The Family at Farrshore by Kate Blackadder

Author:Kate Blackadder [Blackadder, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2016-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

JD bounced with frustration in his wheelchair. ‘No, lad. That’s not the way to do it.’

He looked up at Joe, perched on the old fishing boat at the side of the house. ‘That hull is more damaged than it looks. I told you to sort that out first.’

‘I am sorting it out,’ Joe replied mildly.

‘It looks to me like you’re just fiddling about up there.’

‘I’ve worked out what I need to do with the rudder so I thought I’d do that today.’ Joe’s tone was less mild this time.

‘But the hull – ’

‘The hull can wait, Dad.’

Don’t let them quarrel. Round at the front of the house Dolly listened with one ear to Sara and with the other to her husband’s raised voice. They’d all just had Sunday lunch cooked by Sara and now Dolly and her daughter-in-law were doing some weeding. Dolly knew that more than anything JD wanted to be up on the boat with Joe. Before his accident they had been a good team. Now she sympathised with both of them.

‘Ask Grandpa if he would like another cup of coffee,’ she said to Rosie, hoping to distract JD.

Rosie came back, pushing the wheelchair. ‘No he does not want coffee,’ she said. ‘And he says he’ll leave Daddy to get on with his tomfool repairs.’

JD was too het-up to be embarrassed by this report. ‘Park me here in the shade, Rosie. And leave me in peace, all of you.’

‘Mum,’ Rosie whispered to Sara, ‘Grandpa said to Daddy that maybe asking him to come home for good was a bad idea. What did he mean?’

Sara looked exasperated. ‘I wasn’t going to tell you yet. Daddy might leave the rigs and come and work in Grandpa’s business.’

‘And be here in Farrshore all the time?’

‘Sssh. Yes. Maybe.’

‘Oh, Granny, wouldn’t that be great?’

‘Yes, it would, it would be lovely.’ Dolly didn’t dare say anything else, given the look on Sara’s face. Joe was due to go back to the rig in a couple of days. She hoped that a decision would be made before he went. ‘Rosie, look, there’s Tyler for you.’ Really, all she seemed to do these days was change the subject, try to prevent arguments, and pour oil on troubled waters.

Tyler was looking to the left as he came through the gate. ‘There’s two people coming along the road. One of them looks like that detective guy, Sherlock Holmes.’

Rosie rushed to see for herself. ‘So he does,’ she giggled, although she had no idea who Tyler was talking about. ‘He’s got a funny hat on.’

Tyler began to laugh as well.

‘Don’t be rude, Rosie,’ said Sara. ‘Go and play round the back, both of you, if you can’t behave.’

‘Do you want to come and practise shooting?’ Tyler asked and Rosie skipped after him over to Dolly’s house where the basketball net had been fixed to the wall.

As the strangers came closer Dolly could see that the woman was slender with classically beautiful features and dark hair in a chignon. She wore a green and white summer skirt and a short green linen jacket.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.