‘Mr. Samms, good morning!’

Nathan smothers a sigh and on reaching the bottoms of the steps, walks towards the open car window with a fixed smile. ‘Good morning, Mr. Hicks.’

‘I wonder if we might....’ The appeal has the thinness of voice peculiar to the very old.

‘I’m a bit tight for time,’ Nathan says, checking his mobile phone before putting it into his jacket pocket. ‘If you’d rung and make an appointment or something or at least found out when I was going to be around, I wouldn’t have to tear off.’

Roderick Hicks nods. Seeing him dressed in a suit rather than his customary jeans and carrying a laptop instead of a hard-hat, he concludes with a shrewd smile: ‘A business meeting?’

‘Exactly.. and why I can’t hang about. I’m sorry but we really will have to talk another time, I’m late as it is.’

‘Perhaps we could drop you there and we could talk on the way?’

Nathan laughs as he runs his eyes over the Daimler’s gleaming paintwork. ‘I turn up in something like this and they’d think whatever tender I put in would be over the top. I’d be on a hiding to nothing from the start!’

‘I doubt it, Mr. Samms, I doubt it.’

‘Thanks but no thanks...and I have to go.’ Already turning to walk to his car, he pauses to ask as a hurried afterthought: ‘Steven...he alright now?’

‘Very much better and we owe you our deepest gratitude. Your visit made a tremendous difference to him; thank you.’

‘No worries.’

‘I do have something rather important to talk over with you..’ Mr. Hicks raises his reedy voice as Nathan moves away. ‘We would be happy to drop you.’

‘And how exactly do I get back?’

Roderick Hicks waves a dismissive brown leather-clad hand. ‘Carl will be at your disposal for as long as you are likely to need him,’ he says, opening the rear door and sliding across the seat to the far side of the car and leaving a space meant to persuade Nathan in.

‘I really am running late. I’ll call you, how’s that?’ Nathan gets one leg into his car before Hicks speaks again.

‘We will get you there on time, Mr. Samms, never fear.’ He raps on the privacy panel between him and his driver and Carl puts the car into reverse, easing slowly backwards until the open door is opposite where Nathan stands and effectively prevents his car from leaving. ‘Do climb aboard, won’t you?’

‘For Christ’s sake!’ Nathan yells, frustrated and angrily throwing up his hands. He swings round, trying to gauge whether or not the distance between his rear bumper and the wall is sufficient to manoeuvre and get out. ‘If I lose this bloody job because some stupid old fart’s been playing silly buggers... MOVE!’

‘Do get in, there’s a good chap.’

Samms Plant Hire, Oatfield

Chapter Forty-seven

The White Horse

‘Stop, okay?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Viv pulls back her chin and stares down at Daniel with a look of innocent denial.

He tips back his head to blow a weary breath at the ceiling. ‘Stop with the introductions, alright?’ he says, looking at her again. ‘I don’t want to meet all the remotely available woman under forty in this village or the busloads you seem to have shipped in so they can say hello. It’s not going to make any difference to how I feel about you. Got it?’

‘For Chris’sakes keep yer voice down!’ She pulls out a chair and sits opposite him, looking furtively around her in case of eavesdroppers. ‘I ‘aven’t been doin’ anythin’ of the sort!’

‘Not much you bloody haven’t! I lived here months and never saw half the women I’ve been made to say hello to in the last couple of weeks. What was that lot all about? They were queuing for God’s sake!’

‘The darts team from Woodbury....And they did come in on a bus....a mini-bus,’ she snickers and concentrates on moving the beer mat in front of her in a small circle with her finger to avoid his gaze. ‘Not my fault if they spotted you.’

‘Bollocks.’ He saws into the piece of steak on his plate and spears it with his fork.

‘S’true.’

‘Viv, stop it. That’s all I’m asking. If I wanted to meet someone I’m more than capable of introducing myself but I don’t want to right now. I’m still getting over being turned down by somebody really special....Who’s looking particularly gorgeous today, by the way.’

‘Give it a rest!’

‘Friend to friend, the hair’s great. Really suits you.’

‘Ta.’ She moves her head from side to side so the long bob swings. ‘I ain’t never gonna be able to manage it meself though,’ she moans. ‘It’ll be all frizzy again tomorrow. Bane of me bleedin’ life, me ‘air. Surprised you noticed.’

‘Of course I noticed.’ He puts the fork into his mouth and chews as he loads it again. ‘So...no more trying to pass me off on somebody else, okay?’ he says with his mouth still half full.

‘I weren’t tryin’ to pass you off on nobody! But if you don’t get out and meet a few women, you’re never goin’ to find one you like, are you?’

‘Better than you, you mean.’ Daniel lowers his knife and fork to the sides of his plate and leans back with a sigh. ‘Look, some places I go I could literally snap my fingers and I’d have women falling over themselves to get up close and personal. Click them in the morning and I wouldn’t even have to say piss off. I don’t because I’m sort of old-fashioned like that; I have to be attracted to a woman in the first place to want to spend any length of time with them and I do the intr....’

‘So what’s with the dimbos?’ Viv interrupts him.

‘You’ve been talking to Cyn!’ he laughs. ‘Those I allow to stay until after breakfast,’ he says, winking. ‘Soo...What’s she been saying?’ His tone is cautious.

‘Oh, nothing much, the usual, exams and fellas. She’s chuffed you’ve got the cottage again. Think she’s still got the ‘ots for that bloke up at the farm.’

‘So how did you get on to my love life?’ He asks describing speech marks in the air with his fingers and ignoring the reference to Cyndi, filing that information away to be dealt with another time.

‘Oh..you know...led on from you being ‘ere, I suppose. The idea you might get on better with women who wore wellies rather than them six inch ‘eels because the ‘igher the ‘eel, the lower the intelligence of the women wearin’ ‘em seemed to be. We ‘ad a right laugh. Did you really ‘ave to take your kitchen to bits to save a pair of Manolo’s?’

Daniel squeezes his forehead between fingers and thumb, shielding his eyes before grudgingly admitting ‘Not exactly the whole kitchen, just a couple of floor tiles. Stupid woman was doing her nut,’ he mutters. ‘Got a heel stuck between them and created merry hell.  I had to do something before the neighbours came round to see what all the noise was about.’

‘You got to be bleedin’ joking! Over a pair of shoes? ‘

‘Uh huh.’ Daniel goes back to his meal.

‘I reckon your Cyn was right. You don’t arf pick ‘em, don’t you?’

‘They weren’t hers,’ he lifts his shoulders, shrugging as he tries to justify the commotion. ‘Turned out she’d borrowed them from a modelling job she was on.’

‘Thievin’ toe-rag as well as stupid.’ Viv gets ready to push herself up from the chair. ‘And you must be soft in the ‘ead an’ all,’ she gives him a look that says she has been proved right as far as her misgivings are concerned. ‘Model? Gordon flamin’ Bennett; as if I could compete with the likes of ‘er!’

‘You can and you do.’ He almost spears her hand in his rush to take hold of it before she has a chance to leave.

‘Stone me! I know they ‘arpoon whales but...’

‘Sorry,’ In the confusion of trying to drop the fork but keep hold of her hand and that on top of laughing at what she has said, Daniel inhales a mushroom and starts to choke, his attempts to breathe producing only a high pitched whine as he tries repeatedly to suck air past the blockage. His eyes bulge and he bangs his chest with his fist. The mushroom explodes from his mouth as he finally manages to cough it free.

Shaken, Viv picks the mushroom from her lap where it has fallen after bouncing off her chest. She steadies her voice. ‘And if they can’t stab the poor thing t’death, they start chuckin’ bleedin’stones at it!’

He laughs and coughs in turn, his napkin pressed to his mouth while his other arm stretches towards her and he gestures with his hand for her to stay. ‘I’ll be.... alright...in a minute,’ he wheezes, using his napkin to wipe his eyes as well as his mouth. ‘And you wonder why I’d rather be with you?’

‘Couple more goes like that, mate, and you wouldn’t be with nobody! I was ready to call a flippin’ ambulance then,’ Viv pats her chest with relief. ‘Gawd, a death in me restaurant? I’d’ve ‘ad yer whipped off smartish before that ‘appened. I’ve got me takings to think of. You alright, sweetheart?’

Taking a sip of his beer, he nods his head. ‘Think I’m off mushrooms for a bit.’

‘So am I! Look at me blouse.’ She bemoans the greasy mark. ‘Ope it comes out.’

‘Sorry.’ Still straining to breathe properly and trying to stop from coughing, he sips again. ‘I’ll buy you a new one if it doesn’t.’

‘Don’t talk wet! Me own fault for makin’ you laugh. I’m just glad you didn’t conk out on me. You went all colours of the bleedin’ rainbow and I don’t know 'ow to do that thing where they sort of ooof you from behind.’

He wheezes another laugh and threatens to choke again. ‘Stop....please!’

‘I’m off, I’m only makin’ things worse,’ Viv gets up to go and leans to whisper in his ear. ‘And you got a dirty mind, you ‘ave.’

Daniel’s hand covers hers as it lays flat on the table and he moves his head just enough to surreptitiously brush a kiss against her cheek before replying in an equally low voice. ‘Only where you’re concerned.’