Gooseberry Fool (Tales From Appleyard Book 3) Read online

  ‘Oh God, Willow, I’ve done it!’ shouted Jude. ‘I’m finally free… we’re free!’ he bellowed, too excited to restrain himself. He set her down momentarily before grinning like a loon and picking her up once more. He buried his face in the side of her neck, kissing her over and over.

  Willow giggled. ‘Put me down,’ she managed through her laughter, struggling to hold onto the things in her hands. ‘What on earth has got into you? The last time I saw you this excited… well I can’t actually remember ever seeing you this excited before.’

  He did as she asked, stepping away slightly to look at her better. His chest was heaving, his eyes shining, and yet bizarrely he looked calmer and more relaxed than she had seen him in weeks.

  ‘Do you want to come and sit down and tell me what it is that’s got you so worked up? I don’t think I can stand the suspense.’

  Jude raked a hand through his hair. ‘Yes… no… I don’t think I can. I don’t think I can sit still for that long.’

  Willow put her hands on her hips and gave him her best ‘I’m standing no nonsense’ stare. ‘I’ll superglue your trousers to the chair if I have to.’

  Willow’s heart was pounding too, she realised, but her own news would have to wait a while. Whatever Jude was trying to tell her must surely be connected with the source of their dreams. She had a feeling she might remember this moment for some time to come.

  She sat at the table and waited for him to join her, watching his face expectantly, but his expression hardly changed. He looked overjoyed, and excited, but something else glittered in his eyes, and as his gaze met hers she understood what it was. He looked jubilant.

  ‘I don’t really know where to start,’ he began, ‘and I know I probably should have discussed this with you before, but when I tell you I hope you’ll understand why I didn’t.’ He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. ‘It’s complicated, but maybe I should start at the end and work backwards.’

  Willow nodded encouragement as Jude took a deep breath.

  ‘I’ve sold the business,’ he said, laying down the sentence in the room like an unexploded bomb. ‘I no longer have any share in Middleton Estates,’ he added as if his previous statement wasn’t clear enough.

  Whatever Willow had expected him to tell her, it wasn’t that. Her mouth hung open slightly as she tried to take it in. That didn’t altogether sound like their land was safe after all.

  ‘But what about Andrew?’

  A cloud crossed Jude’s face for an instant. ‘I’ll tell you about that later.’ Willow was about to ask a further question, when Jude jumped in again. ‘And I know that probably sounds like the most horrendous news you’ve ever heard, but you’re not to worry. Financially, the deal was a very good one, so we’re not going to be penniless for a good while yet; besides it’s more a matter of what I want to do with the rest of my life, or more importantly what we want to do with the rest of our lives.’

  Willow’s letter was growing hot in her hand. ‘And what do you want to do with the rest of your life?’ she asked cautiously.

  Jude plucked the letter out of her grasp and took both her hands in his. He raised them to his mouth and gently kissed each one in turn.

  ‘I want to spend some more time with my gorgeous wife, and find out just how incredible her talents are. I want to watch our girls growing up instead of blinking and waving them off to university as virtual strangers, and I want never to have to wear a tie again… well not often anyway,’ he grinned. ‘But most importantly, I want to nurture our family and the land around us. Other people can buy and sell property and land for huge sums of money, but I’m not going to be one of them, not anymore.’

  Willow watched Jude as he spoke, a mixture of emotions playing across his face. Mostly excitement, but now also a little nervous, as if unsure how his momentous decision would be received.

  ‘Well I’m not sure that I want you around all day, under my feet, getting in the way, making a mess…’

  She winked at his astonished face.

  ‘… Actually I can’t think of anything nicer,’ she admitted. ‘To be honest I wish you’d done it years ago – all this striving for an even bigger pot of money that we didn’t need, when pretty much everything we could wish for is right here…’ She gave a twinkly smile. ‘And anything else is on next day delivery from Amazon.’

  Jude visibly relaxed. ‘You really don’t mind then? I know I should have talked things over with you before, but there was so much to go wrong, and even up until the last minute I wasn’t sure it would all go through. I didn’t want us to start to believe in the kind of life we could make for ourselves and then have it all torn away from us if things didn’t work out. I didn’t think I could bear that for you.’ He rubbed a thumb over the back of her hand. ‘Although… by some weird stroke of fate, I think you might be one step ahead of me anyway… or have I got that wrong?’

  Willow blushed, a sheepish smile on her face. ‘I’m guilty of keeping things to myself too,’ she said. ‘I’ve been exploring some new ways of expanding the business here, things that complement the fruit farm. I kind of hoped that if I got it off the ground, I’d have a viable idea to put to you… and now might be the perfect time to tell you what I’ve been up to, especially as this arrived in the post this morning.’

  She handed Jude the letter with a slightly shaking hand, not yet having had a chance to fully absorb its contents herself. She waited anxiously while he read it, wondering what he was thinking. It had been so wrong not to share any of what she had been up to the past few weeks, she knew that now, but at the time it had seemed right; a decision which now seemed silly and misguided.

  Jude’s raised voice broke into her thoughts.

  ‘Bloody hell!’ He grinned. ‘I’ve been reading about these places in one of the business magazines I subscribe to. The bloke that owns them is an organic farmer and he started with just one small guesthouse at his own place, which his wife ran, but now they have eight, very select and very exclusive small hotels, which are currently on the lips of every famous blogger and YouTuber around.’

  ‘I know!’ Willow grinned back. ‘I’ve been experimenting with a range of ice creams and cordials, and to cut a long story short, Merry has been sending out some sample packs to people she has contacts with.’

  ‘And they want to talk to you about suppling all their hotels, not just the kitchen but the guest rooms too… Willow this is amazing!’ he burst out, excitement mounting once more. ‘I said you were a woman of spectacular talents.’ He paused for a moment. ‘I don’t suppose,’ he started, more seriously, ‘that you might need a little help from a chap who’s pretty good at marketing, and making the tea and whatever else you need, and who has suddenly become comprehensively unemployed?’

  Willow beamed the smile she had been waiting a long time to deliver. ‘I don’t think there’s anything I’d like more,’ she said, holding Jude’s look. ‘I’ve no idea how all this is going to pan out, or how busy we might get, but I’d much rather be doing it with you by my side.’

  She took a breath, wondering how best to frame her next question. ‘This might sound a bit weird, even for me,’ she began. ‘But I’ve had some… dreams lately, they only started a few weeks ago, but last night I woke from a particularly vivid one, only to realise that they might not have been my dreams after all… but someone else’s.’

  Jude shifted uncomfortably in his chair. ‘Go on,’ he said.

  ‘And don’t ask me how, but it’s almost as if I was picking up on your thoughts… although I’m not sure thoughts is quite the right word. They were a bit stronger than that.’

  ‘What kind of thoughts?’

  Willow pulled at the end of her plait. ‘Maybe I had better just come out with it. You’ll either laugh, or…’ She sat up a little straighter. ‘I’ve seen images of the land up beyond Henry’s house, at some point in the future I’m guessing. Only not as it is now, but torn up, built on, a mass of houses and roads and I—’

 
Jude visibly paled, swallowing hard. ‘How could you possibly know that?’ he whispered. ‘How could you know what I’ve seen… what frightened me more than anything in this whole business?’

  Willow clutched at his hand. ‘It terrified me too, to see the meadows all gone, everything destroyed.’

  ‘It’ll never happen Willow, you have my promise. I’ve seen to it that Andrew never—’

  ‘Andrew?’ echoed Willow, confused. With all that had happened over the past couple of days, she had forgotten her original belief that Andrew was behind the sale of their land, but now Jude had sold his share of the business, it didn’t make any sense. Her thoughts were churning.

  ‘But what about Andrew’s share in the business? And you’ve done some sort of a deal with Henry, I know you have. I saw you both outside the bank yesterday, shaking hands. What was that all about?’

  Jude gave a wry smile. ‘Ah, Henry…’ he said. ‘Yes, that was… unexpected. But listen, let me tell you about Andrew first. As you can imagine he wasn’t over the moon when I told him I wanted out of the business, but in the end he really had no choice.’ He cleared his throat before continuing. ‘You’ll remember the night a few weeks back when I came home really late, and in a bit of a state to put it mildly. I made out I’d been led astray by some Japanese businessman, when actually what happened was that I presented my father with the details of the sale I’d already negotiated. After a… heated discussion… we agreed that from here on in I was no longer fit to call myself his son.’

  Willow’s hand flew to her throat as her eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh Jude, why didn’t you tell me?’ she said, anger flaring. ‘How could he do such a thing?’

  ‘Because he’s an unfeeling sanctimonious bastard I suspect. He’s never loved me, Willow, I know that now. I’ve spent my life trying to please him, to make him take notice of what I achieved in the hope that he might deign to throw me a crumb of affection, but it’s never going to happen. Now I’ve woken up to the fact, I’m rather surprised to find that I’m looking forward to taking my own decisions and living my own life without his influence.’ He smiled at Willow again. ‘Despite what he thinks, I happen to believe that I’ve made some very sound choices in my life so far.’

  Willow searched Jude’s face as he regarded her calmly and with more than a little affection. He was telling the truth, and it must have taken a lot of guts to face up to it, let alone come to terms with it. Willow couldn’t pretend to be anything other than overjoyed to have Andrew out of their lives for good, even though its legacy must be hard for Jude.

  ‘I know he’s never liked me, but—’ She stopped suddenly as she realised what Jude’s words would actually mean for them. ‘But what about the house, and the land? My strawberries! Oh, God, Jude we’ll have to leave and…’ She couldn’t bear the thought of it, not now, not when she had come so close to making things happen.

  Jude took hold of her hands again and chuckled. ‘No, we won’t, and believe me that’s absolutely the best bit. Wonderfully ironic too; it was your strawberries that were his downfall in the end.’

  Willow gave him a quizzical look.

  ‘There’ve been many occasions over the years when Andrew has suggested selling the meadows, but this time he’d even gone so far as to suss out the potential for getting planning permission, and snaring a buyer who was happy to do a deal on a speculative purchase. No doubt, had the sale gone ahead, Andrew would have done everything in his power to make sure planning was granted and the resultant kick back from any houses built would have netted a small fortune. There was only one problem with the proposed sale – well two actually.’

  ‘And they were?’

  ‘Well first that I was dead set against it, but second, and more importantly, that to build any houses on the land you’d need to have an access route… and the only two possible routes would be through our strawberry fields or up the lane behind Henry’s house. Of course the best one would be through our fields, or rather, as Andrew put it, “through that silly little business of your wife’s”. He even asked me to have a chat with you and talk you out of running it.’ Jude held up his hand as he caught the expression on Willow’s face.

  ‘In the end, that was what made me stop and think. Apart from the brazen cheek of it, he made me realise how important our fields are and that in fact we have a proper future here together which is worth more to me than anything I could ever earn. It made me even more determined not to sell the land.’

  Willow nodded. ‘So you needed to find a way to get Andrew out of the business…’

  ‘… No, the other way around. I needed to find a way to get me out of it, and everything we have here along with me.’

  ‘But how did you do that?’

  ‘It was quite simple in the end. I just played to his love of money. Andrew can’t run the business, he doesn’t have the skill, and he never has had. So despite what he thought of me, he needed me plain and simple… or someone else who could take my place, keep the company afloat, and keep Andrew’s investment paying out at a nice steady rate. Without that someone else the company would fold, and bang would go Andrew’s income. Middleton Estates is currently holding two huge parcels of land that I acquired some years ago. Bought speculatively, but shrewdly, and which have now fallen into areas ripe for development. In fact one has already had planning permission granted on it. If we simply sold the company outright Andrew would get his pay-out, admittedly, but by staying in the game he stands to net a huge fortune from the building of the houses too. So it wasn’t much of a choice after all. I’ve sold my share in the company to a third party, and Andrew gets to keep his millions. He might be a materialistic bastard but he’s not stupid.’

  Willow gazed at her husband, trying to take in everything he had told her.

  ‘But you’ve given up all that money too…’ she said.

  ‘Yep,’ grinned Jude. ‘I decided it wasn’t worth as much as I thought it was.’ He kissed her nose. ‘And besides, I’m not that magnanimous. I made sure I got exactly what I wanted.’

  ‘Which was?’

  ‘A certain sum of money–’ he winked, ‘–but more importantly, my price included this house, the strawberry fields, all the meadows, the office…’

  ‘Henry’s house?’

  ‘Yes, that too. It all belongs to us now.’

  ‘You really have worked all this out haven’t you?’

  Jude picked her letter up from the table and waved it at her. ‘As have you if I’m not very much mistaken.’ He read the letter through again. ‘I even love the name Willowberries – it’s just perfect!’

  ‘Do you really? It seemed right somehow, but I probably wasn’t thinking properly at the time. I mean, we should have something that reflects both of us, shouldn’t we?’

  Jude leaned forward and kissed Willow squarely before she could say any more. ‘No, I like it just the way it is,’ he said, eyes shining. ‘And our buyers are going to love it!’

  Willow returned his kiss, her stomach fizzing with excitement at the prospect of what was to come. She was about to show him some of the things she had been up to when she remembered what she had to say to Jude. On the face of it everything seemed perfect, but there was still the possibility that things could come crashing down around her ears. She looked up into Jude’s clear blue eyes.

  ‘I have an apology to make,’ she said. ‘I’ve been going out of my mind these last few weeks, what with these dreams, and fears about what was going to happen. Everything has been so confusing, I almost didn’t know what to believe… but I should have talked to you about it. I should have told you my ideas for this place, asked for your help and support instead of arrogantly going ahead with what I believed was right. I feel like I haven’t trusted you, like I’ve let you down… ’ Her eyes filled with tears.

  Jude touched her cheek, his eyes shining with emotion too. ‘No, I should have told you… shared all of this with you before, but I was so scared I couldn’t make it happen. I wouldn’t have be
en able to bear it for you if we started to believe in what our lives could be like and then have it all taken away from us. It would have been the cruellest blow, and I thought it better if you didn’t know.’

  ‘Promise me that whatever happens in the future we will never keep secrets from each other again?’

  Jude nodded gently. ‘I promise… although there is just one other tiny thing I ought to tell you,’ he added quietly, ‘but it’s a good thing, I swear!’

  ‘Is this about Henry?’ urged Willow. ‘Please tell me it is. I still haven’t figured out where he comes into this.’

  ‘Well no-one was more surprised than me, but a couple of weeks ago Henry came to see me offering to buy his house. Outright, in cash for a quick sale. I really had no idea, but he’s completely minted… Anyway, I had to tell him what I was planning, but I swore him to secrecy. I didn’t even know myself at the time if it would be possible, but the more I thought about his offer, the more it made sound sense, for all of us. Yesterday, once I knew the deal was going through, I was able to firm things up with him. That’s when you saw us in town I guess.’

  Willow blushed slightly remembering her wild thoughts of the day before. ‘Well that does explain that, she said. ‘Although he’s never mentioned anything about buying the house before…’ Her eyes suddenly widened. ‘Hey, I wonder if this has anything to do with Delilah?’

  ‘Well he’s asked to rent the first meadow from us as well.’

  ‘Really? Whatever does he want that for?’

  Jude smiled slowly. ‘To keep goats on of course. Or, more accurately, for Delilah to keep goats on. I rather think they’ve fallen in love.’

  ‘Oh, of course!’ exclaimed Willow, and suddenly everything in her world fell into the most magical and perfect place.

  Chapter 14

  It was the end of a very hot and very busy week, but sprawled in the meadow under the big oak tree, Willow had never been happier. Excited chatter and burbles of laughter reached her as she looked around at her group of friends enjoying a long cool drink in the evening sun. A slight breeze rustled the tall heads of the grasses that fringed the field and tickled their skin as they walked by, each of them revelling in the knowledge that, albeit for different reasons, life was about to get a lot more interesting.