Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound Chapter 12

Gideon decided that he was going to take me home, no matter how much protesting from me. This didn't really work out that well as Meg had decided that she was going to lay on my feet. I couldn't move until she decided to, and from the way she looked it was not going to be soon.

'I won't take no for and answer,' he insisted as he pulled Meg from my feet who looked like she would rather stay there and sleep. Having no choice but to concede to him I followed him to his land rover. The inside was awful brown leather seats as he opened the door to let me in. At least he knew how to be a gentleman I thought after thinking about my last accident with his hound.

As he started the engine I decided to put on the radio, only to find that it was broken. Oh, dear I thought now I had to deal with the arrogant swine sat next to me. He proved me right when he decided that he was going to converse with me.

'Theo tells me that you're a fashion designer.'

'Hmm,' I muttered noncommittally wishing that his brother had kept his mouth shut.

'You ever thought of being one down here?' Startled over his change of pace I mulled over what he had just said. To be honest I had only moved to London to escape my overbearing parents. It wasn't always sunshine and daises about being an only child. Sure, you didn't have to have and annoying brother or sister but it got lonely sometimes.

'I'm only here for the funeral and then I have to go back to London. My boss wants be back as soon as possible.' My mood plummeted, and Meg who seemed to have sensed it pressed her wet nose against my arm as she tried to comfort me. She seemed to have come to a conclusion that I was a friend. I had come to the same conclusion that I liked her, but I wasn't going to tell her owner anytime soon.

'That's a shame, we could do with someone like you.' He suddenly said for once serious, after a while of silence.

'We're here.' We sat for a while in silence before he jogged around to my side and helped me out the car. It was at times like these I really wanted my dad as he always helped me in the right direction.

'It'll be alright.' Gideon said as he hauled me in for a hug. The hug made me want to cry. It had been so long since someone had just held me that I got emotional. What I didn't know was if he was referring to dad's funeral or about my job in London.

With this in mind I walked into the bungalow as Gideon watched from his car. Mum was still awake watching reruns of Corination street so I decided against butting in. As I headed to my bedroom the phone rang. With trepidation, in case it was my boss, I decided to answer it which turned out to be a good thing because on the other end was Matthew.

'I rang earlier but got your mum. Is tomorrow evening for dinner at the pub alright?'

'Sure, but you would have to pick me up.' I still hadn't got my car so had to rely on being picked up or walking everywhere.

'See you then.' With this in mind I was of to bed where I dreamt of the three men that I had seemed to have got tangled up with. For having sworn of men I was doing rather well...

The morning dawned to be a wash out as rain pelted down which meant that I had to stay inside and suffer mum. She had left the cat inside after bemoaning that she didn't want poor Tibbles to get wet. Tibbles spent the morning up by the window sill looking so smug that I wanted to knock her down from her perch. We had lunch which turned out to be a ham salad as we didn't have any bread, or in mum's case rice cakes. I made a mental note to get out to the co-op this time with a disguise after the whole pussy galore saga.

By the afternoon it was still raining so we were forced to don our wet weather gear, including my trusty umbrella that I had for years before bracing the weather as we trudged into town. The town was rather empty which meant that the Brown Cow wasn't over run with customers. David met us at the door and showed us to a back room where several platters of cakes and sandwiches were spread out upon a large trestle table.

'These look lovely,' I praised as I surveyed the goodies before me.

'Well don't stop me from letting you sample my goods,' He joked. I understood his innuendo quite well but decided that it was best if I didn't mention anything as I watched mum pile her plate up with food.

'I can't have this,' mum grouched waving the plate in front of him. I wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't gone cross eyed.

'Mum just try a little bit; it won't harm you!'

'Harm me! Of course, it will harm me. The last time I had tomatoes I was on the toilet with the squits for a week.' Feeling mortified at mum I marched her out of the room before letting rip on her.

'Mother, look eating one mouthful has never harmed you and it won't now. We do not need to hear your toilet habits either!'

'But...'

'If it is such a big deal ask if he can do dietary requirements!' With my piece said I stormed back into the room.

'Sorry about that,' I apologised feeling like a fool as he looked at me with a bemused expression on his face.

'No worries, I'm presuming that you would like some dietary requirements in place,' he said as mum came back into the room looking like a chastised puppy.

'Oh, that would be wonderful!' mum gushed perking up the minute she heard his preposition.

'He's such a wonderful man isn't he Cara?' Kill me now I thought thinking that I would have to put up with her for a while yet as we hadn't even got to the sandwiches yet.

'What sort of requirements?' now you've put your foot in it I thought as I knew from experience that apparently there wasn't much food mum could eat or so the doctor said.

'Well I can't have anything with citric acid as it plays my stomach up, and I can't have brown bread as it gives me a migraine.'

I'll give you a migraine in a minute I thought then I wouldn't have to deal with your ridiculous dietary requirements. I had no clue why mum said that she couldn't have brown bread as I had seen her eat it before without any negative side effects. I thought that brown bread was better than white but I suppose that mum had been caught up in another fad or had been taken for a ride by one of these scam people.

'Why don't you write down your requirements so that it will help him?' I put out trying to avoid David being subjected to an hourly dose of what I cannot eat.

Mum agreed with me a wrote it down on the back of her last receipt which happened to be the Brown Cow. It was painful watching her write which had me wanting to snatch it up to do it myself, but I decided that I would let her do it this once.

'I must go I've got to go and feed Tibbie,' she exclaimed as she put on her gear before waddling like a duck out of the café. It was certainly duck weather I thought morosely as I saw that it had still not stopped raining. For once I felt joy that mum owned a cat as I was now alone with David without the interference of mum nosing in on my own business.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with David trying the various different cakes that I found he had made himself. He was certainly a good cook I thought. I was quite partial to his Victoria sandwich.

'I'm really sorry about mum,' I apologised again as he saw me out of the shop feeling the need to get myself on his good side as he was sorting out the wake for us.

'No problem, anytime you want to talk about anything you know where to find me,' he assured me. I was sure that he would be seeing be soon even if it was because I had decided to escape mum once again.

I wondered back home after stopping into the co-op to get some bread and some other amenities. No, I wasn't recognised, although I did avoid the cat feed isle just to be on the safe side. As the bungalow came into sight, I thought of my upcoming date with Mr grocer that evening.