Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage by Milly Johnson Page B

assaulted me.’ Interesting that Antonia didn’t deny the charge levelled at her, thought Viv.
    ‘I saw you raise that crop as well, young lady.’ Geraldine stabbed her finger at Antonia.
    Nicholas Leighton was still wiping scummy water off his arm and chuntering on to the man with the clipboard. Antonia stomped off to catch her horse and grabbed its reins, too hard for Viv’s liking. Retrieving her riding hat, she mounted effortlessly and trotted off as glamorously as her dripping wet hair and clothes would allow.
    Nicholas clicked his fingers at Mr Clipboard and pointed to his car; it was a silent and arrogant command that their business had concluded. Then he turned back to Viv and Geraldine, his head swinging from one to the other as he addressed them in turn.
    ‘Tell Merlo that he needs to start packing. I’ll have those bulldozers onto this shithole the minute –
the very minute –
that the bailiffs have ejected you. If necessary, I’ll have the RSPCA here to remove the animals. Protest all you like but I
will
have you dragged out and this place
will
be demolished.’
    He took a step towards Geraldine and glared into her face. ‘And after what she did to my daughter this morning’ – he gave Viv a brief but murderous glance – ‘you can tell Merlo that he will shortly be receiving a letter from my solicitor to cancel the offer of a residence.’
    ‘He’s already told you to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine so I doubt he’ll be bothered,
Mr
Leighton,’ Geraldine shot back.
    And with that, Leighton and his expensive boots disappeared into the silver Range Rover and he set off at such a pace that his wheels spat earth behind him. The man in the clipboard followed at a more sedate pace in his car.
    ‘Oh Geraldine, I am so sorry,’ said Viv. ‘I don’t know how . . . why . . . I just saw her crop . . .’
    Geraldine put her arm around Viv, who was now on the brink of tears.
    ‘Don’t you worry, my lovely,’ she said. ‘Heath was never going to take his hand-out offer. He’d sooner die.’ She laughed. ‘Oh, I wish I’d had that on camera. It all happened so fast. Come on in and let’s have that pie if it isn’t burned to a cinder. And thank you, Viv.’
    ‘Thanks? What for? He was furious. Why on earth did I do that?’
    ‘Thank you from Pilot, because he can’t tell you himself, can he, but she would have hit him.’
    Big, gentle Pilot pushed his wet nose into Viv’s hand with expert timing. It was as if he’d said thank you himself after all.

Chapter 13
    The next morning, Viv walked up to the shop for some more teabags. Armstrong had rung, nearly crying, to say that he wouldn’t be able to take Pilot out because he had a stomach ache and his mother was making him stay at home. So Viv slipped the lead on him and took the big dog out with her.
    ‘Oh, great,’ said Viv as there on the hill, atop that beautiful black horse, was Miss Antonia Leighton herself. She was talking to someone in a dusty 4x4 pulling a horse-box behind it.
    Viv could feel Antonia’s eyes boring into her as she passed and willed her cheeks not to colour. Whoever was in the 4x4 was looking at her too, she could see someone behind the steering wheel.
Probably one of Daddy’s posh friends
, Viv thought. She didn’t realise she had been holding her breath until she turned the corner and her lungs caved in to the pressure.
    From the last conversation she’d had with Geraldine, Viv presumed that it was Mr Wayne who was sitting behind the counter in Ironmist Stores in a wheelchair with a blanket tucked over his knees. He viewed her suspiciously as she swept her eyes along the shelves looking for some tempting biscuits.
    ‘She’s working at the sanctuary,’ she heard Mr Mark tell him, in a ridiculously ineffective attempt at a whisper. ‘She’s a very nice girl. Geraldine said so.’
    Viv tried not to smile as she walked up to the counter. Mr Wayne gave her a big friendly smile now that she had passed