A Springtime Affair: An utterly gorgeous feel-good romance

Helena and Jago were making good progress on repointing the wall of the barn where Helena hoped to put her loom. They were up separate ladders on separate scaffolding towers putting lime mortar between tiny stone bricks. They’d been doing it for a couple of hours.

‘It’s kind of you to do this when you said you hadn’t got time,’ said Helena.

‘It was, but now I’m stiff and cold and want to stop,’ Jago replied. ‘Shall we call it a day?’

‘I feel I should press on but if you’re fed up you could go and make us some tea?’

‘OK. I have a few phone calls to catch up on. If you don’t mind carrying on on your own?’

‘Of course not. Hand me up the radio so I can choose my channel and I’ll be fine.’

Helena found something on Radio 4 to listen to – she needed talking not music if she was going to be doing something fairly mindless on her own – and carried on. Eventually she’d done everything she could without moving the scaffolding and climbed down. She was ready to call it a day now too and, having sorted out her equipment, went to find Jago.

‘Oh? Are you knocking off?’ he said. ‘I was just coming in with tea and snacks.’

‘I’ve done all I could reach. It’s just your corner now.’ She pulled out a chair and plonked herself down at the table. ‘How soon can I move my loom in?’

‘If you don’t mind being in a bit of a building site, whenever. The wall will have to be plastered. You’ll see that I took what you said about it looking like a prison to heart.’ He paused. ‘And the plaster will have to dry, before I can think about decorating. But that will take ages. If you don’t mind a bit of work going on around you, we can put it in next week.’

‘I don’t mind and its partly my fault.’ Helena took a piece of cheese on toast. ‘This is lovely!’

‘You deserve something nice. You’ve been working hard.’

‘Purely for my own ends,’ said Helena. She smiled, and then was embarrassed in case he read more than just heartfelt gratitude into the smile. ‘It’s going to be a wonderful space for a loom. Those huge doors looking out into the courtyard will make it magical in summer.’

She sighed happily. One of the joys of getting to know Jago so well while they pointed his wall together was that he now knew how to make her perfect cup of tea. ‘Although of course when you have a buyer for it I’ll have to find yet another home for my loom.’

He smiled. ‘I’m sure I can help you sort something out.’

‘Property developer that you are – you’ve always got some barn or other to do up.’ She patted his hand to make sure he knew she wasn’t having a go at him. He was a property developer but definitely one of the good guys.

He put his hand on top of hers. ‘Shall we call the cheese on toast a starter? Shall I cook you supper? Nothing fancy. Only with what I happen to have in the fridge and the cupboard, of course.’

‘I’ll go and get what I’ve got in my fridge. There’s some chorizo and some lovely little tomatoes.’

‘Excellent!’

On the way back to her studio Helena found herself thinking about her mother and Leo. He had escorted her to lovely places and her mother seemed to really like him. But would he make her happy in the long term? She’d feel a lot less worried when she’d found out why he’d been driving so fast that day, when he’d nearly killed her and her mother.

She wasn’t going to ask Jago what he’d managed to discover though, not tonight. Tonight she was just going to have a nice meal and a couple of glasses of wine with a man who threatened to become more than just a good friend in her heart. Which was fine, as long as no one ever found out about the heart bit.

Gilly was a bit taken aback by how quickly William’s aunts got their act together to arrange their mini-coach tour. She had hardly had time to change the sheets on their beds before Daphne was on the phone looking for dates.

‘We can come next weekend, if you could have us,’ Daphne said. ‘And have supper with you, too.’

Gilly looked at the diary and decided she could do that if she moved the one booking she had to her bed-and-breakfast friend.

‘Um – I wouldn’t be able to cook dinner if I was showing you the sights. Maybe—’

‘Yes, you would!’ said Daphne, not to be gainsaid. ‘Just do a casserole and put it in the range cooker. You could serve it with rice. I find that packet rice you put in the microwave very easy.’

Gilly couldn’t help smiling. Daphne was obviously one of those people who was used to getting their own way. ‘Well, it couldn’t be an extensive tour of the Cotswolds …’

‘We wouldn’t want that. We’re too old for too much culture. So we can come? Oh,’ Daphne added, ‘and we think William should drive. And we need a minibus so we have plenty of room. Now that’s sorted, I must go. See you soon!’

The moment Daphne had said goodbye Gilly rang William.

‘William!’ she said as soon as she was through. ‘I think Daphne is being a bit unreasonable!’

‘Only a bit? She must be on some new medication.’

Gilly laughed. ‘Seriously! She wants you to drive a minibus round the country for her and the rest of the gang.’ She paused, distracted. ‘Is there a collective noun for aunts, do you think?’

‘I think in this case it would be a Daphne of aunts,’ said William. ‘But don’t worry, she did warn me and I’m perfectly happy to do it.’

‘I’d drive them myself only I’m not entirely sure I’d be up to it.’

‘Also, I don’t think you could be a proper tour guide if you were wrestling a large vehicle down small lanes, while wrangling that crew of reprobates. I certainly couldn’t do both.’

‘That is really sweet of you. Your Daphne of aunts don’t know how lucky they are having a nephew like you.’

‘I think they do,’ said William. ‘And to be fair, only two of them are my actual aunts.’

‘Well, they want dinner afterwards so I do hope you’ll join us. In fact, I’ll channel my inner Daphne and insist that you do.’

‘But will you want to cook dinner after being with them all day? Wouldn’t you rather I booked us all in at the George?’

‘Oh no. Daphne told me that I could do a casserole and that microwave rice is very easy, so not a problem at all.’

William laughed. ‘In which case, I’d be delighted to accept. You will charge them a handsome amount, won’t you?’

Gilly didn’t answer. She hadn’t had a chance to work out how much to charge but her fondness for the ladies would have made her lenient.

Possibly knowing her better than she realised he went on, ‘I insist that you do! And you can’t hide anything from me, you know.’

Gilly laughed. ‘Oh, OK! I know my dinners are the “added extra” that boosts my profit.’

‘My work has not been in vain. See you on Saturday.’