The Village Newcomers by Rebecca Shaw Read Free Book Online Page B

being all classical. You’ll need bawdy songs to get them going. Perhaps the odd sentimental love song to twang the heart-strings . . . Elizabethan musical instruments: flute, hurdy-gurdy, sackbut, recorder, lute, drums, virginals . . . Count me in.’
     
    They shook hands on it. ‘I’ll try to get back to you in a week with something concrete,’ Gilbert added. ‘I have some chaps in mind who’d be delighted to earn a crust getting their music in the public eye. Can’t be mean with the wages, though. We must get the best of the best. Second-rate would be no good at all in this place, now would it?’
     
    ‘Know something?’
     
    ‘What?’
     
    ‘You’re in the wrong job, Gilbert.’
     
    Gilbert laughed. ‘Oh no I’m not. The Barclays are the ones who’ve bought Glebe House from the Neals?’
     
    Jimbo nodded.
     
    ‘What are they like?’
     
    ‘Plenty of money, no taste, but kindly people, determined to make their mark in the village. All your children OK?’
     
    ‘Fighting fit, thanks, and lovelier by the day. Be seeing you.’
     
    Gilbert roared away in his dilapidated estate car, his head full of ideas for the banquets and longing to get down to the nitty-gritty of choosing the songs, finding the instrumentalists and becoming closely involved. Louise would love helping, because organization was her forte, as she’d proved with the upbringing of their five children. God! What an exciting bunch they were.
     
     
    The table with the old wooden settle in the bar of the Royal Oak was fully occupied by the usual crowd that evening. Willie Biggs had got in the first round and was handing the drinks out to Dottie, Sylvia, Jimmy, Vera and Don, before taking the first sip that day of his favourite home-brew.
     
    ‘You know, I thought old Bryn’s home-brew was good but I do believe that Dicky’s is better. Bucks me up no end, it does.’
     
    ‘Well,’ said Don, ‘and how’s this magnificent mower that we’ve all heard about? Still driving you mad?’
     
    Sylvia got in a reply before Willie had a chance to grumble about it. ‘Zack’s doing an almighty good job with it. The churchyard’s never looked better and we’ve to be grateful for it. Even Willie agrees he’s making good use of it, don’t you, Willie?’
     
    He had to agree. ‘Yes, I have to admit that, and he doesn’t use it on and on like he did that first week. What’s more, the shed’s good. On the big side but at least Zack can get all his tools in there, as well as a chair and a little stove for making tea. Talk about all mod cons! I was in there yesterday having a cup of tea with him. In the winter it’ll be real cosy.’
     
    ‘You’ll be fancying your job back if you go on like this,’ Jimmy suggested, knowing full well that Willie wouldn’t.
     
    ‘No, thanks. I’m too busy to have a job.’ There was a mysterious air about Willie when he said that, and Vera couldn’t resist asking him what on earth he found to do all day to keep him too busy.
     
    ‘Surprised no one’s seen me at it.’
     
    ‘At it? At what?’
     
    ‘Got myself a hobby.’
     
    They were agog to hear what hobby he’d found at his age.
     
    ‘Well, I went to the tip with some gardening stuff, clearing up for the winter, yer know, and in that re-sale bit along the end wall I found one of them metal detectors. All complete and singing like a bird when I tried it on that heap of scrap metal. So I bought it for a song and . . .’ He paused for effect.
     
    ‘Yes?’
     
    ‘Yesterday I found three pound coins in a plastic bag in our garden, about five inches down from the top. Nothing to do with Sylvia and me, and we don’t know how they came to be there.’
     
    ‘Ones you can’t use?’
     
    ‘No, new. Anyway, it’s helped to pay for your drinks tonight. Heard the latest news?’
     
    His answer was a chorus of curious no’s and a coming together of heads all the better to hear.
     
    Willie glanced round to see if anyone was