The Easter Egg Hunt – VII

Since Ben and Joss Beckett took over The Fair Maid and Falcon, they have had to deal with ghosts, gangsters and well dodgy goings-on. Despite that they have their own family of twin daughters and dogs, and a fabulous ‘found family’ of friends. Life seems to be going well when…

It was early summer and the weather took it into its head to be idyllic, which meant the pub was heaving from opening time until we shoved the last customer out into the the starlit car park and locked the door. Between the office, care of my children, and pinch hitting in the kitchen, I had no time to think about disaffected Romany daughters or the possible ramifications of a feud between the Lovell and Proudly clans. The purchase of the orchard and the other bits of land went through more or less on the nod, with my only input being the transfer of twenty-five thousand pounds and my signature alongside Ben’s on a sheaf of documents our solicitor was kind enough to bring to us. Ben and I waved his expensively tailored figure farewell as he exited the car park in his shiny Volvo. I looked up at Ben’s face to see him wearing his confused look.
“What’s up love?”
“Larry the Law Wrangler. Dresses like a rabid Tory. Drives that exceedingly boring Swedish monstrosity like your maiden aunt if you had one. But…”
“But he’s further out on the political left than you or me could ever be, and spends his weekend thrashing a souped up Beamer up and down vertical slopes.”
“Something like that. I mean, how come?”
“Necessity Benny. He couldn’t be a successful solicitor in rural Hampshire if he looked, or acted like his true self. So Monday through Friday he puts on his work face and gets on with the job.”
“That makes so much sense. Like a uniform. Like me not wearing my favourite trackies with a hole in the arse, and your designer threads and carefully assembled image.”
“Pretty much.”
“Why have I never thought about it before?”
“Mostly because you rarely deal with him. It’s my job.”
“That’s a truth too. I think today is the longest conversation I’ve ever had with him. Wouldn’t have had that if he hadn’t brought the papers for us to sign.” He paused and scratched his chin. “Come to think of it, why’d he do that?”
I had to laugh. “Because he likes our food. And because he can pig out and still tell himself he only had tapas for lunch.”
Work called, but at least we went back to the grindstone laughing.
With the month of June drawing to a breathless end, the pub continued to be frantically busy, but our hard-worked ‘family’ at last achieved a bit of a break in the form of an influx of students from the local catering college. We have always taken youngsters on work placements and apprenticeships, and it has also been our practice to beef up the brigade with the best among them during the Easter, summer and Christmas breaks.
We originally decided on a dozen, six in the kitchens and six front of house, but the mad busyness encouraged me to add in three more in the tapas kitchen. To my relief, and that of all the pub staff, the kids bedded in well and everyone got a bit of breathing space. Within a week I was able to lift my head and look about me.
Once I had breathed for a couple of days I got a sinking feeling I was missing something. When it hit me I was ashamed to admit, even to myself, that I hadn’t given a thought to the Ice Cream Parlour/American Diner we had created in one of the barns to the side of the main building. It was currently only open weekends and Bank Holidays, and was under Morgan’s management. Although I had complete faith in her vision and her ability, I thought I should at least see show an interest.
It was Friday, and bidding fair to be another scorcher, so I stuck my head into the kitchen just to make sure there were no problems.
“Everything okay?”
Neil smiled happily and gave me a thumbs up.
“All present and correct, and we’ll even have time for breakfast before the starving hordes arrive.”
“Where Morgan?”
“Sorting the ice cream parlour for tomorrow.”
“I’ll pop along and see her. I’ve got my phone and the office won’t run away.”
Neil snorted and I went, laughing. The back door to the ice cream parlour leads onto the private garden and this morning it was wide open, letting in a warm wind from the forest.
Morgan was busily restocking the soft drinks bar. She grinned at me.
“Come to see how we’re doing?”
“I have. I’m feeling guilty that I haven’t been offering any support. Plus I just noticed that everywhere else has extra staff, but you haven’t.”
“No. But we don’t need anybody.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am. Look Joss, we’re as busy as we can handle in this space and we manage just fine. Any more bodies back here and we’d just get in each other’s way.”
I looked around me and could see the justice in what she said. The diner had a dozen booths with seating, a dozen tall tables where people had to stand to eat, and a dozen stools at the bar. Even at full capacity, I could understand how two waitresses, a bar person, and two in the kitchen could perfectly manage. I nodded.
“Is there anything you need then?”
”Yes. Maybe. Perhaps. If it’s not running before we learn to walk, we’d like to take over the little storeroom beyond that door. Not to put any more tables in, but as a takeaway window for ice-creams and stuff.”
That seemed to me to be an eminently sensible idea and I nodded. “That’s a good notion. But you will need someone to staff it.”
“We will. And we’ll have to look at managing days off and stuff when we increase the opening hours for the summer holidays.”
“You will indeed.” I grinned into her eyes. “So tell me what you have in mind and I’ll see if it’s doable.”
She bent down to pick up her tablet from under the counter.
“Joss,” she whispered, “don’t look now but there’s a man outside the window staring in.”

There will be more from Joss, Ben and their friends, courtesy of Jane Jago, next week, or you can catch up with their earlier adventures in Who Put Her In and Who Pulled Her Out.