Spring Blossoms at Mill Grange by Jenny Kane (fiction books to read .txt) 📕

a jug, Tina placed it and some cups onto a tray, before adding some cake plates. Today might be a preparation day, but she was determined to make it as much a part of the wedding celebration as she could.

‘Shall I grab the cake?’ Thea, her arms full of clean tea towels from the laundry, came in.

‘Thanks. I’ll never be able to carry all this outside in one go.’

‘Has Helen arrived?’ Thea dropped the clean linen into a drawer, and hooked the cake tin from the cupboard.

‘Not yet. She’s due around eleven, so we’d better save her some cake. Sue’s bringing Dylan over first thing in the morning, so he gets a decent night’s sleep at home, and so Tom doesn’t have to worry about him while they have a mini stag night tonight. Bert and Mabel are here though, as are Diane and Bill and Derek – you remember them from when we restored the house?’

‘Of course. How wonderful.’

Tina watched her friend as she fetched some sugar for Bert’s tea, her eyes were cloudy. ‘Let’s sit down a minute.’

‘Isn’t the tea ready?’

‘It can wait.’ Tina twirled a pigtail around a finger. ‘You know it’s weird. I thought when the wedding got this close, I’d be ball of panic, but I feel really calm.’

‘That’s good.’ Thea picked a teaspoon off the tray and played it between her fingers. ‘Anyway, you have nothing to be nervous of. Sam’s a good man. You have a great home and a good future.’

Tina knew Thea was sincere, but she didn’t miss the wistfulness in her friend’s voice. ‘I am very lucky. And to think, I almost shunned him because he has a ponytail.’

Thea chuckled. ‘You went out with some awful blokes before Sam.’

Tina rolled her eyes. ‘I wish I could claim otherwise. Remember Leon!’

‘The Silver Fox!’ Thea grinned, but suddenly she became serious. ‘You just wanted security back and thought older men with money could give you that. Perhaps the right one might have in time, but I’m glad you met Sam.’

‘So am I!’ Tina hesitated. ‘You can talk to me you know. Just because I’m getting married tomorrow, doesn’t mean you can’t offload if you need to.’

‘Thank you, but in all honesty there’s nothing to offload, because I have no idea where I stand where Shaun is concerned.’

‘You haven’t heard anything from him?’

‘Not a word since he heard the recording of Julian talking to me in that hotel last month. Perhaps I should have stayed and watched him listen to the rest of it, but at the time, I couldn’t face it.’

‘And you assumed he’d come and find you once he’d heard the recording.’

‘Yes.’ Thea sighed. ‘I imagined him coming to talk to me in private. But he didn’t.’

‘I’m sorry, hun.’

‘The last thing I know about Shaun for sure came from Ajay. He knocked on my campervan door to let me know I wasn’t needed for any more filming and that Shaun had already left. Last seen heading for the television studio in Bristol to talk to the board that controls Landscape Treasures. Apparently, he didn’t react at all to what he heard Julian say to me in the bar via the mobile recording. He simply asked Ajay to email him the recording and took off.’

‘What did he say in the bar?’

‘It was all along the lines of how, if I played my cards right, then the television world would be my oyster. He talked about me presenting, not just archaeology shows, but game shows too. Or, if I didn’t want to do anything too common, he was sure a pretty face like mine could get her own historical documentary series. Apparently if I “played the game his way”, I’d become the most sought-after celebrity on television.’

‘Is this guy for real?’ Tina rolled her eyes.

‘Sadly, yes.’

Tina reached a hand across the table and gave Thea’s a squeeze. ‘Do you still love Shaun?’

‘It would be a damn sight easier if I didn’t.’

‘Sam had a call from him yesterday. Shaun will be here this afternoon.’

‘Okay.’ Thea stared at the sugar cubes. ‘Forewarned is forearmed. Don’t worry, I won’t let you down.’

‘I didn’t think you would.’

Thea licked her lips. ‘I suppose it’s more that I desperately don’t want to let myself down by dissolving into a puddle of tears the minute I see him.’

‘You won’t.’ Tina observed her friend’s tired face. ‘The old Thea might have done. The one who came to Mill Grange in the first place. The one whose life was stuck in a rut, with an annoying ex and limited self-confidence. She might have gone to pieces, but look at you now! I know you were a successful historian before you came here, but since you arrived here you’ve helped establish a retreat, an excavation and you’ve been a television presenter!’

‘All because of Shaun.’

‘No. Not because of Shaun.’ Tina shook her head. ‘Some of the opportunities perhaps, especially when it came being part of Landscape Treasures, came via Shaun, but you still had to have the guts to do all those things. If you were no good at it, you would not have lasted five minutes. Television isn’t a world known for charity. You stood in front of the cameras and did what was asked of you.’

‘With help from Hilda and Ajay and—’

Tina waved her friend’s words away. ‘You know what I mean. And don’t forget, you stood up to Mabel when you first got here. No mean feat! And then there’s this situation now.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘The Thea Thomas who first came to Mill Grange would have pretended she didn’t mind that her partner didn’t listen to her, or that he could even imagine she’d steal his job.’

Thea shrugged. ‘So I grew some backbone. Long overdue.’

‘If Shaun can’t take you for who you are now, then, however much it hurts, he isn’t the one for you.’

‘That’s what I keep telling myself.’ Thea got up and flicked the kettle back on. ‘I think I’ll have coffee rather than tea.’

Tina gestured to the teapot.