A Change for the Better? (28 page)

“Well I wouldn’t be so sure” Cliona said, as a parting shot, leaving Ben wondering if maybe she was right. There was no denying it – he liked Katie a lot but had always told
himself
that it wasn’t an option; she was only looking for friendship so that was what he had given. But if it could be more ……………….

Ben was just pondering this intriguing new thought when he heard Katie bellowing from the back of the kitchen area

“Wilson, get your backside in here – the job’s not finished yet, you know, everything’s still to be washed and gotten ready for tomorrow. Don’t think a quick trip round the dance floor gets you off the hook” Katie stood, hand on hip, waving a fish slice in as menacing a manner as could be fashioned with a plastic implement.

“Alright, I’m coming, for God’s sake, you’re a hard task master Katie Crabsticks, I’m not even getting paid for this – I’m doing it all out of the goodness of my heaaaaaaaaart!” Ben howled as his legs slipped from under him on a blob of cream that had been dropped on the floor, and he landed with an enormous smack on his back!

“Oh my God” Katie screeched, “are you okay?” she added running over to him. Ben groaned and Katie started giggling, “Sorry, sorry, I don’t mean to laugh, it’s just I keep seeing it in my head and you looked so funny.” She finished on another bubble of laughter, “I’m sorry, sorry. I’m okay now – are you? Does it hurt anywhere?” she asked with concern.

“It’s my back” Ben said so faintly that Katie had to lean right down next to him to catch his words.

“Where, where does it hurt?” she asked.

“Just here” Ben said, grabbing her hand and catching her off balance so she fell down on top of him.

“Not so funny now eh?”
Ben teased and wrapped his arms round her as she tried to get up, “There’s no escape” he added, but Katie had stopped struggling. She didn’t feel like escaping and simply lifted her head to look Ben straight in his clear blue eyes, his eyes darkened as he met her gaze and started to pull her gently towards him, just as their lips were about to touch Lucy’s voice sounded from the counter out front

“Is there any cheesecake left? I’m starving”

Katie sprang up guiltily just as Lucy appeared in the kitchen ready to repeat her question when she noticed Ben on the floor. “What are you doing down there Ben? Did Katie knock you out?” she asked. Katie thought she heard him say ‘sort of’ but it was swiftly followed by a groan as he pulled himself up so she might have been mistaken.

“I slipped on that” Ben explained to Lucy, pointing to the offending blob of cream now spread across the floor, “and Katie thought it was most amusing too – isn’t that right?” he asked looking at Katie who felt her colour rise.

“Yes that’s right” she admitted, “but I defy anyone not to laugh when watching such a comedy pratfall as that”

“Oh right” said Lucy, losing interest quickly now that Ben seemed to be okay, “so is there any cheesecake left?” she returned to her original question.

“Yes” Katie replied, rolling her eyes, “
there’s
a couple of slices on a plate in the back there, take it through for you and Poppy.” Lucy was gone before Katie had finished speaking, leaving Katie and Ben staring awkwardly at each other. Ben cleared his throat, “Umm, so was that the last of the cheesecake?” he grinned suddenly, forcing Katie to relax.

“Actually, it was, and I was really looking forward to a piece of it – Nevermind, I can probably rustle up some toast and jam if that’ll do?” she offered.

“Well it’ll do for now but how about we do it properly on Sunday night? Let’s have dinner at Angelo’s, after all, the last thing you’ll want to do is cook something and we can talk properly
then with
no interruptions” Ben said as he looked her directly in the eyes so
that
she wouldn’t misunderstand him. Katie couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do on Sunday night but settled for saying “Okay then that’ll be really nice”

Ben smiled, “Great, it’s a date then – and I won’t have to wash up!” he added.

“Maybe not” Katie answered in a mock stern voice, “but you’ll still have to tonight so we’d best get a move on.”

Ben groaned – again!

Saturday morning dawned even brighter and sunnier than the day before
and with the sun came much more warmth than the day before
. Katie raised her face to the sun as she walked up the main street to the marquee for day two of the festivities. It was only seven o’clock in the morning and already it was warm enough to just be wearing a T-shirt, although Katie had tied her cardigan round her waist just in case it grew
colder during the day. Not that it was likely it would
ever
be cold in the marquee if yesterday had been anything to go by! The kitchen had been extremely busy and extremely hot, but to be fair, Katie thought, that might have had something to do with the dancing
too
. In fact the thought of it
now
was bringing on a flush! Katie bounced happily up the road, she hadn’t felt this happy or positive for a long time, long before Marcus, long before London and she knew in her heart it wasn’t just down to the fine weather, but that was a great start and she was looking forward to spending a bit of time relaxing in it later in the day. What a vain hope that turned out to be!

It t
ranspired that
Katie was not the only one who wanted to enjoy the weather and the fayre had been thronged with visitors, villagers enjoying their annual festivities and coach loads of tourists, who spotting the event on their way to Burton Manor, had all stopped and
were bus
y
exploring the delights of the craft stalls, rooting for bargains in the antique shops and playing on the coconut shy and hook-a-duck!

“Even the church is bursting at the seams” Cliona told Katie as she dropped by for a cold drink, “I haven’t seen the vicar this happy since he had two chalices of communion wine to finish.” And, of course, all these people were paying a visit to Katie’s café. Tea, coffee, scones, pastries, cakes, biscuits and squash were flying off the counter. She and Ben barely had time to say hello before the first group of thirty pensioners had arrived and there hadn’t been a lull since. At eleven o’clock Katie had to send Ben for extra supplies as all the cold drinks had gone. When he returned the lunch time trade was starting and Katie was soon barking out more orders to him. Are the quiches ready? Can you clear those tables? Were all the c
old drinks put away?
she
demanded
.

“Yes, they were
” was Ben’s calm reply, “and could you pass me that brush to put where the sun don’t shine and I’ll sweep the floor at the same time” he added with a grin.

“Don’t tempt me” Katie said ominously.

“No? I was going to try and do that tomorrow evening” he said with a wink that brought the colour immediately to Katie’s cheeks.

“Oh Katie, my dear, you look flushed, you must have been very busy
doing all this by the look of
all this lovely food” a voice said from the other side of the counter, just in time to save Katie from her blushes.

Katie spun round to see Mary Clackett standing there, beaming from ear to ear.

“Mary, how lovely to see you.
How are you? How’s Ken doing?” Katie asked.

“Well, my dear, why don’t you ask him yourself? He’s sat at the table over there” Mary pointed behind her. Katie dropped what she was doing and ran over to
Ken giving him the biggest
hug.

“Ken, I’m so happy to see you, you look so well. How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Well, lass, I’m doing right well now, we’ve had a few weeks at the coast with Mary’s sister and I’m right as rain now – and that’s mainly due to you and this young man here.” He said, tipping his head towards Ben who had appeared with tea and scones for them all.

“I never got the chance to thank you properly” Ken continued, “and I’m not sure if I can, but me and my Mary will always be grateful that you two were there when it happened.” Ken shook Ben’s hand and kissed Katie on the cheek as Mary’s eyes welled up with tears and she nodded her head so vigorously it looked like it was on a spring.

“Yes, yes, I don’t know what would have happened if you weren’t there” she added.

“It’s alright, Mary, love” Ken said, patting her hand, “don’t get upset, it’s okay now and I’ve been given the all clear to go home.”

“Oh Ken, that’s wonderful” Katie exclaimed, giving him yet another hug, “so when are you coming back to Tolpuddle?”

“Well, that’s the thing, lass, Mary and I have decided not to come back to Tolpuddle House. You and young Ben here might not always be around and if something else happens we need to know someone is nearby. So we were chatting to Mo and Bert the other day and they told us all about the bungalow they’re moving into at Cheadle House and that there’s another one vacant
, so we went to have a look around it – and loved it
. So we’re going to move in there – it’s all arranged” he finished happily and held Mary’s hand like two teenagers just falling in love not two septuagenarians who had been together fifty years.
As Katie
had
wistfully put it when she was telling Cliona
over a quick coffee
the following day.
Saturday had flown past after the Clackett’s visit with barely time for a sip of water and Katie had returned home to Tolpuddle at half past eleven and gone straight to bed, barely
even having the energy to even
get undressed. She had returned for the final day of the fayre flagging a little and by late morning Ben had gone off in search of
some
real coffee for a proper caffeine boost, rather than
the instant stuff that Katie had. Cliona had popped across for a quick chat before the church service finished at eleven thirty when numbers would pick up a bit.

“How sad is it” Katie moaned, “that I’m now officially jealous of seventy year olds’ romantic lives, compared to mine”

“Well, from what I can see, it looks like yours is picking up a bit. Where is Ben by the way?” Cliona
questioned,
none too subtly.

“He’s finding some real coffee – we needed a shot of proper coffee to get us through the rest of the day and the clear up.” Katie answered as smoothly as she could, not wanting to give any indication she had heard Cliona’s ‘subtle as a sledgehammer’ hint.

“Hmm, fetching and carrying for you, pandering to your every need, I’d say you’ve got nothing to worry about on the romantic front – Ben isn’t always this helpful, you know. Last time I asked him t
o help at the Aromatherapy and H
erbal
R
emedies
C
onvention he said, and I quote, ‘I’d rather stick needles in my eyes and chew off my own arms than spend ten minutes with the crazy, mad women you know Cliona’” Cliona recounted with twinkling eyes.

“Yes, but that is a bit different to the village fayre – to be fair” Katie laughed.

“Maybe, maybe not.
I just know Ben Wilson of old and serving tea and coffee to the grey army has never been top of his to do list before.” Cliona finished archly and disappeared back to her stall.

Katie was still laughing to herself as
she
started to slice the last of the quiches.

“Katie, Can we talk?” a deep voice, so well
-
known to her stopped her in her tracks and she swung round nearly dropping the quiche that was in her hands.

“Marcus!” was all she could manage in response, shocked by the sudden appearance of him. He was as handsome as ever, if a little less smart and a little more drawn in his face. His expression of uncertainty was new too. Katie had only ever seen him decisive and certain. Gathering her thoughts, Katie managed to ask, “What do you want Marcus?”

“I want to talk to you, Katie. Please, I’m sorry I know I’ve hurt you and I wanted to talk to you, to explain” he pleaded, “Please just talk to me.” Katie could see people starting to stop and watch the little scene developing and the last thing she wanted was to play it out in front of the whole village. Quickly she realised she needed to get Marcus away from the marquee. Putting on her best smile, as if delighted to see him, she said brightly, “Marcus, sorry, you surprised me. I’m so happy to see you after all this time. I’m due a break; let’s take a walk round the green. We’ve so much to talk about.” And with that she put down
the quiche, threw off her apron and grabbed Marcus’s hand and almost ran out of the marquee with him as if she couldn’t wait to be alone with him. At least that’s how it
appear
ed to Ben, who Katie hadn’t seen, as he had
arrived
in the back of the kitchen just in time to see her gaily throw off her apron and grab Marcus
by the hand
and run out with him. Nor did Katie see the look of sheer pain etched on his face as walked through the marquee, got into his van and drove away.