Lost and Found on Foxglove Street (The Foxglove Street #9)

Chapter 6

6

Grace and Ryan climbed back into the car and set off for the boarding kennels, which were located a couple of miles north of Hamblehurst. Although Ryan chatted about their visit to the vet, commenting on the good news that at least Stanley was in decent health and would hopefully find his way back to his owner or to a new home if no one claimed him, Grace found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying.

What if no one came forward? What if no one was looking for the dog at all? How long would Stanley have to stay in the kennels, or in a rescue centre, before finding a new home? Grace had no idea how long such things might take.

It’s not your problem, she reminded herself as she turned off the main road and into the boarding kennels car park. Stanley isn’t your problem.

But Grace wasn’t sure she believed that.

And as they got out of the car and walked towards the boarding kennels, Grace wasn’t sure she wanted to believe it, either.

Her first glimpse of the kennels they’d come to sent icy tendrils of alarm straight through her.

The boarding facility comprised three rows of crumbling concrete kennels, from which arose the roar of frantic barking. Rusty metal door grilles on the kennel units made the place look like a prison, and even at a distance Grace could see—and smell—the poo and urine strewn across the kennel floors.

The dogs held within the kennels howled and barked, some of them racing around inside the confined spaces, others pressing their muzzles through the metal enclosures, while some simply huddled at the back of their kennel space on the plain plastic crates that passed for beds.

Overgrown pathways led between the kennel units and converged on a small dilapidated building with a faded sign on the heavy door that told visitors to press the buzzer for entry.

If Stanley had been nervous about his earlier visit to the veterinary surgery, he was almost beside himself now with panic. The little dog’s ears went flat and he started panting heavily as they approached what Grace assumed must be the reception office.

Ryan and Grace exchanged a look as she pressed the buzzer, and Stanley let out a whimper. As they waited for someone to let them inside, Grace watched a member of staff push a cart towards one of the kennel blocks, then open the grille door of the first kennel there. The woman removed a metal bowl of food from the cart and dumped it onto the concrete floor of the kennel. The dog inside the kennel, a small border collie, gulped down the food ravenously as soon as the bowl appeared.

The woman slammed and locked the kennel door and moved on to the next one, repeating the action to feed the next dog in line. She neither spoke to the dogs she was feeding nor interacted with them in any way. The woman wasn’t cruel, but her level of disinterest in the frantic dogs who swarmed her each time she opened a kennel door was disconcerting.

When one dog, a skinny little whippet, leapt in fright when the woman dropped the metal food bowl onto the concrete floor with a noisy crack , she barely even spared the animal a glance.

As Grace watched the woman continue with her feeding rounds, she tried to remind herself that these boarding kennels were operating as a business, and the staff probably didn’t have time to fuss over each and every dog whenever they were required to go inside the kennel areas. Still, something about the woman’s cold indifference made Grace ache for the dogs who were staying there.

A simple pat on the head or rub of the ears would surely have soothed the excitable creatures. They were social animals, after all, just like humans, and wanted only to be treated as such.

Grace noticed Ryan’s gaze shifting from the activity over by the kennel block and towards her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Pasting on a smile, Grace nodded. “Of course.”

The door to the reception building burst open just then, startling Stanley and sending him scurrying closer to Grace’s legs. As he pressed his little body against her, she realised he was trembling.

The woman who stood in the doorway looked to be in her late forties and had the raw-faced appearance of a person who was used to physical work outdoors. She wore grubby grey dungarees which were covered in dog hair, and heavy thick-soled boots, and offered a barely concealed frown in place of a welcome.

“Yes, how can I help?” she said abruptly, and Grace could smell the stale odour of instant coffee and cigarettes on her breath.

“We, uh, we’re here to hand over this stray dog,” Grace said, momentarily losing her words on account of the woman’s brusque manner. “I think the local dog warden might have phoned ahead to let you know we’d be coming?”

The woman’s eyes flicked between Grace and Ryan and the dog standing between them.

“Don’t know nothing about it,” the woman scowled. “But I’ve been out cleaning the kennels since I got here, haven’t I? So you’d better come in while I check the phone messages.”

Turning on her heel, the woman disappeared inside the building, leaving Grace no choice but to catch hold of the door in her wake before it swung shut in her face. As they stepped inside, she caught the look Ryan gave her, his expression as doubtful as hers about the ill-mannered woman they’d just met.

The squat building was as ugly inside as it was outside. Although it appeared to be clean enough, it was grimly run down, with scarred laminate flooring and walls that were long overdue a fresh lick of paint. A cracked plastic screen separated the tiny public space at the door from a small office at the back.

The woman who’d let them inside began rummaging through a towering pile of paperwork stacked beside an ancient computer, before letting out a world-weary sigh and lifting a phone handset and punching some buttons. Grace guessed she must be listening to answer messages left on the device, judging by the look on her face, a look that swiftly morphed from concentration to exasperation.

After a few moments, she dropped the phone handset back into the base unit with a sigh and bustled around the plastic screen to where Grace and Ryan stood with Stanley.

“The dog warden left a phone message about taking in this one,” she said, pointing to Stanley. “It’s not the way it’s meant to happen, the warden just phoning up and telling us what’s what, but he said he’d sort out the paperwork later, so I suppose I’ve got no choice.”

With another sigh, the woman held out a hand. “Give me his lead and I’ll put him into the temporary cell until we’ve got a free kennel.”

Grace blinked at the raw-faced woman. She was going to put Stanley into a cell?

Until now, she’d been telling herself not to jump to conclusions about these boarding kennels, based only on how things looked. She knew nothing about how such a place should be run, and while it might seem a bit dilapidated and the staff might appear brisk, that didn’t mean the animals weren’t being properly cared for.

But the very fact that this member of staff had said she’d put Stanley into a cell , temporary or otherwise, made Grace’s blood run cold in her veins.

And the fact that the woman just wasn’t very nice—was, in fact, downright unpleasant and rude—only hastened the words that Grace couldn’t help uttering next.

“Um, could you just give us a minute?” she said.

Instead of passing Stanley’s lead into the impatient woman’s outstretched hand, she instead gave it a soft tug and led the dog back outside the building. Ryan, to his credit, didn’t ask any questions and followed swiftly in her wake.

Outside in the car park, Grace looked down at Stanley, who appeared as relieved as she was to be away from the awful woman they’d just met. The dog was already attempting to return to the car in a bid to complete his escape.

“We can’t leave Stanley here,” Grace said to Ryan, hardly daring to look the man in the eye because he must surely think she had a screw loose by this point. “These kennels aren’t very nice. In fact, they’re awful! And that woman we just met was ghastly, and she said she’d put Stanley into a cell for goodness’ sake, and?—”

“I completely agree,” Ryan interrupted her tirade, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “We can’t leave him here. I don’t like this place either. If I owned a dog and had to board it somewhere, this would be the last place I’d choose. And although Stanley isn’t my dog, I still don’t feel right about leaving him here.”

Grace had been preparing to have to debate the matter with him, and was relieved they were on the same page.

“So, what should we do?” Grace asked, glancing down at Stanley, who was still straining on his lead and angling towards her parked car.

The door of the dilapidated office unit swung open and the woman they’d just been speaking to strode outside.

“Are you leaving that dog here, or what?” she barked out, an irritated frown creasing her forehead.

“Er, no we’ve, uh… something’s come up and we have to go,” Grace said, and turned towards her car with Stanley galloping ahead of her, his little legs whirring beneath him.

“Thanks, though!” Ryan called out to the woman and gave a wave goodbye.

This only seemed to irritate her further. “Idiots!” she called out. “Wasting my time! Go on then, the pair of you can clear off!”

She disappeared back inside the squat office unit, slamming the heavy door behind her. Grace jumped into the driver’s seat and handed Stanley to Ryan before peeling out of the car park at speed.

A few seconds into their getaway, Grace risked a glance at Ryan. His eyes were twinkling and they both burst into laughter, although Grace had no idea what was amusing about any of this.

“I think we just kidnapped Stanley,” she said.

Ryan chucked some more and looked at the dog perched on his lap. “He doesn’t seem to mind.”

Stanley confirmed this assessment by letting out a happy bark and licking Ryan’s face.

“What should we do now?” Grace said, keeping an eye on the road as she wrestled with the thorny implications of the predicament she’d just landed herself in. “The dog warden expected us to drop Stanley off as agreed, and now we’ve just run off with him.”

“From the conversation you had with him earlier, it sounds like the warden’s service is pretty busy, so I doubt they’ll be sending out a search party any time soon to sort this out, so we’ve got time to come up with… some sort of plan.”

Grace couldn’t help wincing. “I’m sorry, Ryan. I didn’t mean to land you in this muddle. You only came along to lend a hand and instead I’ve made everything ten times more complicated by dashing off with Stanley instead of just handing him over to the kennels.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. We both agreed we didn’t like that place. It was cold and grubby and run down and I felt sorry for the dogs locked up in those grim kennels. If we’d left Stanley there, I wouldn’t have stopped worrying about the poor little guy. I’m going to be thinking enough about the dogs that were already there. Those concrete kennels were about as far from cosy and comfortable as it’s possible to get.”

Grace thought of the poor little whippet she’d seen, who’d been terrified when the food bowl had clattered to the ground, and the sweet collie who’d wanted only to be fussed over for a few seconds. The dogs weren’t being mistreated exactly, at least not from what she’d seen. But they hadn’t looked happy, either.

The clock on the car dashboard told her it was almost ten-fifteen. She was due at work in less than an hour, and yet she was still no closer to sorting out the Stanley situation.

This was quite a mess she’d got herself mixed up in. If only Stanley wasn’t so cute and sweet and lost, then none of this would have happened.

Grace pulled the car over into a layby at the side of the country road and let out a breath as she tried to gather her thoughts and formulate a plan.

“Okay, here’s what I’ll do,” she said to Ryan, making it up as she went along. “I’ll phone the dog warden and tell him I simply wasn’t prepared to leave Stanley at those run-down kennels with those unpleasant members of staff, and I’ll say that… um, I’ll say that I’ll look after him for the seven days the council are required to care for stray animals.”

Ryan seemed to consider this. “Will he agree to that?”

“I don’t see why not. The warden was obviously run off his feet when I spoke to him, and if they’re using those awful kennels to board stray animals, then surely it can only be because they have budget problems and can’t afford anything better? If I look after Stanley, I’ll be saving the dog warden service money, won’t I? Instead of paying those terrible kennels to board Stanley, I’ll be doing it for free. It’s a win-win, right?”

Ryan didn’t look entirely convinced, but he nodded anyway. “I suppose if you put it like that. What if the warden doesn’t agree?”

“Well, then he’ll just have to come to my house and seize Stanley by force, won’t he?” Grace said, with feeling. “But I’m sure it won’t come to that.”

She had no idea if that was true, but there wasn’t time to worry about it right now. According to the dog warden, he would be busy all day rounding up the many other stray dogs he had to deal with. It might be hours before he even figured out that Grace hadn’t delivered Stanley to the boarding kennels as agreed.

Still, she didn’t want to risk appearing untrustworthy in any of this, and she believed in being straight and honest with people. Pulling out her phone, she dialled the number for the dog warden.

When the call rang and rang and then went to the warden’s voice mail, Grace let out another sigh of relief. By leaving a message, she could explain the situation and come clean without having to have an actual conversation about all this before she’d fully figured out her next steps.

Using the professional tones she’d long ago learned in the hospitality industry, Grace left a brief voice message in which she succinctly explained her decision not to leave Stanley at the boarding kennel and made her offer to look after the dog instead. Although she’d already provided the warden with her contact details, she left her phone number again anyway before hanging up.

“What now?” Ryan said, giving her an amused look.

“Um, well, I suppose I’m now in charge of looking after Stanley.”

“Exactly. But aren’t you supposed to be at work soon?”

“Well, yes, but that’s no problem. I’ll, er, I’ll… drop Stanley back at my house and then I’ll go to work and…”

Even as she spoke, she knew that leaving the dog alone in her house for the duration of her eight-hour shift wasn’t really an option. First, it wasn’t fair on the dog, and it stood to reason that Stanley would inevitably need to get outside for a comfort break. Second, as cute as Stanley was, the animal was still an unknown entity to her, and for all she knew, he might destroy her house if left alone for so long.

So how could she square the circle of having to go to work and also having to make sure Stanley was properly cared for and supervised?

“I’ll explain to my manager that I’ll have to take a couple of extra breaks today in order to rush home and deal with an, er, unforeseen emergency,” Grace said, not liking this idea one bit, but at a loss to come up with a better plan at such short notice. “When I take my breaks, I’ll drive home and let Stanley into the garden to do his business and then I’ll dash back to work again. I never take sick days or ask for special dispensation at work, so I’m sure my manager will be okay with this for just one day until I find a better solution.”

Ryan kept his gaze on her throughout her summary of this proposal, and she saw that the amusement in his eyes had only deepened.

“That sounds pretty complicated,” he said.

“It’s the best I can come up with right now and still make it to work on time.”

“Hmm. Or maybe I could just look after Stanley today instead?”

The humorous tone in which he said this made it obvious that he knew this was by far the easier option.

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking. I’m offering.”

“But it doesn’t seem fair. If I hadn’t dragged you into all of this yesterday evening when you were just walking down the street and minding your own business, then you wouldn’t be involved at all.”

“But I am involved and I’m happy to help,” he said with an easy shrug. “I already told you I was taking some time off work right now. It’s no trouble me for me to take this little guy home and look after him today. That gives us time to work out what to do with him tomorrow and the day after and so on.”

Grace knew it was the better option, but she still felt bad about plunging this man, who was still little more than a stranger to her, into this unexpected chaos.

It was only when Stanley barked and wagged his tail and licked Ryan’s face again, causing him to laugh while scolding the dog good-naturedly for dispensing such slobbering affection, that she accepted she was looking a gift horse in the mouth.

“Are you sure you don’t mind looking after him?” she asked.

“I’m sure.” Ryan slid her a glance, his eyes still twinkling with humour. “You’re overthinking all of this, Grace. I’m not working today, and you are, so obviously it makes sense for me to take charge of dog care duties. We’ll have a grand day together, won’t we, Stanley?”

Stanley barked in agreement. Grace blew out a long breath of relief. She’d lost count now of how many times she’d done that this morning. For a woman who always had everything in her life under control, the events of the last twelve hours had tested her usual ability to stay cool and calm under pressure.

“Thank you, Ryan.”

“My pleasure,” he replied, and then nodded towards the time on the dashboard clock. “We’d better get going or you’ll end up being late for work after all, and I get the feeling you wouldn’t like that very much at all.”

Grace popped the car into gear and pulled out into the road again, wondering how, after barely an hour in her company, Ryan already understood her well enough to make such an accurate observation.

And also wondering why his insight into her personality should leave her feeling so strangely thrilled.