Second Chances at Hollyhock Farm (Hollyhock Farm #2)

Chapter 1

1

ZAC

Zac leant on the fence at the bottom of the lower meadow and gazed at the beautiful pink granite farmhouse that had always been his family home. The symmetrical two-storey house had varying shades of hollyhocks growing up on either side of the front door and windows. To its right stood the largest of two barns with a smaller barn next to that and then several other outbuildings graduating down in size.

He smiled, proud of his older sister Lettie and the way she had given up her job in fashion and moved from London back to Jersey to take over the running of the eighty-acre farm when their father had suffered a heart attack earlier in the year. He thought of the contracts he had refused – looking after the sound at various music festivals around the island – to help her and knew he needed to think about returning to work. He might have a good reputation as a sound engineer, but there were other engineers only too willing to step in to cover for him, and the last thing he wanted was to end up not being offered work.

One of the Jersey cows in the upper field mooed. He loved the sounds of this farm. Even though his father had moved from dairy to growing organic produce over ten years before, Zac couldn’t help thinking how typical it was for his father to be unable to part with several of the older cows, insisting they should spend the rest of their days on the farm where they had been born. He looked behind him at the paddock with three alpacas and still found it strange that anyone would bring these beautiful creatures to the island, only for his father to end up giving them a home when the owners moved away and insisted they wouldn’t have space for them.

He thought of Brodie, the local vet and his sister’s boyfriend, and the dog he had given a home to a couple of months before after Lettie had found it on one of the nearby lanes. He could never understand how anyone could let these lovely animals go.

He heard his sister’s anguished shout and, following the direction of her voice, hurried to the kitchen to see what was wrong.

‘What’s the matter, Letts?’

Lettie’s face was flushed with temper. She groaned and held up a letter that looked as if it had been scrunched up before being flattened out again. ‘This is so infuriating. The insurance company is refusing to cover the entire cost of the repairs to the barn roof,’ she grumbled. ‘Apparently our policy hadn’t been linked to cost-of-living increases and they’re only paying seventy per cent of the cost of repairing the storm damage.’

‘What?’ He had no idea how much money the work would cost but imagined it wasn’t going to be cheap. ‘But you need that fixed before winter if the animals are going to stay in there.’

‘Exactly.’ She folded her arms across her chest. ‘We could keep some in the smaller barn, but not the larger animals. I’m so angry about it.’

Upset more like, he thought. ‘Sorry, sis. That is a bit of a blow. What can we do about it?’

She shook her head and shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea, but something needs to be sorted out because I can’t do without that barn.’

He walked over to her and took the letter, reading it for himself. ‘Rotten sods.’ This was all Lettie needed. She had bravely taken on the farm but it hadn’t proved to be as easy as she expected. ‘We’ll think of something. Try not to worry.’

She pulled out one of the chairs and sat, resting her elbows on the table before lowering her face into her hands. ‘I’m already shattered and this is a problem I hadn’t seen coming.’ She looked up at him. ‘Another thing that shows how inexperienced I am at running a place like this.’

He sat next to her. ‘Hey, you’re doing brilliantly. You will sort this.’

She turned to him and after a look of disbelief he noticed her expression harden. ‘You know what, Zac? You’re right. I will sort this. I just need to figure out how.’

‘There. I knew you’d fight back.’ He stood to go and put the kettle on and make them both a cup of tea. It was the standard reaction to most dramas in their house.

‘I know,’ Lettie exclaimed. ‘We’ll raise money by holding a fundraising event.’

‘Good idea.’

She gasped. ‘It could be a festival. We’ve got the land. Yes, that’s what I’ll do – I’ll hold a festival here at Hollyhock Farm.’

His interest piqued, he forgot the tea and sat back down again. ‘A music festival?’ He loved the idea. He was a sound engineer after all and a lot of his job entailed working at festivals. ‘That’ll be brilliant, Letts.’

She shook her head. ‘Sorry, Zac. We can’t have loud music and people singing and making noise around the animals; it would terrify them.’

She had a point. ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’ If she wasn’t thinking of a music festival, then what? ‘Tell me more.’

‘A wellness festival.’ She beamed at him, clearly delighted with her idea.

‘What?’ She went to repeat what she had said, but he stopped her. ‘I know wellness is all about looking after yourself, but I don’t know what sort of things you’d offer.’

‘I’ve only been to one.’

‘So you know what they do at these things?’

She shrugged. ‘I can learn. That’s what the internet is for, surely.’

He didn’t like to argue, not when she was this enthusiastic for an idea. He liked seeing her ready to fight back and had no intention of crushing her excitement.

‘From what I remember there were stalls where people sold things like special teas, ideas for better nutrition. Various therapies, like…’ she thought for a moment ‘…crystal therapies, herbal remedies, sound baths. Ooh, and yoga or Pilates classes. People offered courses at the one I attended and gave samples of products and product demonstrations for things like juicers, or whatever.’

It didn’t sound like his sort of thing, but he hid his thoughts. This wasn’t about what he preferred. His sister needed his support and he intended doing all he could to be there for her.

He wondered how much time she would need to prepare for something like this. ‘When do you think you’d want to hold the festival?’

Lettie gave his question some thought. After a while, she shrugged. ‘Well, it would need to be before the weather turns but not too soon that we aren’t able to make all the arrangements properly. So latest the end of September, I think.’

‘I’ll help out in any way I can, Letts. So will Brodie, and I’m sure your friends will do all they can to help you too.’

‘Thanks, Zac.’ She gave him a grateful smile. ‘I just hope whatever we do raises enough money to cover the cost of the roof repairs.’

‘I’m sure with all of us helping you, we’ll do it.’

He heard his name being called and looked up to see his mother hurrying into the kitchen. His parents were due to go on another trip that evening and, not wishing to delay them, Zac ran to see what she wanted from him.

He followed her into the kitchen. ‘What is it, Mum?’

‘You’re not busy, are you?’ She looked from him to Lettie.

He’d have to help Lettie bring the animals into the barns before it got dark but that was hours away. ‘No, why?’

‘I need you to do something for me.’ She held out her car keys.

Zac went to take them from her. ‘Shopping?’ he asked, hoping she would say no. He hated food shopping, unless it was for snacks and beers to watch a rugby match.

‘No. I need you to hurry to Rozel, to the campsite there.’

Zac withheld a groan. He tried to think what his mother could possibly need from a campsite on the other side of the island. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Kathleen, one of my Book Club Girls, has a friend and her granddaughter who need collecting.’

Still none the wiser, he frowned. ‘I need to take them somewhere, I assume?’ he asked, wishing he had thought to say he was busy.

‘They’re on the island for a few months and it’s only been a week and I think it’s been a bit much for Patsy – that’s the grandmother.’

Zac thought of all the tents he had slept in: some large and fancy; others tiny, hot and uncomfortable. ‘Right, but what do you want me to do with them?’

She rested her hands on her hips and stared at him for a few seconds. ‘Sorry, didn’t I say?’

He shook his head.

‘I need you to bring them here. Lettie has been talking about eco travel.’

He had a vague idea about what that meant but thought he should ask to be certain. ‘Which is?’

She stared out of the window thoughtfully for a few seconds. ‘If I recall correctly, it’s about being aware of the impact our travels have on the environment. On local communities a traveller visits. You know, being mindful about the impact we make when we visit somewhere and how we can go about protecting those places by, among other things, supporting local businesses.’ She seemed satisfied with her answer and Zac had to admit he was impressed.

‘And Kathleen insisted the ladies would be happy to stay here and help out on the farm for a couple of months, or so. It won’t cost your sister anything apart from meals and she might enjoy the company.’

He didn’t like to remind his mother that he was also working on the farm. Trying to imagine where the two guests would stay, Zac thought of his mother’s craft room that had once been their spare room. He groaned, hoping he wasn’t going to be forced to clear out the room to make it up as a bedroom for their guests. ‘I know you and Dad are going away, but you’ll be back in a couple of weeks so I hardly dare ask, but where will they sleep?’

‘There are two perfectly good rooms up in the attic.’

He thought of the rooms she referred to and couldn’t recall the last time he had been in there. ‘Aren’t they full of boxes of junk?’

His mother’s expression darkened. ‘No. There might be a few things that can be thrown out, but most of it will be fine. There are still beds in there and with a little bit of effort we could make the rooms comfortable for the two women.’

‘By “we” I’m assuming you mean me and Lettie?’

‘Of course,’ she said, looking flustered. ‘I have packing to do and your father hasn’t even begun to sort out his clothes for our trip to the Mediterranean.’ She pointed to the wall clock. ‘Forget the rooms for now. You’d better leave to fetch them. Kathleen will have let them know that you’re on your way, so they’ll probably already be waiting.’

‘Fine. I’ll see you in a bit.’ He went to say something about the festival to his sister.

‘Zac Torel, I need you to go straight away,’ his mother said before leaving the room.

Lettie widened her eyes, clearly amused.

‘I’m going. You’re going to need to think of a name for the festival, work out what you think it’ll cost and exactly when you’d like to hold it.’

‘And we’ll need to set up a website,’ she replied enthusiastically. ‘I’ll make some notes and get on with all that.’

‘Go, sis! I’ll help you later if you want.’

‘Sounds amazing,’ she said, leaning over to the worktop and grabbing a notepad and pen. ‘Thanks, Zac.’

‘Zac Torel, are you still here?’ their mother called from somewhere in the hallway.

Zac rolled his eyes.

‘You’d better get going.’

It took all Zac’s patience to stop letting his frustration with the traffic get the better of his temper as he slowly made his way there. The roads were full of people seemingly out on leisurely drives. Every cyclist on the island also appeared to be out and about and, when he managed to find himself on a clear road, a tractor or some other farm vehicle materialised in front of him, slowing him down again.

He pulled into the campsite car park and realised he had no idea what the two women looked like. He decided that the best thing might be to get out of the car and stand by it, hoping they would think to speak to the person who was clearly waiting for someone.

Eventually two women walked into the car park and seemed to be looking for someone. They had large rucksacks and one seemed older than the other from what he could see of her face under a huge floppy straw hat. It seemed more suited to lying on the beach or on a lounger in the garden than in a campsite.

He stepped forward and raised a hand waving at them. ‘Are you looking for me?’ he asked cheerily. ‘I’m Zac from Hollyhock Farm.’

They both smiled and began walking more quickly towards him.

‘Yes, that’s right,’ the older lady said, leading the way. ‘It’s jolly kind of you to come all this way to fetch us.’

‘It’s no problem at all,’ he said, realising he wasn’t only saying that to be polite when he saw the beautiful girl take off her hat momentarily to reveal her bright pink hair. She pushed her hair back from her face before replacing the hat on her head.