Different Worlds Ch. 07

Another chapter, the penultimate one in fact (although I am planning on writing an epilogue too) as always thanks to North200 for his editing skills and his dry wit, his feed back can be very entertaining.

Ivy was packing the dodge up, ready to go to the festival. It was the first time she'd driven the truck any great distance since the clutch had gone and she was nervous. She climbed into the cab and fired up the engine. There was no way of being absolutely sure the clutch was going to last the distance. She'd crawled underneath and had a look and it while she was checking the brakes and even though it had seemed okay, she'd spoken to Geoff and he'd said he would be available as a tow if anything did go wrong. She let the engine run for a while so every thing would have time to warm up.

Normally Ivy moved around a lot more, especially in the summer and she'd gotten so settled in the few months she'd been parked up. So getting ready to go was more convoluted than usual. She'd always had a few plants, it was feasible to find a space in the truck for a few pots when she needed to move, but her collection had really gotten out of hand since she'd started working with Kev. It was lovely to finally have a small garden of her own, but she had no idea which ones she would keep and which ones would go when time came to move on.

But this time Ivy was coming back, so she could leave a lot stuff behind. This wasn't a luxury she normally had. The threat of eviction always loomed on travellers sites so leaving stuff behind was a risk. You could make arrangements with neighbours if you weren't going for long, but you could never leave much. And even then there was no guarantee these things will be remembered in the chaos of an eviction. Sometimes you found out when the bailiffs were going to days before but sometimes you didn't even get hours. Occasionally the bailiffs were happy to wait while you packed but more often they weren't.

Despite the safety of Cartwright Hall, Ivy still loaded everything she valued and everything she needed to live. She took her bow saw and her axe even though she wasn't going to chop any fire wood and all three water butts though she need only have taken one. As the saying went, old habits die hard.

She looked at the temperature dial on the dashboard, the engine was warm and the orange light indicating the break cylinders had reached full pressure had clicked on while she'd been lost in thought. She frowned, it would have been helpful to know how long that had taken, but never mind. She put it in to gear, pulled forward and slowly pushed the break pedal to the floor, they seemed fine but she repeated the action a few times to be sure.

When she was finished, she wandered over to Ruth and Alex's

"Everything okay?" Ruth called when she saw her.

Ivy nodded "We should head off soon. I want to get there while its still light. I might grab some of Sally's flapjack for the journey first though."

Ruth laughed. "You have it for lunch at work every day."

Ivy grinned "But I like it."

The flapjack was nice, it was true but she wanted to say goodbye too, she'd grown very fond of Sally and her dad had been under the weather recently. Ivy wanted to check up on her before she left. She was planning to come back of course but things could change and very often did in her world, she'd learned not to depend on things staying the same. Old habits.

Before she set off for the farm shop she helped carry Ruth's bags over to the truck.

"Heard from Richard?"

"Yeah, he's at a wedding this weekend in Cotswolds."

Ruth looked at Ivy. "Oh?"

"He did invite me, but I didn't want to go."

"Ivy! I can't believe you didn't take him up on his invitation!" Ivy winced, Ruth's voice reached a higher pitch when she was excited, or surprised, or, well quite a lot of the time really. "We could've totally managed without you."

"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been fair on you all."

"I could've helped cover your shifts."

"I know, but it wasn't just that."

"Then what? Posh hotel, free food, I bet there's loads of coke, I bet they'll be snorting coke off the bar with fifty pound notes."

Ivy tried to imagine Richard doing coke and failed.

"I don't like coke anyway."

"I wasn't suggesting you did the coke."

"It just feels like too much too soon, being there, for the whole weekend, with all his posh architect mates, anyway, I don't like weddings."

"Yeah, I get that. It can be pretty intense to spend a whole weekend at a wedding with someone you've only just starting shagging."

~

When Ivy arrived at the shop Sally was pacing around and glaring at her phone.

"What's wrong Sally, are you okay?"

"I've had a missed call from the hospital, but the battery just died so I can't ring them back," she sighed "I'm probably worrying about nothing."

Sally's dad lived in a residential home and had recently had a stroke.

"You can use the shop phone?"

"I can't get the number though."

"Oh... then go back to yours and get your charger, it won't take a minute, I'll keep an eye on the shop."

Sally grimaced. "But you're about to leave, Ruth and Alex must be waiting for you, Roger is starting his shift at four I'll go then."

"Sally that's not for ages. Just go, I can be here, it doesn't matter if we leave a bit later, Ruth and Alex will understand."

"Okay thanks, I'll be as quick as I can" Sally smiled briskly and rushed off.

"Take as long as you need Sal!" Ivy called after her. The bell on the door clanged as it swung shut and Ivy wasn't sure if Sally had heard her.

She wandered around the shop, pausing to study a new display of locally produced jams. She admired the pickled walnuts, lined up in their jars on the shelf above. Ruth had designed the labels, and they looked great, really professional. When she heard the door open she spun round assuming it would be Sally, back, sooner than expected.

But it wasn't Sally, it was William -Richard's younger brother. He was glaring at her as he stalked across the shop towards the counter and she was reminded of his furious expression when he'd seen her dancing with Richard at the gala. She'd decided that evening that she was taking it too personally, when she'd assumed his mood had something to do with her, but now she was confronted with him again she wasn't so sure.

"Sally's not here." Why did she feel like she owed him any sort of explanation? It was none his business. "I'm just keeping an eye on the place, she needed to make an important call." She'd nearly said urgent, but she was conscious Sally might not want Will to know her personal business and a word like urgent invited too many questions.

His resemblance to his sister was uncanny and it made her want to trust him. They had the same eyes, except where Caroline's were warm and kind Will's were hard. As he watched her she could feel his gaze crawling over her skin. He reminded her of a snake.

Suddenly he smiled, but it was a cold, desolate smile. She wanted to leave, to get away from him but she couldn't abandon the shop.

He prowled towards her, dragging a hand along the counter, the action seemed casual, but the look in his face wasn't and her sense of trepidation grew.

"What a nice thing to do. You're so nice aren't you? Everyone likes you." He spat the word nice out as though it tasted as bitter as it sounded. "Did you know that my father won't stop talking about you? My sister thinks you're the best thing since sliced bread. And Richard," he gestured with his hand, an exaggerated ... flourish. "Richard is mooning about the place like someone's hit him over the head with a cricket bat."

She took a deep breath, he seemed to be enjoying his role as the evil brother and it was quite a performance, she wondered if perhaps he should join an amateur dramatics society but before she had the chance to deliver the sarcastic barb he was speaking again.

"And now you're minding the shop for Sally," he was talking in a funny childish singsongy voice and it was coming across as a bit demented. "Is there anyone here you haven't wormed your way in with?" The words flew across the room like tiny, fast moving arrows. "Well you haven't fooled me."

There was a hysterical edge to it all, his voice seemed to be creeping higher as he continued and she wondered if he had been drinking. He didn't seem drunk, he was too focused, but he was angry, very angry and she couldn't work out why.

And still the words came; like poison, dripping from his lips.

"I can see right through you even if they can't, I bet you're going to get up the duff and make him marry you. You think you're going to go from living in your crumby little caravan to living in my home. You think you're going to get rich on the back of my family."

Ivy's mouth fell open. He'd moved so close to her she could feel the spit flying out of his mouth. His face had gone beetroot red he was so furious.

"But I'm not interesting in— I don't—" she didn't sound as assertive as she'd meant to, this new direction he'd launched off into had come as a shock.

He carried on as though she hadn't spoken. "Well you're not. He's not stupid you know, he's not going to marry you, he'll get bored with you soon enough, you're just his bit of rough. He stands to inherit the title, and your just some waif that's drifted in and caught his fancy. You're not one of us, I bet you didn't go to a decent school, Can you even read and write?"

She staggered backwards. She couldn't breath. It felt like he'd punched her in the stomach. She gripped the counter. How dare he? Who did he think he was. She wanted to tell him to fuck right off but she couldn't form the words, her head was starting to spin. But then a red mist descended, and with it came the clarity she needed.

"What on earth makes you think I'd want to marry into a family with you in it? I like Richard despite his background, not because of it. Not that its any of your fucking business. Just piss off, get out of this shop and creep back under whatever hole it was you just slunk out of you repulsive little toad." She ran out of words, he didn't reply either, instead they just glared at each other across the weighty silence.

He looked shocked, it was clear that he wasn't used to being answered back but as the shock wore off it was replaced by more anger. When he took a step towards her and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She was worried he might be about to hit her and her gut told her to take a step back, he was far too close, but clenching both her fists, she stood her ground.

"I asked you to leave," she said through her teeth, "so kindly fuck off."

"You can't tell me to leave here, this is my home, not yours."

"No, this is Sally's shop, and while she's not here I'm in charge."

The bell rang again, startling them both and for a fleeting moment she saw something a kin to fear register on William's face until he spun away from her and towards the door.

"He's fine," Sally said breathlessly as she bustled in, filling the room with her relief and pushing the vindictiveness out of the way. "It was just a routine thing, they just needed arrange a meeting so we can talk about his medication, it'll have to be Tuesday now, I can't do it this weekend—" She ground to a halt and looked from Ivy to Will as if seeing him for the first time then back to Ivy. "Is everything okay?"

*

Sally frowned when neither of them replied to her question. Will seemed furtive and shifty but when didn't he? Ivy was pale and drawn, like the colour has been erased from her face, her eyes were wide, her lips drawn tight. Still no one spoke.

Finally Ivy filled the silence but her words were stilted. "I have to get going, Alex and Ruth are waiting, I'll see you later."

Before Sally could reply she was gone.

*

Ivy didn't speak she just stared at the road ahead with a grim expression. Ruth was beside her in the passenger seat, Alex and Chaz were in the back. It was obvious to them all something was wrong and the three passengers exchanged glances.

Finally Ruth spoke "You okay hun?"

"I'm fine," Ivy replied without missing a beat.

"Are you sure?" asked Chaz slowly.

Ivy didn't reply right away this time, instead she sighed, "Sorry guys, I'm just worried about the clutch, I haven't driven this thing any great distance since it went."

It wasn't true, of course it wasn't true, but she wasn't ready to talk about it. Her head was spinning she could only cope with one catastrophe at a time, and right now her priority was getting to the festival without anything going wrong. She noticed that she was gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white. She took a deep breath and tried to loosen her hold.

She hadn't imagined for a moment that this thing she had with Richard would stretch far enough into the future for any of that stuff to even matter. But having that insinuated so viciously by William hadn't been pleasant. She didn't want to get married anyway, she didn't believe in marriage.

Did Richard think that she was going to try and trap him by getting pregnant? Did Terrence think that? Did they think that she was just some opportunistic tart trying to make it rich of the back of his inheritance? Her stomach clenched, did everyone think that she was just shagging him so she could... she shook her head, trying to clear the unpleasant thoughts away. The road ahead was starting to blur. She blinked a few times and tears ran down her cheeks. Quickly she wiped them away with the back of her hand before anyone noticed. She left her own thoughts and tuned into what was going on around her, Ruth and the lads were excitedly chatting about some band that was playing on Saturday night. Outside the truck the sky had cleared and the sun was shining. She grabbed her shades off the dash, relieved to have an excuse to cover her eyes.

But soon she'd returned to her own thoughts again and she was replaying the event in the shop over and over. It was if something had broken open inside her. It was as if Pandora's box had broken open inside her. Emotions were just flying out of her, anger, grief, sorrow and something that felt very much like shame, but bigger, much bigger. Who had she been trying to kid, pretending that someone like him could be interested in someone like her? A dirty, scummy traveller, from a single-parent family who'd survived on benefits for the whole of her childhood. She didn't belong in his world.

Ruth's voice seeped into her consciousness. "This is the exit, Ivy."

"Shit!" Luckily they were already in the right lane, the Dodge didn't go fast enough to be anywhere else. She threw on the indicator and turned off.

And they'd arrived. As they crested the hill she could see the festival site stretching out below them, brightly coloured marquees and big tops glowing in the late afternoon sun, vehicles and tents scattered in little clumps. That surge of excitement she always got as she arrived at a festival filled her, nudging the bleak mood to one side. Before too long they were pulling into a gate, driving into a field, being pulled over by stewards. Ivy was hunting through the pile of papers on the dash for the vehicle pass. The thumping bass of a distant PA system drifted across the field from somewhere unseen, only to be drowned out by the sound check from a nearby stage as she drove the truck slowly along a bumpy track.

She steered the vehicle through the kids field, past The Tiny Tea Tent. People waved and called greetings as they saw Ivy's distinctive truck. Ruth and Alex jumped out when they spotted friends from Exeter they hadn't seen since Glastonbury.

Ivy ploughed on until she reached the field in which the cocktail bar had been designated. After a quick hello to Vicki, Ivy carried on driving until she found a nice spot at the bottom of the field under some trees, flat enough and not too far from where their bar was going to be but far enough to afford her a little privacy. She wasn't feeling too sociable all of a sudden.

The first thing they had to do was set up the marquee.

"I'm sorry we were a bit late," Ivy told Vicki as they hoisted up the central pole.

"Don't worry, there's still plenty of time before it gets dark, but where the bloody hell are Ruth and Alex though, we could do with the extra hands. I thought they were coming with you?"

"They did, they jumped out when they saw the Exeter crew, they'll be here soon."

And there they were rushing towards them to help. The more hands the better when the marquee was going up, just two people could manage it, but it was so much easier with more. It was nice to be doing something physical. It distracted her from over-thinking everything. When the marquee was up she went back to the truck, plugged her gas bottle in, put the water butts out.

The three girls snubbed the raucous fire pit outside in favour of sitting in Ivy's truck and drinking cheap red wine and chatting with Ruth and Vicki. They were all set up and ready to go, the punters would start to arrive in the morning.

"So," Vicki asked Ivy, "I hear you've met someone?"

"He's lovely," supplied Ruth.

Ivy found she still wasn't ready to put what had happened into words. Maybe if it was just one of them, but not both. "I'm not really in the mood to talk about it."

"Oh, Come On!" Vicki almost shouted, "I need details! What do you mean you don't want to talk about him, we want to talk about him."

But Ruth didn't join in, she watched Ivy.

"Do you like him?" Vicki asked.

"Yes," she finally admitted, "he's nice."

"Then what?" asked Ruth.

"He's just so, so..."

"What?" Ruth and Vicki asked in unison.

"Rich, he's so rich."

"I can't believe you just said that," Ruth said.

"And we have nothing in common," Ivy told them, "We're from completely different worlds."

"He's crazy about you."

"He hardly knows me."

Ruth sighed. "You don't give yourself enough credit, Ivy."

*

The following morning Ivy woke up to her phone ringing, at first she thought it was her alarm, until she realised she wasn't in Cartwright Hall and she didn't have to get up for work. She was at a festival and the bar didn't open till early evening. She felt a fleeting resentment to whoever it was interrupting her lie in, it had taken her ages to fall asleep and she had a busy night ahead of her.

"Hello?" she said, her voice groggy.

"Morning sleepy head, did I wake you?"

"Luke!"

They hadn't spoken since May and Ivy felt a surge of fondness for her old boss. Luke didn't know anything about how her life had changed.

"Big job babes, can you start Monday? I know it ain't much notice but they've been messing me around something rotten and I didn't want to ask until I was sure."

There was nothing complicated about Luke. What you saw was what you got. It was hard work, granted, but all she had to do was turn up, and do as she was told. He paid her at the end of every day, cash in hand, good money as well. Suddenly she was nostalgic for her old life and the freedom it afforded her.

"Not Monday no, we're doing the bar this weekend, but I can do Tuesday?"

As she waited for his reply her heart was in her mouth. Why did she saying that? Her life was in Bruton now, but when she thought about returning there shame rose up in her, filling her mouth with an acrid taste.

"Of course babes, that'd be wicked. You're a lifesaver. I'll see you at the lock up usual time?"

She made a sound to indicate her agreement and hung up. Aware of how fast her heart was beating as she stared at her phone. What had she just agreed to? She wasn't really awake yet, she hadn't even had any coffee. She nearly rang back, told Luke that she had made a mistake, that she couldn't do it after all, but something stopped her.