Page 44 of A Year at Appleyard Farm
Robyn was halfway through her bottle of milk when there was a small tap at the kitchen door, and a grey head peered around it.
‘Anybody home?’
‘Cora! Come in…How are you?’
The small figure stood on the doorstep, holding a carrier bag. ‘Very well, thank you. And grateful to see some sun for a change.’ She smiled. ‘Now would you look at that, Rupert, isn’t that a sight for sore eyes,’ she said, glancing down at the dog and then back up at Tom, who had Robyn nestled in his arms. ‘What a picture. It does these old bones good to see such a thing.’
‘Come and sit down, Cora, and join us in a cup of tea.’
‘Only if you’re not too busy.’
She unclipped Rupert’s lead, and took a seat at the table, the dog immediately taking up a position beside Tom’s chair, where he sat quietly, his blue eyes resting on the baby.
‘I told Rupert that Robyn is only little and that he must look after her when he’s with her. He usually takes me at my word.’
‘So I see.’ Tom laughed. ‘You have him extraordinarily well-trained.’
‘Thank you,’ said Cora simply, both at Tom and to the cup of tea that Merry placed beside her. ‘Now, I’ve just been for my weekly visit to the library, and I brought this back for you, I thought it might be of interest.’ She handed the bag across the table to Merry. ‘It’s as old as the hills, and I suspect the library have had it since it was first published, so it’s rather dog-eared too, no offence, Rupert, but you might find it worth a read.’
Merry removed the book from the bag, a large hardback, with a very dated and faded front cover.
‘Oh,’ she said, looking up at Cora, ‘How brilliant,’ she added, swivelling the book round so that Tom could see the title:Seventies, Design and Style.
‘I thought you might like to have a read about Christopher. There’s quite a large section about him in there. I suspect that’s why the library have hung onto it for so long.’
Merry opened a page at random, the bright red design from one of the canvases they had salvaged leaping out at her. ‘This is amazing,’ she said, her head still bent to the book. ‘We were just looking at some information about him yesterday, weren’t we, Tom?’
Cora remained silent and sipped her tea.
‘It all seems so sad, what happened.’
‘It was a difficult time certainly. And one of the saddest things is that he stopped working completely after it happened. He was a very fine artist, and quite young when they died. I would have liked to see how his new work developed, but it was obviously never meant to be.’
A loud burp suddenly broke the rather sombre mood.
‘Oops, pardon you, young lady.’ Tom grinned, wiping a dribble of milk off his daughter’s chin. ‘I guess that’s you filled up again.’
‘She really is quite adorable, isn’t she?’ said Cora, a wistful smile on her face. ‘Just like a little bird. Such bright intelligent eyes.’
A proud look passed between Tom and his wife, which Cora missed entirely.
‘Would she like to come out for a walk, do you think? Admittedly, it was a long time ago, but I seem to recall that my own daughter liked nothing better than being in her pram in the fresh air.’
‘I didn’t know that you had any children, Cora?’
‘Yes, just the one. Her name’s Sian, but she and her husband live in Australia now. She comes home when she can, bless her.’
‘It must be lonely for you,’ said Merry, watching the expression carefully on Cora’s face.
‘At times,’ admitted Cora. ‘But I have Rupert. There’s never been a Mr Evans, I’m afraid. I was seduced by a flash ne’er-do-well in my youth I’m sorry to say, and he left us when Sian was a little over a year old, so there’ve only ever been the two of us.’ She took another sip of tea. ‘A child born out of wedlock didn’t go down very well in the small Welsh village where I was born, but here, people seemed to accept us, and so we stayed, all these years…Happy years, though, I hasten to add.’
Merry could feel her nose beginning to smart, a sure sign that tears were on their way. Her pregnancy hormones were still playing havoc it would seem, although she’d always been a bit of a cry baby. She sniffed, blinking rapidly, pretending to read something on the still open page in front of her.
After a moment, she gave Cora a wide smile. ‘I’m sure Robyn would love to go for a walk with you, if you’re sure it’s okay?’
‘We’d be delighted to have some company on our walk, wouldn’t we, Rupert? And you mustn’t feel like it’s an imposition, before you say so. I can see how busy things are for you at the moment, and if this helps in any way, then I shall be glad.’
Merry, who had been just about to say exactly that, closed her mouth again.
