Vets in Love by Cathy Woodman Read Free Book Online Page A

Willow.’
    I want the best for my mum too, and I spend the rest of the evening, having showered and eaten, half reading a book and half waiting for her texts. I’m like a mother fretting about her teenage daughter, which is ironic, considering that’s how she used to be with me, except that fourteen or fifteen years ago I didn’t have a mobile phone. I can now understand how anxious she must have felt, and I can also see that she must have beenworried sick over my sister when she disappeared at sixteen, running away with a man twice her age.
    She texts me three times in total, the final one at midnight, saying ‘Home safely, lol Mumx Ring me if you are awake.’
    I smile to myself. She wants to tell me all about it, so it was either a complete disaster or a raving success. I call her.
    ‘Did you get my texts?’ she says.
    ‘Of course I did, thank you.’
    ‘It would have been quicker to phone you each time – I’m all fingers and thumbs when I’m texting – but I thought that would be just too embarrassing.’
    ‘It would help if you used proper text-speak, not your archaic version. How many times have I told you “lol” means “laugh out loud”, not “lots of love”? Oh, never mind. How was the date?’
    ‘He’s lovely,’ she says with a giggle. ‘He has a tan – a natural one – and he looks more like Roger Moore as 007 than an Oompa-Loompa.’
    ‘That’s a relief,’ I say lightly. ‘Does he drive an Aston Martin?’
    ‘Um, no …’
    ‘Are you going to enlighten me?’ I say, sensing that she’s holding something back. ‘Let me guess, he’s a farmer so he turned up at the pub in his tractor or his combine harvester?’
    ‘It’s better than that, darling. He arrived with a pony and trap – he’s broken the pony to drive quite recently and added lights and reflectors to the harness and cart. It’s wonderful.’
    ‘What did he do with the pony?’
    ‘He unhitched her from the trap and tethered her on the verge outside the pub. She’s a chunky little black cob called Beauty with the longest mane and thickest tail you’ve ever seen, the polar opposite of Willow. Everyone loves her.’
    ‘I suppose it’s one way to cut back on the cost of petrol. Did he pay for the drinks?’ I continue, wanting to know if he’s tight-fisted and only after my mum for her money.
    ‘He paid for everything,’ Mum says sharply, and I apologise for having a suspicious mind. ‘I know he sounds too good to be true, but I think he’s completely genuine, a real country gentleman.’
    ‘Do you have much in common? I mean, did the conversation flow?’
    ‘Nicci, I wish you’d get a life,’ Mum teases, ‘then you wouldn’t have all this time to worry about mine. Now, before you ask, I’m seeing him again.’
    ‘You will text me? Same rules apply.’
    ‘Goodnight, Nicci.’
    ‘Goodnight, Mum.’

Chapter Four
    Horsepower
    ‘ ARE YOU SURE you’ve got everything?’ Mum asks as we set out in the lorry early on a Saturday morning in the middle of June.
    ‘Isn’t it your job to check, as unpaid groom?’ I say cheekily.
    I love driving the lorry. I have a great view of the countryside, looking over the hedgerows filled with flowers to the panoramic Devon hills bathed in pale sunlight. We pass a herd of black and white cows grazing in a field. Some are chewing the cud as if pondering the meaning of life.
    ‘I wonder what those cows are thinking about,’ I say. ‘I mean, what do they do all day?’
    ‘Nicci, what an odd thing to say.’
    ‘Well, it is a bit of a mystery, isn’t it?’ I look briefly at my mother’s face. Her eyes are downcast, her lips compressed into a thin straight line, and I know what – or who – she’s thinking about. My mother, Kathryn,is resilient and usually quietly content with life. She used to event herself until she got married and had a family. She makes an excellent groom, and is also one of those annoying people who manage to stay clean and tidy when