz sofas, nice comfy chairs, silver cutlery and candelabra. Face it, you'll need financing, Caroline.”

“Everybody with a country restaurant has flowery sofas and silver candelabra,” she protested. “My place in the country is going to be different.”

“Different still costs. Face it, I'm your only option. You'd better take me in as a silent partner. I promise I won't interfere, you can do whatever you like. I'm faxing an agreement and I'll open a business account for A Place in the Country.”

She didn't know whether it would be her salvation, or her undoing, but money certainly wasn't growing on any trees near her and she had no choice but to agree.

Finally the restoration was complete and she took Maggie and Jesus to inspect the result. They stopped at the end of the driveway so they could look at it. The only sounds were of the cows slurping up the long grass in the nearby field and the river slithering silkily by. No ducks racketed around today, there was no noise of drills, no workmen. It was quiet and beautiful.

Why then, did Caroline feel a sudden sinking of the heart? A clench of fear as she thought of what she had taken on, the debt, the responsibility? How could she ever have thought that she, inexperienced and unprofessional, could ever open a restaurant never mind make it a success?

Georgki was waiting to show them round. Her future restaurant was just a big bare room with a white plaster ceiling and four sets of French doors leading onto the terrace.

“It looks very
empty,
” Maggie said doubtfully.

“It's that ceiling. Barns usually have enormous beams but whoever converted this made it into two stories.” Looking at the blank ceiling, she suddenly had another of her brain waves.

“We'll hang a sail over it,” she said. “Billowing cream canvas, pegged wall to wall, like it's blowing in the wind. Romantic, you know,” she added, beaming with pleasure at her own brilliance.

“Hmm,” Maggie said doubtfully, while Jesus just looked bewildered.

“And I'm not having any flowery chairs either. I'm having Philippe Starck Ghost armchairs, padded in deep bronze canvas. And I'll have taupe-colored tablecloths. I hate placemats,” she added. “So cheap looking, as if they can't afford the laundry for the cloths and napkins.”

“You can't,” Maggie reminded her.

“Oh. Well, yes.” Caroline wasn't about to be brought down by mundane thoughts of laundry.

“A single flower floating in a glass bowl,” she went on. “A dahlia, or Gerbera daisy, or perhaps a rose from the garden.”

“You do not have a rose garden,” Jesus reminded her.

She lifted her shoulder in a little shrug. “You know what I mean. A cowslip would do, or Queen Anne's lace picked from the hedgerow…”

“You'd put
cow-parsley
on your table?” Maggie was shocked.

Deflated, Caroline said, “Well, anyway, I'll also need to find a couple of old wooden sideboards to go along the two walls, and lamps and things.” She knew she sounded like a housewife with delusions of restaurant grandeur.

They walked upstairs to view her new “home” quarters.

“Is good, yes?” Georgki said.

The chestnut floors were smooth, the limestone fireplace all clean and swept, and the windows sparkled. Up another little flight of steps, in the mezzanine, was a small private kitchen, and up yet another twist in the stairs were now two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Caroline had gone for broke and installed an expensive Jacuzzi tub that would rescue her feet from their nightly stint on the flagstone floors.

Looking at it all, A Place in the Country suddenly became a reality. She was scared. She was in debt up to her ears; she had committed to bank loans and a loan from her father, as well as Mark, her silent partner. And the restaurant did not even have a kitchen yet.

Jesus went and got the bottle of champagne he'd brought to celebrate, and they sat on the terrace toasting Caroline's future, while the river unfurled slowly to the weir, the way it had done since the beginning of time. And would, Caroline knew, for ever more.

She felt the weight suddenly lift. The responsibility would become a pleasure, the work a necessary part of her life. She would enjoy this place, this home. She would be her own woman, at last.

 

chapter 19

Caroline called the kitchen people
as soon as she got back to the pub to confirm Monday's installation, then she called the cheap moving company, run by Oxford students, and confirmed Monday's move.

This weekend was Issy's London party, and Caroline was still worried that it was in London, and that he was seventeen. Too late to change her mind now. Anyhow, she'd better take her to Oxford to buy a new party outfit. She would need one too for the dinner party. An
English
dinner party, all pearls and small talk, she'd bet. Still, she was looking forward to seeing Jim.
Cute
Jim.
Too young Jim,
she thought. Then told herself what the hell, enjoy it while you can.

Issy and Sam looked through the racks at Miss Selfridge and Zara like professionals. Issy held up a black dress for Caroline's approval.

“No black,” she said firmly.

“Red, then?” She held up a scrap of a skirt that would fit a six-year-old, and an even smaller strapless top.

“No red,” Caroline said, even more firmly. “Besides, your boobs will fall out of that.”

The girls giggled, and Caroline sighed. She'd thought she'd never get them out of there. Finally though they found something Issy liked and that Caroline approved of. It was a simple blue dress, shorter than she thought appropriate but Sam told her everybody wore them like that nowadays. It had skinny straps so she insisted on a little mesh shrug to go over it. Since the shrug was black, Issy agreed, but despite Caroline's protests that they were too grown-up and too high, she also talked her into a pair of black peep-toe, sling-back, platform wedges. “I
am
almost sixteen, Mom!” she argued. Her legs were winter-white and she refused to even think of tights. “Nobody ever wears those, Mom,” she said. “Especially not with sling-backs.” So they went to Boots and bought a tube of instant golden tan. They found her a black skirt and a white cardigan, for daytime, and Caroline had a nice trench coat she could wear. After that they went to M & S and got underwear and Caroline couldn't believe it when they bought thongs. After that, she dropped them at a café, while she went on the hunt for something for herself.

Of course she was really too old to shop at Zara, but she'd spotted a dress there. She hadn't had the nerve to try with the girls looking on. Now, she grabbed the size ten and went to the changing room. It was a bias-cut pale green silk jersey with a sweetheart neck, cap sleeves, and a narrow skirt. Every line of her underwear showed. And more.

She took another shocked look at herself in the mirror. No way could she wear this.

The salesgirl popped her head in. “Try the twelve,” she advised. “It's cut real small.”

The twelve hit all the right places nicely but she still wouldn't be able to wear panties. Well, maybe a thong. She bought the dress, and a pair of nude suede shoes with four-inch heels. She also picked up a thong en route to pick up the girls, then drove them home. She hoped her credit card would stand up to the onslaught.

Of course she had second thoughts about the dress later, when she modeled it for Maggie, who assured her it looked terrific.

That Saturday night they arranged for Sam to stay with a friend and Sarah agreed to take over in the kitchen. Lily was to act as assistant, while her sister would mind Little Billy in the living room upstairs.

It was all set. Issy's party. And Caroline's date.