A Time to Reap by Kate Blackadder & Kate Blackadder

Author:Kate Blackadder & Kate Blackadder [Blackadder, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2017-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘Shall we go for a walk? It’s such a lovely afternoon,’ Mamie asked Neil.

He put his pipe in his pocket. ‘If you promise not to run on ahead of a shuffling old man.’

Mamie tucked her arm through his. ‘The doctor – the doctor said gentle strolls would be good for your back.’

At the mention of the doctor, Neil’s face darkened. Mamie berated herself for mentioning him. Bad back or no bad back, Neil had been all for going down to the surgery and having it out with Struan Scott for playing fast and loose with his daughter’s feelings.

Through her storms of tears Crys had begged him not to. And Mamie weighed in too. ‘Crys is grown-up. She knows you’re upset on her behalf, we both are. But there’s nothing you can do that won’t make things worse.’ Eventually Neil had calmed down.

Now Mamie said, as they turned off the tarred road and walked along a grassy track, ‘We won’t have to see him for much longer. His six months here will be up soon. Poor Crys. She fell very hard for him.’

‘Always thought he was smarmy,’ Neil growled.

Mamie squeezed his arm against hers in non-committal response. She knew that Neil’s opinion of Struan was only in retrospect – they’d both found him personable, and believed him to be honest, up until the moment when Crys, having got wind of a rumour that he was engaged to someone back in his hometown, had gone to confront him and come back distraught.

Both their girls were going through the mill at the moment, Mamie reflected. Crys had driven away in the strawberry-pink Mini that eventful day last week and was now in London ‘throwing myself into work’ as she put it, and apparently taking advantage of her school chum Robbie MacLean’s good nature by crying on his shoulder.

And Elizabeth – on top of her ongoing tussle of wills with the factor, Rodney Shaw, she had the worry of the accident that had happened to the estate’s prize bull. Fortunately, his cut hoof was on the mend and the vet, Andy Kerr, had recovered from being kicked in his middle, but the whole incident was upsetting.

Mamie had no doubt that Elizabeth was more than capable of managing the estate’s Home Farm. But it took its toll – it was a seven-day-week job, a heap of form filling to do as well as the outside work. All that didn’t leave her much time to spend with her little daughters. Her mother-in-law Tibbie was a rock she could lean on but wasn’t the easiest person to live with – her presence, too, was a constant reminder that Matthew was gone.

Two years now since Elizabeth’s husband’s fatal accident. Mamie was proud of the way her daughter had coped, emotionally as well as practically. It would be nice, though, if she had someone to share her burdens with – had Elizabeth ever considered that she might get married again, Mamie wondered? She still wore her wedding ring, a signal that she still felt married to Matthew.

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