Authors: Trisha Ashley
‘Jago? Isn’t that the man Aimee’s just got back together with?’
‘In her dreams,’ I said rudely. ‘We’re seeing each other, I told you.’
Well, that was certainly true because we’d barely been apart since he’d moved to the village …
‘I think you’re just trying to put me off,’ he said shrewdly, ‘because Aimee definitely said she and this Jago were engaged again, and you and he were just friends – and frankly,’ he added, ‘you seem to have put on a bit of weight and let yourself go, which is quite understandable in the circumstances, I suppose, but—’
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Jago thinks I look just right.’
‘Jago says you’re pretty as a princess,’ Stella said unexpectedly
‘What? When did he say that?’ I asked, flattered.
‘When we were putting the meerkat family in their caravan and I said Mummy meerkat could be a princess.’
Adam was looking baffled. ‘Meerkats in caravans? Is she all right in the head …?’
‘The man’s an idiot,’ Stella said distinctly.
‘That’s one of Ma’s sayings,’ I explained.
To give him his due, after this unpromising start Adam did make an awkward attempt to get her to talk to him, but she just gave him a look and went back into her bedroom.
‘I think I’d better go,’ he said ruefully. ‘I suppose she’s too young to expect her to accept me that quickly. Perhaps you could have dinner with me tonight, though?’ he suggested.
‘Stella doesn’t stay up that late.’
‘I meant just you and me, at the pub. It looks OK.’
‘I don’t think so,’ I said shortly.
‘Then maybe in the morning we could—’
‘I’m going out tomorrow,’ I said.
‘I suppose …’ He looked uncertain, then ran his fingers through his hair distractedly. ‘This is all a bit difficult. My parents will be ringing me wanting to know all about Stella and to be honest, she looks so frail and small that I need to think what to say to them … I mean, there’s no point in them getting attached to her if she’s having high risk surgery soon and—’
He stopped dead, warned by my furious, stunned face.
‘Sorry, it’s all been such a shock I don’t know what I’m saying. Look, perhaps I’ll just go straight back to London tonight and think things through a bit, get back in touch with you later.’
‘You do that,’ I said. ‘The later the better!’
When Zoë had collected the prinsesstårta, which she adored, I sent Jago a text to say the coast was clear and he came round.
Stella told him all about Penguin Daddy. ‘He was silly and his face crinkled in the wrong places,’ she said critically. ‘I told him I didn’t want him so he’s gone again.’
‘I expect he was glad to see you, though.’
‘I don’t think so, he didn’t even bring me a present,’ she said thoughtfully, ‘and he made Mummy cross.’
Jago, who’d looked gloomy since his arrival, seemed to brighten up at this.
‘Mrs Snowball’s invited us down to the pub for scampi in a basket – are you up for it?’
‘What, Stella too?’
‘Especially Stella. She said she’d cook early just for us.’
‘Do you want to go and eat your dinner in the Falling Star, Stella?’ I asked.
She nodded. ‘Jago, you’re my best daddy!’
Later, when we were back at Ma’s, with Stella tucked up asleep, I described Adam’s visit in more detail.
‘It sounds a bit of a disaster from beginning to end,’ he said, ‘though suddenly finding out about Stella’s medical condition must have been a shock.’
‘Yes: I’m hoping it shocked him right back to London and out of our lives, but I suppose if he decides he does want to try and build some kind of relationship with Stella, I’ll have to let him … but after the operation. Perhaps he could just write to her before then, to get her used to the idea.’
‘That sounds like a good option,’ he agreed, and then, since we were sitting together on the sofa, put his arm around me and gave me a comforting hug.
I was inspired by Adam’s visit to experiment with baked Alaska, which has a cold heart and a warm exterior, but found it quite tricky.
The man himself didn’t ring for several days, though he emailed to ask me a few questions about Stella’s condition and the operation in America. I suppose he felt better able to cope with it that way.
Then finally he phoned me again.
‘Look, I admit I didn’t handle it very well, but it was a shock finding out about Stella’s problems like that. I’d like to come back when I’ve got a weekend free and perhaps the three of us can go out somewhere together and make a new start?’
‘I don’t think there’s much point at the moment, Adam. She didn’t really take to you very much and it might upset her if you come back again so soon.’
‘I’m sure you’ve been poisoning her mind against me, that’s why she wouldn’t come to me.’
‘I’ve done no such thing!’ I exclaimed indignantly. ‘In fact, considering how you treated us, I think I’ve been jolly fair spinning her nice stories about you living at the North Pole.’
‘Well, I’m not in the North Pole now and she’s going to have to get used to me being back again – you both will,’ he said stubbornly. ‘I’m not free this weekend but I am the one after, so I’ll come up then.’
‘That would be a waste of time, because I’ll be too busy with the village fête. It’s the major fundraising event for Stella, so it’s really important.’
‘Then all the more reason to come and support you.’
‘I’m going to it with Jago.’
‘Come on, Cally, I know you’re not going out with him, so you can drop the pretence.’
‘You’re quite wrong – we
are
in a relationship,’ I insisted. ‘We’re just taking things slowly till after Stella’s had her operation, that’s all. And that’s what I’d like you to do, too – back off until she’s well enough to cope with having an absentee father popping in and out of her life.’
‘But I am her father and I’ve got rights,’ he said, as if that was some kind of clincher.
‘You’ve never been more than a sperm donor,’ I said, and put the phone down.
Adam rang Aimee when he’d thought things over and said accusingly, ‘You didn’t tell me the little girl was ill.’
‘Oh, didn’t I?’ she said vaguely. ‘I could have sworn I had.’
‘Well, you didn’t and it was quite a shock. I had to tell my parents about it too, so I wish you’d never mentioned her existence to them in the first place.’
‘Yes, but she’s going to have an operation to fix whatever she’s got, according to Jago.’
‘It sounds so serious it could go either way. And there’s another thing: Cally insists Jago hasn’t got engaged to you and that they’re seeing each other.’
‘That is
so
not true!’ Aimee exclaimed angrily. ‘She’s just an old friend he’s helping out with the fundraising for the little girl, because he’s so soft-hearted he’s a sucker for any good cause. There’s nothing more to it than that, whatever she told you.’
‘Maybe you’ve got it wrong, Aimee? The little girl was going on about “Daddy-Jago” too,’ he added broodingly.
‘Look, Jago’s been playing hot and cold about forgiving me, just to pay me back for ditching him, but it’s time he got over it – and I’m going to make sure he does.’
‘Are you sure about that? I wanted to go down and see Cally and Stella again next weekend, but she put me off because it’s some big fundraising fête and she’s going to it with him.’
‘Well, Jago put
me
off seeing him this weekend because it’s the little girl’s birthday party!’ she said.
‘What? Cally didn’t mention that – and I
am
her father, after all.’
‘Yes, you’ve a right to know,’ Aimee agreed.
Adam suddenly felt jealous: he’d been so convinced he only had to click his fingers and Cally would come running back to him. And the little girl … well, he hadn’t thought that one through. He knew nothing about children, but he’d assumed she was so small she’d probably soon forget he hadn’t always been around.
He’d always had what he wanted – and now he’d decided that that was Cally and Stella, he wasn’t inclined to give up that easily.
Neither was Aimee. ‘You know,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘I think it’s time I went down there and showed Cally Weston just who Jago belongs to.’
‘And I’ll go down for this fête, whether she wants me to, or not,’ Adam said.
‘So – we might as well go together then?’ she suggested.
‘OK, but I’ll pick you up – I remember your driving. We can stay in that pub in the village overnight, the Green Man.’
‘Agreed,’ Aimee said, thinking that all she had to do now was pick out her most stunning outfit and dazzle Jago back into adoring enslavement, while Cally’s attention was otherwise engaged …
The Swedish celebration cake called a prinsesstårta is a domed, layered confection of sponge and cream, with a marzipan covering, Making it is time-consuming, but you can bake the cake part of it the day before, and the end result is stunning.
Cally Weston: ‘The Cake Diaries’
Thankfully there was no more from Adam, and I tried to put him out of my mind while I finalised the arrangements for Stella’s birthday.
She’d been getting more and more excited as the day approached and anxiously supervised every stage of the making of her special prinsesstårta cake, which she wanted a traditional pale frog green. For some reason she’s rather into frogs just now, though this interest has not superseded her angel (and fairies, their miniature brethren) fixation.
All her favourite people were invited to the birthday tea: myself, Ma, Jago, Hal, Celia and Will. She’d wanted Jenny too, but she was otherwise engaged at the time, though she’d already left a card and little gift for her. In fact, since Stella had been telling every person she met for at least a week that her birthday was on Saturday, it was no surprise that an avalanche of cards and presents had already landed on the doorstep.
Jago was being rather mysterious about
his
present and went off the day before to collect it, so I only hoped he hadn’t ordered something hugely expensive, because goodness knew, the renovations at Honey’s were likely to take every last penny of his lottery winnings at the rate they were going.
Ma was also being secretive, but suddenly demanded acres of gift-wrap when Stella was in bed on the eve of the big day, so I had to dash down to the Spar and buy more. I’d already carefully wrapped up my presents, including the toy narrow boat that had been high on Stella’s wish list, but also a cottage hospital, ambulance and a paramedic rabbit with a patient. I thought a bit of role-playing leading up to her operation might be a good idea, especially since in this case she’d be in charge of the outcome.
Next morning I made sure Stella had some breakfast inside her before letting her loose on her cards and presents.
I knew she’d love mine, especially the whole new family of hedgehogs I’d put inside the narrow boat, and she was also delighted with Ma and Hal’s joint gift of a child-sized wheelbarrow, set of gardening tools, watering can and small blue rubber gardening clogs with pink spots.
Ma, in an inspired moment, had also bought her a bright red ladybird Trunki suitcase, the sort that children can sit on and ride.
‘You can take some of your toys and books in it when you go to America,’ she explained to Stella, ‘and it can go in the cabin with you as hand luggage: I checked.’
‘Brilliant idea, Ma!’ I said, and Stella happily played at packing various combinations of her new toys in the Trunki, then pushing it round the room, until the arrival of Jago, the first of the birthday guests.
He came in carrying a huge parcel and when I said I hoped he hadn’t spent a fortune he looked faintly guilty. ‘Not really,’ he muttered.
But he had, because inside was a beautifully made animal family-sized pink castle in the style of a doll’s house, so that the front hinged open and so did the turrets in each corner.
‘Oh, Jago, you shouldn’t have!’
‘Yes, he should, it’s
mazing,’
Stella said. ‘You’re my most favourite Daddy-Jago ever.’
‘I’m your only Daddy-Jago,’ he said, with a grin.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Celia and Will turned up with a big antique rocking horse.
‘Good grief!’ I said, when Will staggered in with it and put it down in the window, then set Stella onto the saddle, still wearing the white feather angel wings that Sarah and David had sent her.
‘It’s not quite as extravagant as it looks, because we found it in a junk shop without its rockers and in a bit of a state and we’ve done it up ourselves,’ Celia explained. ‘It didn’t really cost much, it just took time. I made the leather saddle and bridle.’
‘Stella, what do you say to everyone for all their lovely gifts?’ I prompted.
‘Thank you and I love you all,’ she said very seriously, though a little like a queen to her courtiers.
We had the birthday tea and with much huffing she blew out the four candles inside the crown on her prinsesstårta.
Stella was starting to flag soon after tea and happy to sit quietly on Ma’s knee watching a new Disney film, until she suddenly fell deeply asleep and we decided just to put her straight to bed early … though without the wings, of course.
She didn’t stir while I popped her into her pyjamas and tucked her up with Bun, so I tiptoed out, leaving her toadstool light on and the door slightly ajar.
Ma and Hal had already disappeared when I went back to the sitting room, and Will and Celia were just waiting to say goodbye and give me a hug.
Left to ourselves, Jago and I tided up and put all the shredded wrapping paper in the recycling bag, loaded the dishwasher, and then sank limply onto the sofa with a glass of Prosecco apiece.
‘It’s been a wonderful day – thanks to you and everyone who’ve made it so,’ I said gratefully. ‘You know, when she was born I didn’t even know if she’d make it to her first birthday; I just hoped for a miracle. And now she’s four and we need another … How many miracles can one little girl expect?’
‘As many as it takes,’ he said, putting his arm around me comfortingly. I gave a long sigh and rested my head on his shoulder, quite exhausted …
We must have both been so tired we just zonked out after that, because the next thing I knew we were lying in each other’s arms on the sofa and I was blinking up at the dazzling ceiling light.