‘He’ll be here in a minute,’ Alice volunteered. ‘He’s just bedding the falcon down for the night.’
‘How is the bird?’ Tom asked eagerly, still chomping at the bit for his evening meal.
Before Alice could answer, Frank chipped in. ‘Joe reckons it’s almost ready to take off.’
Tom was pleased about that. ‘Ah well, he always did have a way with stray creatures, did Joe.’
‘Off upstairs, Frank. You need to wash and change before dinner,’ Nancy ordered.
‘Oh, I was hoping to beg a cuppa before I go up and change.’
‘You’d best make it yourself, ‘cause me and Alice have the dinner to serve,’ Nancy reminded him. ‘Oh, and try not to get under our feet.’
Frank took offence at being ordered about like a little boy. Smiling to himself, he wondered what his parents would say if they knew Joe had been in prison. The very thought of it made him feel good.
While Frank got himself a mug of tea, Alice and Nancy went about setting the table.
Tom got his fingers rapped for picking at the peas, while Nancy saw to the gravy and juggled dishes of steaming, juicy vegetables, she assailed everyone with stories of Joe and his boyish escapades. ‘D’you recall the time Joe scampered up that huge old tree to rescue that ginger cat?’
She chuckled. ‘The cat jumped down and left Joe stranded. We had to get the big ladders out and help him down. As if that wasn’t enough, the very next morning he found a badger caught in a trap.’
Stealing a carrot, Tom picked up the story. ‘Ten year old he were, and would you believe he turned up here with the badger still in the damned trap! The badger’s leg was almost off, and it was half crazed.’
While Nancy checked there were enough places set at the table for Alice’s parents Tom went on, ‘I gave Joe a right talking to. I mean…as we all know, badgers are bad-tempered at the best of times, and this big divil was in terrible pain. Snapping and snarling like a mad dog it was. I don’t mind telling you, it’s a miracle he didn’t have Joe’s fingers off at the bone!’
Out the corner of her eye Nancy caught Tom dibbing into the peas. ‘Get your mucky fingers outta them peas!’ Catching him across the knuckles with the ladle, she gave him one of her frosty stares. It was enough to send him scurrying for his raggedy old newspaper again.
When the telephone rang right beside him he almost leaped out of his chair. ‘Noisy damned thing. I wish we’d never had it put in!’ Tom hated all things new.
‘Don’t be so miserable!’ Nancy chided. ‘It’s bad enough you made us wait till everyone else in the village had one, before you gave in. Anyway, you can’t deny it’s been handy.’
With the telephone still ringing and no one seeming prepared to answer it, Alice grabbed a tea towel and wiped her hands. ‘I’ll get it!’ she said, and was across the room in no time at all.
Snatching up the receiver, she said, ‘Hello? This is Brook Farm, who’s that please?’
She listened for a moment or two, quietly answering in between, ‘What’s happened? Yes, we’ve just got dinner on the table. Oh, I’m sorry. Tomorrow? I will, Father. Yes, if that’s what you want, all right, but what’s happened?’
There was another pause while she paid attention to what her father was telling her, then, ‘Oh, I see. Yes, all right. I’ll tell them, yes. No, they’ll understand I’m sure. Well, I don’t know, but don’t worry. I just hope everything’s all right when you get there. Give them my love. No, Father, it’s okay. Yes, I know. I expect so. Yes, I will. Bye then.’
As Alice replaced the receiver, Nancy was curious. ‘That was a strange conversation,’ she commented. ‘I take it that was your father?’
Even Nancy would never dream of addressing the dignified Ronald Jacobs as Alice’s dad. ‘So, what did he have to say then?’
‘I’m sorry, Nancy.’ Coming back to the table, she began taking up two of the place sets. ‘I’m really sorry,’ she said disheartened, ‘they said to give you their apologies but they won’t be able to come tonight after all.’
‘Oh, that’s a shame.’ In truth, having already once met Alice’s mother, she was greatly relieved. ‘A problem, is there?’
‘They’ve gone to Hampshire to see Uncle Larry. Apparently he needs to see them urgently.’
‘Oh, dear. I hope everything is all right.’
‘I expect it is really,’ Alice promised. ‘It’s Uncle Larry again. He’s not ill or anything, but it seems he and Aunt Sheila have had another of their awful rows. This time though, it’s more serious than before.’
‘Really?’ Nancy was curious.
Alice paused, before going on to explain, ‘They’re always having rows and fights…I remember one time when my parents were away on business and I was taken to stay with my aunt and uncle.’
She had never forgotten. ‘It was awful! I woke up and there was all this screaming and yelling, so I crept down and sat on the stairs and I saw them…going mad at each other they were. Then Aunt Sheila threw a shoe at my uncle and it knocked him clean out. She’s got this vicious temper, you see.’
Tom and Nancy were shocked. ‘I’m not sure you should be telling us all this, luv.’ Nancy had never heard the like.
Alice confided, ‘This time it sounds bad. Father didn’t go into too much detail, but from the little he said, I understand that they had a really bad fight, and Aunt Sheila packed her bags left. And now, Uncle Larry is in a bit of a state.’
After Nancy reassured her, Alice continued, ‘Father says it’s all gone a bit too far this time, and that it was all to do with Uncle Larry seeing another woman.’
‘Hmm!’ Nancy squared her shoulders. ‘If any man of mine played about with other women, I would never leave!’
‘Aw, you must really love me then?’ Tom teased.
‘Not that much,’ she retaliated. ‘Like I said…I wouldn’t leave, but you’d be out that door on the end o’ my toe!’ She gave Tom another derisory glance.
‘Don’t you look at me like that!’ Tom was indignant. ‘For one thing, I have never played about in my life, and for another, I’m a burnt-out, balding man with weak eyes and a gammy leg. Who in their right mind would want to be lumbered with me?’
‘Are you saying I’m not in my right mind, Tom Arnold?’ Nancy squared up for a fight.
Recognising the danger, Tom tried to make light of it. ‘Well, if the cap fits…an’ all that.’ He might have gone on, but with a well-aimed, wet tea towel landing over his mouth, he found it difficult to speak.
Snatching away the tea towel, Nancy wagged a finger at him. ‘The sad thing is, I’m stuck with you, whether I like it or not. As for your weak eyes that’s because you’re forever staring at the small print on the racing page.’ She gave Alice a cheeky wink.
‘Sorry, luv. You know full well, I wouldn’t swap you for the world.’
When Tom saw her quietly smiling, he reached over to hug her. ‘How could I not keep you,’ he chuckled. ‘You make the best apple pie a man could ever want.’
Alice thought they were a delight to watch.
She had never experienced such a family as this, and she told them so. ‘Mother is so fussy. Everything has to be in its place with every plate, cup and table cloth matching.’ She loved the way Nancy set out her table, with multi-coloured