‘Really?’ said Lindy.
Beth wondered if Rachel thought being occupied with the fire would mean she could get out of telling them what had gone on with Raff. She felt a pang of envy. She was getting over Charlie, slowly, but she hadn’t got used to not having a man to think about and feel she belonged to.
‘It’s one of my recently acquired skills,’ Rachel said proudly and went to investigate the kindling box.
Whatever had happened with Raff, thought Beth, it hadn’t left her a sobbing wreck, which was good.
While Rachel was kneeling in front of the fire, breaking up sticks and rolling up newspaper, Lindy said, ‘So, tell us about you and Raff. And would you have told us if Sukey hadn’t dobbed you in, so to speak?’
‘I would have told you!’ said Rachel, as if not telling them had never crossed her mind.
‘I don’t want a love life myself,’ said Lindy. ‘Too complicated with the boys and all, but I always want to know about other people’s.’ She pushed the thought of Angus firmly out of her mind.
‘We should stick to business,’ said Beth, feeling guilty. She’d called a meeting in work time and now they were just discussing Rachel’s love life. Although she was desperate to know the details. ‘I am supposed to be working.’ She sent Sukey an apologetic glance.
‘It’s OK,’ said Sukey. ‘I want to hear too. I know Belinda is really keen for Raff to settle down and have children.’ She paused as the other three all gaped at her. ‘What? Why are you all looking so surprised? I’m a pub landlady. Of course I know everything!’
‘But you don’t know why Rachel stayed with Raff when she could perfectly easily have stayed with me, or Beth.’
‘Not perfectly easily,’ said Beth. ‘My house is not set up for overnight guests, and nor is yours, to be fair.’
‘And I will know everything in a minute,’ said Sukey. Then she went into the kitchen, to check on the pies.
‘So?’ said Beth, when they were all settled. ‘Tell us about the catering first. Then we need to know about Raff.’
‘It’s Belinda, Raff’s mum. She does catering and according to Raff, she’s really good.’
‘Brilliant!’ said Beth. ‘I’ll be able to tell Mum it’s arranged.’ A thought struck her. ‘Hell. Mum’s due to come tomorrow, isn’t she? Will you have hot water?’
Rachel nodded. ‘Yes, Raff sorted out a new immersion heater for me. Fitted and everything.’
‘Brilliant! I’d hate to have to find her somewhere else to stay at this short notice!’ Beth relaxed a little.
‘OK,’ said Rachel. ‘Going back to Belinda and the catering, we might hire space in a commercial kitchen for her but I haven’t discussed it in detail. We need to know what Helena wants.’
‘I’ll find out,’ said Beth.
‘Did you discover that Belinda did catering when you were sorting out her china?’ asked Lindy. ‘And how did that go?’
‘Amazing! She’s got so much stuff. We’ll take what we need – she insists – and then sell anything she doesn’t want in aid of the village-hall fund. Should raise a goodish amount.’
‘Oh, excellent,’ said Lindy. ‘Well done you.’
‘There’s quite a bit more sorting to do though,’ said Rachel.
‘I’ll help when I’m not tutoring the village elders to be silver surfers,’ said Beth. ‘But some of them are taking a while to get the hang of it.’
‘It’s nice that you’re doing that,’ said Lindy. ‘Gran was very impressed when I told her what you were up to. She’s a fairly nimble silver surfer herself,’ she went on proudly. ‘She’s always shopping online and emailing her friends.’
‘That’s great,’ said Rachel. ‘Now, when are we going to know what kind of food Helena wants? Belinda will need lots of notice.’
‘Rachel!’ said Lindy. ‘You have to tell us about you and Raff.’
Rachel sighed. Beth sensed that she did quite want to talk about it, in spite of appearing reluctant. ‘Well, I spent all day sorting china. There’s so much of it—’
‘Can you cut to the chase, please?’ said Sukey, who had rejoined them. ‘My pies only need another ten minutes.’
‘Oh, OK,’ said Rachel. ‘Basically, Belinda insisted Raff saw me safely home and it turned out that my immersion heater had broken – as you know – so I had no hot water.’
‘Immersion heaters are always going,’ said Lindy, obviously speaking from experience.
‘And I’m afraid I didn’t deal with it well. I’d like to report that I got out my magic screwdriver and fixed it. Instead I had a bit of a meltdown. I was so tired! And absolutely filthy. The thought of not being able to have a bath … anyway, I got a bit tearful.’
‘Don’t blame you,’ said Beth.
‘So he took me back to his place,’ said Rachel. ‘Which is amazing.’
Lindy frowned. ‘What? That he took you home? I don’t want to shatter your illusions or anything but I think he fairly often takes women home.’
‘I meant his house is amazing,’ said Rachel. ‘I’m sure you’re right about the women.’ She took a sip of water. ‘Anyway, I had a lovely bath, he gave me supper, we sat on the sofa by the fireside and he did not lay a finger on me!’
‘But I thought you didn’t like him,’ said Beth.
‘So did I,’ said Rachel, ‘but I changed my mind. Obviously I wasn’t looking my best, my hair all wild and no make-up, yet he seemed to quite like that look. But he didn’t even kiss me goodnight. I was outraged.’
Sukey chuckled knowingly. ‘He’s not stupid, that Raff. He knows how to gentle a nervous woman into wanting him.’
‘Hm, I’m not sure I feel gentled, but he is very …’
‘Attractive?’ suggested Lindy.
Rachel nodded. ‘And he’s good at fixing things.’
Lindy sighed. ‘I love a man who does DIY. It’s why I love my dad.’
‘I love Grandpa too,’ said Billy, who had joined them without anyone noticing.
‘Quite right, Billy,’ said Rachel. ‘Anyway, that’s enough about my private life. I’m more excited about finding a caterer.’
‘Belinda is ace,’ said Sukey. ‘She doesn’t do many events and only for people she likes but she can certainly cook.’
‘Sounds perfect!’ said Beth. ‘And doesn’t she live in a stately home? My mother will love her!’
‘We all love her,’ said Rachel. ‘Especially giving away all that lovely china. Beth? Are you OK to put a few things up on eBay? Most of the stuff is in my shed.’
‘I’ll come and take photos as soon as I can,’ said Beth. ‘This is exciting. The only thing more exciting than buying stuff on eBay is selling it. Even if we’re not getting the money ourselves.’
‘That’s brilliant,’ said Lindy. ‘Mum’ll be thrilled.’
‘And so generous,’ said Beth, ‘unless it’s all rubbish.’
‘No, it’s amazing,’ said Rachel. ‘It should raise some proper money.’
‘As should the quiz,’ said Lindy. ‘I do hope you both come. I can’t get out of it and I’m hopeless at quizzes.’
‘I quite like them,’ said Rachel, ‘but as I said before, I’m not good at sport.’
‘We don’t have to win,’ said Lindy, ‘we just have to pitch up.’
‘I’ll come if I’m not working,’ said Beth. ‘Talking of which – is that the meeting over then? If it is, I should get back to it.’
‘Quickest meeting on record,’ said Rachel, ‘but I declare it over.’
After Rachel and Lindy and Billy had left, Beth washed their glasses and straightened the bar towels. She was thinking about Rachel and Raff. It seemed fairly obvious that they would get together and while she was very happy for Rachel, she yearned for something like that for herself.
It was obvious now that Charlie had been hopeless. And she’d stopped wondering whether he’d have stayed faithful to her if she’d slept with him. Why would he? He had no morals, otherwise he’d have thought, when the Amazon came on to him, ‘Hey, I have a girlfriend, and she’s here, right now, I’ll say no.’ But no, he’d said, ‘Yes,’ and maybe, ‘Here’s a cupboard.’ She sighed. It was one thing to sort it all out in your head but it didn’t stop you wishing things were different.
‘Are you OK, hon?’ said Sukey. ‘You don’t seem quite your normal cheery self.’
‘Oh, it’s nothing,’ said Beth from habit and then realised that Sukey would get it out of her anyway and it might help to talk. ‘Well, it’s Charlie, actually.’
‘Oh, him.’
‘I thought … you know … I thought we were getting on well together but at the wedding he went off with the bridesmaid. The fat one, who bullied April when they were at school.’ Beth realised saying all this out loud sounded quite funny and made her smile. ‘He’s been texting me non-stop but I just delete them.’
‘Good girl! You can do so much better,’ said Sukey. ‘Trust me!’
Sukey had gone back to producing pie and mash for the retired businessmen and Beth was rearranging the glasses in the dishwasher when the door opened. Looking up, she saw a male figure wearing a cap, a scarf round his neck and his collar turned up. It was quite a lot of clothes for the mildness of the day.
‘It must be cold out there!’ she said cheerily as he approached the bar. Then she realised she’d seen him before but couldn’t quite place where.
‘Hello, there,’ he said. ‘Could I have a pint of porter, please.’
Beth frowned. ‘Sorry?’
‘I mean stout. I’m sorry.’ He frowned. ‘Haven’t I seen you – aren’t you the girl I met running out of the hall the other night?’
Beth had realised who he was at about the same time. She put a glass under the appropriate beer tap. ‘That’s me.’
‘Well, it’s nice to see you again.’
She couldn’t help agreeing although she didn’t say anything. Something about him had piqued her interest even when she’d been so upset about Charlie that night. She took a sneaky glance at him. Without being able to see much of his face she couldn’t really tell how old he was but she’d have guessed early thirties. And she couldn’t tell if he was good-looking or not either, but he did have a nice voice.
‘Do they have bands in here? To do gigs?’ he went on.
‘They do. Do you want to arrange something? I’ll ask Sukey, she’s the landlady.’
‘Well, no need to do that right now.’ He smiled and took off his scarf and cap. Now Beth could see he had a lovely smile.
‘When we met before you were going to check out the hall. Was it any good? As a venue?’ Then she worried that she’d remembered too much detail about their very casual encounter.
‘It was fine but I’m not sure I’d want to do a first gig there. It’s a bit too big, I think.’
‘Acoustically?’
‘I’m not sure about the accoustics – the wedding was quite noisy when I poked my nose in. I’d have to check them out but I was thinking – a new band – we might not get a big enough audience to fill that space. We are a bit out of the way here.’
Beth smiled. ‘Not exactly the centre of the music universe. How did you find us out here in the sticks?’
‘A mate of mine was passing through on his way somewhere, stopped at the pub, saw the hall, suggested I check it out.’
‘Well, I’m sure if you did want to use the hall, we could get you an audience,’ said Beth. ‘We’re trying to raise funds to repair the roof – well, repair everything really – so we’d love to rent it out. We’d help drum up the punters for you.’
He laughed. ‘It sounds very appealing but I think I’d rather have our first try-out somewhere the punters are already.’
‘What sort of music is it?’
He put his head on one side as if searching for a way to describe it. ‘That’s quite hard to say.’
‘Well, I don’t suppose it matters as long as it’s not horrible,’ said Beth.
‘I promise you it’s not horrible.’
‘If you did a gig here, we’d all find out what it was like. I’ll go and see if Sukey is free, so you can talk to her about it.’
‘Thanks.’
As Beth went into the kitchen she wondered if an attractive speaking voice automatically translated into a good singing voice.
Having promised to keep an eye on the pies for Sukey, Beth hovered in the kitchen, washing up and occasionally peering into the oven, hoping that Sukey would persuade the man to do a gig at the pub. He was rather nice!
When she thought the pies really ought to come out of the oven or be turned off, she went back to the bar to tell Sukey.
Sukey was leaning on the bar looking entranced.
‘I think the pies are done. Do you want me to do anything else?’
Sukey nodded, not taking her eyes off the man who had been talking to her in a low, soft voice. ‘Yes, please. I can see them out of the corner of my eye, in the car park. They’ll be on us in a minute.’ But these words weren’t accompanied by action.
‘So, will you do their drinks when they come in? Shall I plate up the pie and mash?’ But Sukey wasn’t really paying attention.
An elderly man came into the pub and Beth gave Sukey’s arm a shake. ‘The Probus Club? They’re here! We need to feed them.’
‘Oh yes, of course.’ At last Sukey came out of her trance. ‘Let’s do it.’
Once in the kitchen, Sukey said, ‘Do you know who that is?’
‘Should I?’ Beth realised she’d missed something crucial.
‘It’s Finn! From the McCools!’
Beth was none the wiser. ‘Do I know them?’
‘Yes! They were mega. You must remember.’ Sukey was insistent.
‘Oh yes …’ said Beth slowly. ‘They were an Irish boy band?’
‘That’s right. Seven major hits and then they broke up and all disappeared. And this is Finn. He was gorgeous then but now – he’s even better ten years later! It’s so unfair that men just get better and better with age.’
Beth waited a few seconds for Sukey to get over this dreadful injustice and then said, ‘He’s got a new band and he wants to do a gig here.’
‘I know! How amazing would that be!’ Then she looked out of the window. ‘Oh God, here come the rest of them! Let’s get them fed.’
The next few minutes were too busy for Sukey to chat but Beth was aware she was on fire with excitement. When at last there was a moment, she said, ‘So he can have his gig here, then?’
‘He could have a pyjama party here and I’d say yes! Now get him another pint. Keep him here a bit longer so I can gaze at him. Golly!’ She patted her brow. ‘Now, hurry up!’
Not sure if she was now shy of approaching someone who had once been a celebrity or amused at seeing Sukey so obviously star-struck, Beth went back into the bar.
‘Um, would you like another drink? It’s on the house,’ said Beth to the man she now knew as Finn, ex-member of a boy band. She assumed his surname wasn’t actually McCool, like the Irish giant.