Birds Of A Feather Episode 34
When Paloma arrived back at the tea room after collecting Finn from school, she was met by Lisa, who gave her a beaming smile as she went in.
“You look like someone who’s been given good news,” Paloma remarked as she settled Finn with a cup of milk and a flapjack.
“The best.” Lisa nodded. “I’ve just seen Maggie and she says the job’s mine. Isn’t that great?”
“It certainly is.”
“To start as I mean to go on, I’ll do the afternoon milking. That way you can get Finn home early this evening.”
Finn looked at Paloma.
“I thought you said I could help with the goats this afternoon?”
“And so you can. Thanks for the offer, Lisa, but Finn and I have a date with a nanny, don’t we?”
During the drive back from school, Finn had been chattering away about the goats. Now he shrank back and the shuttered look returned to his eyes.
“I don’t want to see Nanny,” he said, reminding her of the negative little boy he’d been when they first met.
“Finn, a nanny is another name for a goat. A lady goat. I thought I’d explained that to you.”
He looked up, surprised.
“I thought . . .”
“Come on. The nannies are waiting for their tea.”
Finn followed her happily into the barn. He watched as the goats lined up for milking.
Only when the barn was filled with the thrum of the milking machines did Paloma return to the subject of nannies.
“Did you think I meant we were going to see a grandmother?” she asked gently.
“Your grandmother, maybe? The one you lived with before you came to live with Daddy?”
Finn’s cheeks went red, but he kept his head lowered.
“Why don’t you want to see your gran, Finn?”
“Because it was my fault,” he whispered.
Paloma saw a single tear land on the goat’s back.
“What was your fault?”
“Grandma became ill. Because I was too much.”
Paloma remembered how he’d flared at her the first time they met when she’d asked about his gran.
She released the goat and set up the next one. Only then did she continue the conversation.
“What do you mean? Too much of what?”
There was a long pause while he remained firmly focused on the goat.
He shrugged.
“Too much noise. Too much running around.”
“Who told you that?”
His voice was barely above a whisper.
“Grandad.”
Paloma kept her voice very level.
“Your grandad told you that you were too noisy?”
He nodded.
“Grandma was poorly. She was in her bed and I heard him tell Grandma. ‘That boy is too much for you’, then she cried.
“Grandma never cries, not even when she burned her hand getting a cake out of the oven. The next day Daddy brought me here.”
Finn voice began to shake.
“I haven’t been shouting or running around, or doing anything to make Daddy cross.
“Except when I broke that pot. I don’t want him to send me away, too.”
There was a spring in her step as Jess took Alfie for his walk. Maggie and Tom’s news had lifted her.
Her mood faltered when she got back and saw a police car outside her house.
Ben got out. At one time, the sight of him would have delighted her, but not now.
“I’ve been trying to call you,” he said.
“I’ve been walking the dog through the woods. I can’t get a signal up there. Is this a social call?”
“Business, I’m afraid. We’re looking for Sam Weston. I wondered if you had any idea of his whereabouts?”
She glared at him.
“Sam and Frank had nothing to do with those missing cattle. Why can’t you leave them alone?”
“You haven’t answered my question,” he said shortly.
“If he’s not in Ed’s van, I have no idea where he is.”
“Are you sure? No idea where he or Frank might be?”
She thought they might have gone back to Shauna’s, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.
“Are you prepared to give me a formal witness statement to say you saw Sam at Billington Grange yesterday?” he asked.
“Of course I am. I saw him at around eleven o’clock yesterday morning.”
“That’s all I need.” Ben closed his notebook.
“You mean you’re not looking for Sam any more?” Jess asked.
“We are,” Ben stated. “There was a burglary at Billington Grange yesterday and your statement puts Sam slap bang in the right place at the right time.”