Life Less Lived Ch. 07

"I don't know the price of timber," Lauren admitted, "but that amount of oak floorboards, enough to do a least half the rooms in the house, must be worth thousands of pounds. Simply replacing it would mean cutting down at least three or four trees that are several centuries old."

"I thought you were trying to save the woods and all that unspoiled countryside below the Downs, and needed all the positive publicity that you can get. Why are your group -?"

"Not my group anymore, Mand, I told you, I'm out!"

"OK, Lauren, tell me, because I don't quite understand. Why is this group out to get at someone who, on the face of it, is helping to promote the same cause? Is it 'cos they are jealous that he's such a dish?"

"Oh, you've seen him?"

"Seen him, drooled over him and would go for the poster on my wall and wear the tee-shirt if someone sold them. Yeah, Lor I've seen him."

"I really don't know why WWAG are targeting Daniel Medcalf, Mand, it's all too strange. It's as if there are two different agendas at work here. That creep Andy... At first, he seemed obsessed with chaining us to trees, which we know wouldn't be cut down until they start construction and that is not until next year. So all that protest effort did was upset the locals and was a complete waste of time, anyway."

"That's 'cos that Andy's either following the standard ecological warriors' handbook, or else he's a complete wanker. You know what camp I think he belongs in."

Lauren grinned. One of the reasons she liked Mandy so much was how outspoken she was. She was striking looking, short and wide but with a huge personality, half again as big as Lauren was. If she bad mouthed anyone you knew she would be more likely to say it in front of your face then behind your back. Mandy had attended one of the earliest meetings of WWAG but then refused to join because she had always thought, and openly declared to all who cared to listen, that Andy was "a cast-iron tosser". Lauren wished she had been more forthright at the outset, she wouldn't have found herself in her current predicament of risking being associated with destructive illegal acts, which would clearly jeopardise her future career prospects.

"He is a tossed, clearly," Lauren nodded. "And all the bad mouthing of everybody, including our allies, means that even the locals who don't want the road, definitely don't want WWAG either. We've become septic. Now Andy's after this councillor, simply because his better arguments and professional presentation has upstaged his little protest group's feeble, I'll-thought out and executed efforts. Oh and yes, I have seen the Councillor in the flesh. You are absolutely right, he is an absolute dish."

"They showed that short clip of Metcalf -"

"Medcalf, M-E-D-calf, is his name."

"But the caption -"

"The caption's wrong. It was wrong that first night and I suppose no-one has noticed and corrected it since. People get my name wrong all the time, I'm always being called 'Laura' or 'Laurel'. I hate it when they get it wrong, and I suppose he must do, too."

"Oh, boy, Lor," Mandy laughed and squeezed her friend's hand, "you must really like that bloke. Anyway, they showed the clip again on the BBC national news, you know, when the motorway reopened after all the snow fell. The non-motorway bit remained blocked for a further day because of all the abandoned vehicles and the presenters wanted to make a big thing of it."

"I missed that news item."

"I only took notice because you were so full of it the day before. I did think he was cute, though, but you, Lor, well, I think you got it bad, girl!"

"No I don't!"

"You sure, hon? But on the other hand that dummy Mark wanker is right out of your life now, right?"

"Yeah, definitely. I don't know what I ever saw in him to be honest. He's so stupid, so easily led by Andy."

"That Andy's a creep. Now I know I wear short dresses, I got nice legs as you know and want to show 'em off, but that bastard doesn't just look at 'em, he stares and I swear he drools while he does so. That creep fair gives me the shivers, he does."

Lauren nodded in agreement.

"Yes, I agree. Wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. So you're coming round mine about twenty minutes past seven, once Mark has gone up the pub for quiz night, so I can move some of my stuff to your place?"

"Yeah, course I am. I know you want to keep it quiet that you are gradually moving out, but won't Mark miss you at the pub tonight? His quiz team's completely crap without you."

"No, I told him I just had to stay in and catch up with the ironing before Christmas. He won't miss the stuff I move out from my drawers and wardrobe. I need to stay with Mark and WWAG until I find out exactly what they are planning, and when. I think we now know where, Councillor Medcalf's farmhouse and outbuildings. Then I can get away from them and Mark's flat quickly and quietly with one carrier bag of clothes, another of shoes and wearing my boots and heavy coat."

"Well, you can use Judy's room over Christmas. She went back to her dad's as soon as the holidays started a couple of days ago, but after she gets back in January it'll have to be the lumpy couch until you can find somewhere more permanent."

"Thanks, Mand, lumpy couch or not, you are a lifesaver."

***

Sir Philip was delighted at how good he felt, and with the way the Christmas festivities were developing.

He surprised himself at how much he had enjoyed his morning shopping expedition with Lady Barbara. It was fun relaxing with her, as they drove up towards town. They were easy and relaxed chatting away in the car, catching up on what she had been doing for almost three years now since he last saw her.

They had laughed and then they had cried on the way up to London, while it was still dark, the courtesy screen keeping their conversation from James, who was concentrating on the high road, filling up with the usual commuters and occasional shoppers, trying to fill their gift lists while there was time left.

When Babs told him how she felt as she watched her oldest friend fight and finally succumb to the virulent cancer she had contracted, Sir Philip wished he had still been on speaking terms with her at that time, to share her burden of pain. With Daniel crippled with grief and the two girls, virtually close enough to be family, as nieces, being heartbroken losing their mother, only added to his feeling of guilt. He assuaged this feeling as much as he could by holding one of her hands and wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

Why had he been so stupid? Mid-life crisis was it? A momentary lapse in concentration and propriety? Being caught with taking that young girl to the night club was typically interpreted as the act of some old goat who'd lost his marbles. It could well have been innocent, just one of a number of arm-candy escorts for the night, arranged for the entertainment of all the participants at the end of a long business meeting. But, if he was honest with himself, it wasn't wholly innocent and he had suffered three desperate years of separation over that one slip in judgement.

Now he had possibly one final chance of putting things right. At least Daniel Medcalf was out of the running as a rival for Barbara's affection. Philip knew he would lose hands down to the handsome public servant in a straightforward 'man desired by women' contest.

It could all still go wrong, of course. Babs was only attending this function as a favour to him and he was paying dearly for her indulgence in clothes and kind. And all that would cost much more than that bloody escort had. Yet this little shopping expedition had turned out to be way more fun than he thought it possibly would be. He had forgotten how funny Babs was, at how easily she could laugh at herself and be amused by showing off and teasing him. Just watching her change into each one of these fabulous dresses was heaven. Yes, it was all great fun, he was entertained, fully engaged in entertaining her back with compliments and suggestions, and he wished it could go on and on for ever.

They had a late but light lunch before the chauffeur whisked her off to the hair salon for her appointment. Following that minor ordeal, they went back to what once was their shared London apartment. There they changed into their glad rags for the ball. On the way to the venue, she told him that she really appreciated the flowers in the guest room, the fresh new bottle of her favourite perfume, the fluffy new towels and comfortable sensible nightwear, the kind designed for sleeping in rather than seducing. She thanked him sincerely and said that she loved the little gestures he was making. Sir Philip made a mental note to thank Patience; he had, as usual, left everything up to her.

"Dad, I'm home!" shouted daughter Natalie when she got in, dumping two heavy bags and a rucksack on the floor. It was her mother who answered her.

"Nattie, darling, so lovely to see you," Barbara said, after descending the wide staircase, a defining feature of the two-story Thames riverside apartment, squeezing her daughter in welcome and kissing her cheeks. "Golly, you're cold dear, come on into the kitchen and warm yourself. I'll put the kettle on and get a hot drink inside you. Do you still prefer tea?"

"Yes, Mum, I do, thanks. Brrr, I'm frozen to the bone. The damn heater's gone in the car, I'll get Dad to look at it in the morning."

"What do you want me to look at in the morning, Nat, honey?" Her father walked into the kitchen and kissed and squeezed his daughter in greeting and helped her off with her coat.

"Heater in the car's bust, only cold air coming through, so I switched it off and now the car's overheating, I had to stop twice to let it cool down on the way back."

"I'll get someone to look at it in the morning, sweetheart."

"Thanks, Dad."

She looked at the pair of them. Mum was wearing a gorgeous green silk gown, the bodice of which looked like it had been painted directly onto her torso. Tall, slim and elegant, she looked every inch a Lady, even without her heels on. Natalie hoped that she looked anything like that good in twenty-five years' time. As for Dad, well he was even taller, a big man all round in fact, going grey and developing a bit of a paunch but then he was older than Mum, in his mid-fifties. He needed a bit of gym time, definitely, but he could still carry it off in style once his dinner jacket was on. While she poured her tea and warmed her hands on the mug, she noticed her mother tut tutting at her father's fidgeting while she was tying up his bow tie.

'Mmm, bugger the heater in the car,' Natalie thought to herself as she felt her body warming up, 'it was worth freezing my tits off coming all this way just to see this, my parents back together again. It might still turn out to be a nice Christmas after all.'

***

Patience Page-Turner was frazzled by the end of the evening. What a day she'd had! Of course, the SandRock Corporation's Christmas Ball turned out to be a resounding success, it always was, and Sir Philip expressed his extreme gratitude, which was a first. Mind you, she knew that it was Lady Barbara who had prompted him to thank her. He would never have thought to do so himself.

Curious woman, that Lady Barbara, she thought.

Patience had become Sir Philip's Personal Assistant just a few months before the couple split, so she hadn't really got to know her Ladyship properly before she disappeared from the scene completely, until tonight. She did remember the desperate damage limitation she had to pull off to cover Sir Philip's arse at the time of the separation, though. She made some mistakes when she started, being thrown into this marital tiff before she really got her feet under the table, but she had learned from those mistakes. She had actually been surprised at the time that Sir Philip kept her on. After all, everybody including Sir P said at every opportunity that her predecessor was perfect. She was the redoubtable Miss 'Crepuscular', as Patience soon labelled her. Somehow that fitted the former secretary better than Cruickshank-Palmer did.

What was it that Sir Philip Sands had with double barrelled names for his assistants, anyway?

Patience had made alternative plans for either 'Babs' or 'Nattie' turning up as his escort, and was able to slot one or other of them in easily enough.

Mind you, she wasn't expecting the very late addition of the four 'Navvies' and their wives and girlfriends. Honestly, putting them up in somewhere 'classy', as Sir Philip insisted, this close to Christmas, was not so easy. A call to Karen in Human Resources, showed that three of the newcomers were just HGV drivers, so she was able to find a plain inexpensive hotel not too far away from the action. All right, the establishment was more accustomed to renting their rooms by the hour, but she did get three rooms near the quiet back of the cheap hotel and booked them in all for breakfast with their depot boss at the nearby and much grander Excelsior. Patience had already had the Excelsior room booked for Natalie Sands, in case she had turned up for the ball, which was a fortunate precaution.

Everything was peachy with the evening, then, except for her bloody boyfriend of the moment, Toby Jaggs. The moron said beforehand that he understood that she was working the room that night but then he had taken his near virtual abandonment to heart when it turned out that she had to leave him alone most of the evening. As a consequence, he ended up legless on the free bar, and proceeded to make a complete spectacle of himself.

Well, that's the last time he'll do that, she swore, as he was unceremoniously dumped him from her social calendar. Toby was lucky, she muttered to herself, if the motorway construction was in full flow, he might well have found himself holding a bridge up, encased in reinforced concrete.

***

The evening meal went well at the Medcalfs. Marina had pushed the boat out with her favourite food, cottage pie with carrots and caramelised onions in the mince, mashed potato above, with grated cheese to brown on the top. She whipped up some egg whites to finish off a lemon meringue pie. Sophie helped with the preparation, in fact she was quite a good cook herself, which Marina complimented her on. Sophie said that her mother had made sure of that, even though it was Daddy that did most of the cooking now.

Daniel was enthusiastic about the meal, swearing he had never eaten so well in the past couple of days, since she and Sophie had been around looking after him. He also appreciated their efficient cleaning out of the stables. He had resolved to do it himself and, as he was about to start, was delighted to find it had already been done.

"Oh, the Hammonds are back," he announced to Sophie and Marina. "They had a terrible trip down, with a lot of flooding from the thaw and a series of road accidents and hold ups for emergency repairs to contend with. I caught Hammond checking out the poly tunnels before he retired early. He'll check up on the horses while we're away, he says."

To be continued.