The Bronze Lady (Woodford Antiques Mystery Book 2) (23 page)

Chapter 57

Thursday 10
th
March, 8.07pm

Rebecca was pleased to spot Christine and Dave as soon as she walked through the pub door, sitting on their own at a table next to the log fire, which was burning brightly to combat the miserable drizzly rain outside even though the temperature was relatively warm.

‘Oh good, I am glad I got here before him. I nearly bottled out I was getting so nervous!’

‘Hi, Rebecca! You look wonderful! You haven’t changed a bit!’ Rebecca jumped and felt her face burn with embarrassment as a man, who had to be Benjamin, put the tray of drinks he had been collecting from the bar down on the table and enveloped her in a big hug.

‘Oh, hi, you too, er, um, Benjamin,’ she stumbled backwards as she tried to extricate herself from his arms, and remove her coat, and sit down, all in one movement.

Wow.

He was gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. Rebecca felt her breath had been taken away. The sweet and charming boy had turned into a tall, handsome man with a twinkle in his eye, an easy smile, and with a body he clearly worked hard to keep fit.

Rebecca suddenly realised everyone was looking at her as though waiting for her to speak. Seeing her confusion Benjamin repeated his question.

‘Rebecca? Can I get you a drink? What would you like?’

‘Oh yes please,’ she said, aware she was gushing and smiling too wide but seemingly unable to stop. ‘Um, what are you drinking Christine?’

Christine was smiling at her friend’s reaction to the sight of Benjamin, and almost didn’t hear her question. ‘Oh, a slimline tonic. I’m driving. I can give you a lift home if you want to have a couple of drinks Rebecca? We can sort out retrieving your car from here tomorrow if you like?’

Rebecca thought this was an excellent idea. She didn’t drink very much, but right at that moment a large glass of red wine would be perfect.

‘Thank you Christine, that would be very kind of you, yes please.’ She turned back to look up at Benjamin, who was waiting patiently for her answer. ‘Thank you Benjamin, I would love a glass of red please.’

While he was up at the bar ordering her drink Rebecca took the opportunity to quickly quiz Christine about all the things she wanted to know.

‘Is he married?’

‘No.’

‘In a relationship with anyone?’

‘No.’

‘Gay?’

‘No.’

‘Why is he single?’

‘Here you are, one glass of red. I ordered you a large one, and thought we could do with some crisps too.’ Damn, was the man wearing stealth shoes or something? Rebecca tried to subtly look down at his feet, but when she saw the size of them she involuntarily started to think about the rumoured correlation between the size of a man’s feet and the .... ‘Have you dropped something?’ he asked, looking down at the floor.

Rebecca jumped and knocked over her wine glass. It smashed and the red wine flowed across the table and onto everyone else’s laps. Only she was unscathed by the staining liquid. As they all tried to leap to their feet and escape the seemingly never-ending cascade from the table Rebecca also stood and tried to pull the table away from them, succeeding in digging a large piece of broken glass into her hand as she did. She snatched her hand up to see if any of the glass had become lodged in there, but there was so much blood she couldn’t see any. It was hard to tell what was blood and what was wine. Her vision blurred, and she fainted.

Tom Higston was already on his way over to the table with roll of paper towels, a damp cloth and a dustpan and brush for the glass when he saw Rebecca keel over, and he called over his shoulder for Sarah to come and help. Dave Truckell was instantly by her side, checking her airways and taking the opportunity to thoroughly peer at her hand and twisting it this way and that as he checked for glass before she regained consciousness. As a teacher his first aid training was up-to-date, although this was the first time in his life he had ever had to use it. By the time Sarah appeared with the pub’s First Aid box Rebecca was coming round and trying to sit up, but Dave wouldn’t let her put her right hand down and she needed it to push herself off the ground.

‘No, no,’ said Sarah soothingly. ‘Stay where you are while we clean this wound.’

Rebecca lay still while the mess she had created was cleaned up by other people, and her hand was quickly and efficiently cleaned and a pad was placed over the wound.

‘You need to go and have this checked at the hospital Rebecca,’ said Dave. ‘We can’t fix a bandage or plaster to it in case there is some glass in there.’

‘Come on,’ said Christine. ‘Let’s get you on your feet and I’ll drive you up to Swanwick. No,’ she said, turning to Dave and Benjamin as they prepared to come with them. ‘You two stay here and finish, er,’ as she saw their drinks had also gone over when Rebecca moved the table, and Tom had cleared all of the debris away ‘order yourselves more drinks, and then take yourselves home. We’ll be gone for the rest of the evening. Come on Rebecca. It’s your turn at Swanwick A&E tonight!’

Chapter 58

Friday 11
th
March, 9.30am

Rebecca awkwardly unlocked the big gothic-style front door to Black’s Auctions with her left-hand. As a right-handed person this was something she had never attempted to do before, and resolved that from now on she would master the art of doing everything she could do with her right hand with her left one. She thought back to her mother’s fear in the hospital about not being able to clean her teeth, and felt badly for having pooh poohed her worries. At least Rebecca used an electric toothbrush, although even that had been tricky to turn on and then manipulate around her teeth as required.

Her right hand was swathed in bandages and tucked into a scarf which was looped around her neck. It was fortunate that Dave had insisted she went to have her hand checked for glass at the accident and emergency department because the nurse had removed three broken pieces. It was well after midnight by the time she and Christine arrived back at Rebecca’s home, and they stayed up talking over cups of tea and slices of buttered toast for another couple of hours.

Rebecca could not stop talking about Benjamin. Even though she had seen him for less than five minutes, and hadn’t stayed long enough to hold a conversation with him, she was smitten. At first Christine had assumed it was shock which was giving Rebecca verbal diarrhoea all the way to the hospital, but after three hours when she was STILL going on about him, despite the pain she must have been in from the original accident and subsequent surgical procedures required to remove the embedded glass, Christine decided Rebecca was experiencing her first crush.

She had mentionitis.

Every subject Christine tried to steer them towards was turned back to Benjamin. By the time Christine eventually called it a night Rebecca had persuaded her to set her up with a facebook account, just so she could be ‘Friends’ with Benjamin. Rebecca had never felt the need to be on facebook, or any other social media platform, but once Christine created her profile Rebecca was astonished to find many of the people she interacted with on a daily or weekly basis were also on there, and she was engrossed in seeing all their updates and photographs.

But now Rebecca was regretting the lost hours of sleep, and her hand was throbbing. She had to ask her son Nicholas to drive her into work because she couldn’t hold the steering wheel of her car. And now that the euphoria of being in the, albeit brief, company of a man who stimulated her senses so dramatically had worn off she was exhausted. And embarrassed. Twice he must have heard her talking about him. And then she tipped the wine he bought her all over him, and Christine, and Dave. And then she fainted at his feet. His feet. The pain shooting through her hand where she had absent-mindedly removed her arm from the fancy sling and picked up the kettle to fill it from the tap stopped that daydream in its tracks. As she blinked the automatically produced pain-response tears from her eyes she found herself smiling. There was poor Paul stuck at home with all of his broken and battered body parts, and there was her with a small cut to her hand feeling sorry for herself. There is always someone worse off than you, Rebecca Williamson, she chided.

Picking the kettle up with her left hand and then having to put it down again so she could turn the cold tap on, before picking it up and filling it, she focused her thoughts on the day ahead. With Paul out of the building, life at Black’s Auctions had taken on a more professional air as his employees happily took the responsibility he usually carried on his shoulders onto theirs. Rebecca and Daniel would meet at a quarter to ten every morning and prepare themselves for a meeting with Paul in his cottage at ten o’clock, which usually lasted about twenty minutes as they checked what had been achieved the day before, what needed to be done that day, and chatted about anything else which was coming up that week and later in the month.

Daniel had started to train with Paul to take to the rostrum during some of the auctions, but he wasn’t confident or competent enough to do all of them, and so they were employing a roving auctioneer who was very good at her job but didn’t want to be tied to one place permanently. She had stepped in at short notice on the day after Tony’s assault on Paul, and was happy to continue until Paul was able to take back the reins. They were organising a specialist Railwayana sale for Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd March by which time Paul was aiming to be back in charge, but as all of the items had been accepted and catalogued before Tony had temporarily incapacitated Paul there was no need to postpone the sale, even if Paul wasn’t going to be healthy enough to run the auction.

As good as his staff were though, they didn’t have his antiques expert eye, and so while Paul was more or less house-bound Rebecca was trying to organise for all of the house clearances and home visits to value stock to be booked for the middle of April onwards where possible. If someone needed their service urgently then either Cliff could step in and work with Daniel, or they would have to see that customer take their business elsewhere. When you run your own business the work still has to be done, whether you are there or not.

By the time Daniel appeared Rebecca had succeeded in making a pot of tea for them both, turned her computer on, and was checking the emails. She had sensibly decided to leave voicemails for Daniel to listen to and make handwritten notes about. He was curious when he saw her predicament, but because she told him very little about the circumstances surrounding her injury, he soon lost interest and the pair of them were able to present Paul with the usual comprehensive list of information he needed to keep the business running relatively smoothly.

Rebecca continued working hard for the rest of the day, resolutely refusing to allow her thoughts to stray towards Benjamin Francis, and only three times involuntarily cringed as unbidden memories from the night before flashed through her brain.

By four o’clock she was ready to go home. Her right hand was aching, as was her left from doing far more than it was used to. Her mum came in through the door just as Rebecca was finishing proof-reading a page in one of the upcoming auction catalogues.

‘Hello darling,’ Jackie said as she bent over and kissed her daughter on the top of her head. Poor you. Although it is nice for me to drive you around for a change!’ she said brightly.

Rebecca laughed. Trust her mum to enjoy being the active capable one. ‘Thanks for coming to collect me mum, I am nearly ready.’

Christine had fully briefed Jackie about the events of the previous night, and had made her promise not to mention anything to Rebecca until she was ready to talk about it. Jackie was used to keeping quiet about her daughter’s business, but this was too exciting to keep to herself.

‘So,’ she said, casually, as Rebecca went around the office checking all the electric sockets were turned off, ‘Christine tells me you two were meeting up with an old school-friend when all this drama took place?’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ said Rebecca, knowing full well what was coming.

‘That nice boy, Benjamin wasn’t it? Who you were dating for a while?’

‘That’s him. I’m ready, shall we go? Come on, you go first, I’ll lock up after you.’ The auctions took place in the saleroom and warehouse, which had their own offices, so this part of the building was closed off to the general public, and any of the staff who needed access had their own keys.

As they walked around to where Jackie’s car was parked she tried again.

‘Are you going to be meeting up with him again?’

‘I doubt it,’ Rebecca really hoped this was not true, but she wasn’t going to start discussing it with her mum.

‘Oh? Why not?’

‘I don’t think I made a terribly good impression on him, mum.’

Jackie decided she had better leave the subject alone, because she had a nasty feeling if she continued to pursue it Rebecca would end up talking herself out of any possible future with Benjamin, whereas from what Christine had said at the moment Rebecca was very keen on seeing him again.

Chapter 59

Friday 11
th
March, 6.00pm

‘I’ll go!’ Rebecca called up the stairs to let her children know they didn’t need to come down and answer the door, knowing full well none of them would have stirred from their rooms anyway. She quickly glanced through the window as she passed to check who had rung the bell and stopped dead in her tracks.

Benjamin Francis was standing outside her house, with a bouquet of flowers!

Oh, god, what should she do?

What should she say? Apologise? Act as though nothing had happened? No, she could hardly do that. Throw her arms around him and give him a big snog? Yesssss, although having one arm in a sling would be a bit of a problem.

She opened the door to him.

‘Benjamin! What a lovely surprise.’

‘Hello Rebecca, these are for you,’ he said as he stepped forward and tried to hand the bouquet over to her, but with only one free hand she couldn’t take a good hold of the water-filled bag their stems were standing in, so he kept hold of them before another farce could play out. ‘I’ll carry them in for you, shall I?’ he suggested, and Rebecca gratefully stepped aside and ushered him in through the door.

‘The kitchen is this way,’ she gestured. ‘We can find a vase to put them in, although they do look very nice presented like this. Thank you ever so much, I don’t know when was the last time anyone bought me flowers!’

‘You are welcome. I came to see how you are? You didn’t look terribly well when I last saw you!’

‘Oh, no, I am so sorry. What a mess! Did you manage to get the red wine out of your clothes?’

‘Probably,’ he laughed. ‘Dave and I tried to clean up in the gents, and then when I got home I just threw everything in the washing machine. It is all probably still in there. Well, it is still in there because I haven’t taken it out, and mum won’t do my laundry when I come home to see them.’

‘I am sorry for spoiling your evening,’ said Rebecca.

‘Oh don’t worry about that! You were very entertaining,’ he said kindly. ‘Dave and I stayed for a couple of pints. I haven’t been out in Woodford for years, and don’t really know anybody, so now I know Dave Truckell and Sarah Handley and Tom Higston, thanks to you.’

The noise of an elephant coming down the stairs made them both turn to look into the hallway, as Michael jumped down the last two steps and skidded on the tiled floor in his socks.

‘Hello!’ he said cheerily to Benjamin as he came into the kitchen and headed for the fridge. ‘Do you want me to make dinner tonight Mum? I don’t think you can do much like that,’ he said nodding towards her hand.

‘Yes please, thanks darling,’ she said.

‘Are you staying for dinner?’ he asked Benjamin. ‘I’m Michael, by the way.’

‘Hello Michael-By-The-Way,’ teased Benjamin, ‘and I am Benjamin, an old school friend of your mum’s. So you are the singer in the family?’

‘Yes that’s right, how did you know?’

‘Your Aunty Christine told me all about you.’

‘Oh she’s not my aunt. We just call her Christine. But that was nice of her. Why did she tell you?’

‘Oh, she thought I might be interested.’

By now Michael had taken various ingredients for filling tortilla wraps out of the fridge, and was arranging everything on the work surfaces. ‘Are you staying for dinner?’ he asked again.

Benjamin looked at Rebecca, who nodded.

‘Yes, I am. Thank you.’ He smiled shyly at Rebecca. He had always fancied her at school, and had been overjoyed when the opportunity finally came up to ask her out and she said yes. But he knew now he had been too reticent about keeping her attention, and it wasn’t long before she had moved on. This time he felt as though he was being given a second chance, and he was damn well going to take it. ‘What are you making?’

‘Vegetable Tortillas!’ announced Michael.

‘Hmmh,’ said Benjamin. ‘I don’t want to rain on your parade but your mother may have some difficulty getting those to her mouth.’

‘Ha ha yes, I see your point!’ laughed Michael. ‘OK, how about vegetable curry Mum? I’ll chop the veggies up so you can eat it all with a spoon or a fork in your left hand?’

‘Perfect, thank you Michael,’ Rebecca smiled fondly at her son, and hitched herself up onto one of the breakfast bar stools. She watched as Michael gave Benjamin various jobs to do, and the pair of them prepared the family’s dinner together. Nicholas was out for the evening, but Charlotte soon appeared once cooking smells began to waft through the house. That evening Benjamin fitted into her family’s way of life in a way Cliff never had. Rebecca allowed herself to enjoy it, and by the time the evening came to an end her first impressions the evening before had formed into stronger feelings.

She saw him to the door, they briefly kissed each other on the cheek, and then he was gone. But Rebecca had their next date to look forward too, and this time she was going to buy herself something new to wear.