Page 71 of A Year at Appleyard Farm
‘So are you going to tell me what’s going on, or not?’ she retorted, getting up from the chair. ‘This is the first time I’ve seen another female anywhere remotely near here, so don’t go all shy on me now.’
Henry blushed a little. ‘I’ll go and put the kettle on.’
Ten minutes later, the three of them were sitting around the kitchen table, Delilah now ever so slightly dressed in a skimpy pair of shorts and vest top. She sat cross-legged in the chair, cradling her mug in her lap.
‘So how did you two meet?’ asked Willow. ‘You’re rather a long way from home if I’m right in thinking that’s a Cornish accent.’
‘You are,’ smiled Delilah, ‘but where I’m from, everywhere is a long way from home. I spend my life on the M5.’
‘I can imagine. So…?’
Henry shared an amused glance across the table with Delilah. ‘This might explain it,’ he said, throwing his foot up onto the empty chair next to Willow. He rolled up the leg of his jeans to reveal bright green socks. ‘Goat socks,’ he said. ‘At this precise moment I have about eighteen pairs, which is sixteen pairs more than I actually need.’
Delilah poked Henry’s thigh. ‘But you have to admit that the after sales service is spectacularly good…’
Henry sighed. ‘It is…which is why I have eighteen pairs.’
‘Oh, I see.’ Willow giggled.
‘We actually only met for the first time about three months ago,’ adds Henry. ‘Up until then, I’d ring Delilah to order another pair of socks and heave and sigh listening to her talk dirty to me in that fabulous accent—’
‘While I would swoon listening to his cut glass vowels…in the end, I decided that although the poor man was pretty much keeping me in business, enough was enough, so I suggested we meet—’
‘And the rest is history,’ finished Henry.
Willow felt like a spectator at a tennis match, as she struggled to keep up with the conversation that batted back and forth, Henry and Delilah both finishing each other’s sentences.
‘Well, it’s lovely to meet you, Delilah, although I shall thump Henry later for not telling me about you. How long are you staying for? Only if you’re here for a few days, then you should come over to us for dinner one evening. I haven’t cooked properly for anyone in ages.’
Henry exchanged another look with Delilah before replying. ‘Willow runs a fruit farm,’ he explained, ‘but she also happens to be the finest cook for miles around,andshe makes the most amazing ice cream.’
‘To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how long I’ll be here for,’ replied Delilah with a rather coy look at Henry. ‘We’re sort of taking things as they come…dinner sounds a lovely idea, though, thank you.’ She twiddled the ends of her jet black hair around her fingers. ‘I don’t suppose you make your ice cream with goat’s milk, do you?’
‘No, sorry,’ replied Willow. ‘It’s rather a new venture. I think I need to stick with what I know for now, but who knows, maybe one day.’ She suddenly felt very naïve in front of this confident young woman who obviously had a successful business herself. There was so much she needed to learn.
She sat up a little straighter in her chair. ‘Actually, Henry, I’m sorry for hogging your afternoon, but the ice cream making is the reason I popped round. I’ve made a decision on the designs you produced for me, but I’m not sure where to go from here. I need packaging and marketing stuff, but I’m clueless about who to use, and what it’s likely to cost. I was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction.’
Henry’s grey eyes sparkled at her. ‘But that’s brilliant news, Willow. Which designs did you go for in the end?’ He got up from the table. ‘Hang on and I’ll get my laptop.’
It took a few moments for him to boot it up and navigate to the right folder, but almost immediately Delilah pulled her chair closer to his so that she could see the screen too. ‘I’ve got Henry working on some new designs for me as well, but I’d love to see what else he’s been doing. Frankly, I’m amazed he even found my company to begin with, my website is so out of date it’s shocking, and while the stuff I produce is of the highest quality, the designs for the packaging and branding are total pants.’ She looked at the screen for a moment as Henry scrolled through the images, her hand suddenly grabbing his to halt the movement. ‘Oh, I like those ones,’ she exclaimed. ‘The colours are wonderful, and—’
She suddenly stopped, looking across at Willow, misreading her expression. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I get a bit excitable sometimes.’
Willow could feel a little tingle in her toes. ‘Do you really like them?’ she urged, ‘only that set is the one I’ve picked. I could have one colour for each of the different flavours. So my elderflower ice cream and cordial could have this zingy green for example and—’
‘Maybe this for strawberry?’ finished Delilah.
The two women stared at one another for a moment, beaming smiles on both their faces. Willow’s hand strayed to the tiger’s eye pendant around her neck, where it remained, her fingers stroking the smooth polished surface of the stone.
‘That’s exactly what I was going to say,’ said Willow. ‘I don’t suppose you know someone who makes brilliant, but not too expensive packaging, do you?’
Delilah gave Henry a gentle nudge to the ribs. ‘Any chance of a biscuit my gorgeous lover,’ she said in a thick Cornish drawl, ‘an’ we might be needing some more tea an all,’ she added, blowing a kiss. ‘Willow and I have a lot to talk about.’
37
‘I hope we’re not too early,’ said Peter, looking at Willow’s astonished face. ‘Only I wasn’t sure how long this would take.’
She swallowed her mouthful of tea. ‘No, not too early. I just…didn’t expect quite so many of you,’ replied Willow. ‘But this is wonderful!’ she finished, doing a swift tally in her head. Where on earth had Peter dredged all these people up from? And more importantly people who all looked pleased to be here.
