‘Conor told me. Honestly, if it’s not one thing, it’s another with that man. I’ve put a call into the guard and I’ve phoned Murphy myself and Conor has been round there. It’ll not happen again.’
‘The police?’
‘Yes. I’ll not have him terrorising our guests like that.’
‘I’m sure if you’ve spoken to your neighbour, that’s enough.’ Hannah didn’t want to have to start giving interviews to the police. She’d spent enough time in police stations in her early career when she’d been a duty solicitor. ‘Please don’t bother the police.’
‘I’m not sure, Hannah, it’s a serious matter.’
‘I’d rather put it behind me. Honestly.’
Adrienne studied her and must have seen the implacable lift of her chin. Hannah could be very stubborn when she wanted to be.
‘Well, if you’re sure.’ She shook her head. ‘I hope you don’t think that everyone round here is like that. Now, for something a lot more pleasant. Let me show you one of the very best bits of Killorgally. My ladies. There’s nothing like the chickens. Their eggs are nature’s bounty and a boon to cooks.’
‘Mmm,’ said Hannah, bemused by the fervent light shining in her eyes.
‘Don’t worry, I’m not mad.’
Clearly Conor got his mind-reading abilities from his mother.
‘I didn’t… It’s just I’ve never been anywhere near a chicken before.’
‘Gosh, that is sad,’ she said and then beamed. ‘All that is about to change. You’ll never look back. I just know you’re going to fall in love with the girls. You’re in for a treat, Hannah. Difficult to believe that you really have never come across a chook before.’
Her words once again reinforced the realisation that Killorgally was a world apart from her life in the city.
‘Not many chickens in suburban Manchester, or certainly not round where I live.’
‘You’ll have to move,’ declared Adrienne with calm certainty. ‘Come on, they’re foostering to be out.’
‘Foostering?’
‘Good Irish word.’ She linked her arm through Hannah’s. ‘It means fussing, fidgeting. It’s perfectly apt. The way they walk, you know, all fussy, bustly, and madam-y. They’re like the village gossips, all desperate to be out. We have to shut them away at night because of the foxes. Beautiful creatures but destructive; they have an unpleasant habit of slaughtering the whole coop if they get in.’
She picked up an empty bucket and over the next quarter of an hour showed Hannah the barn where they filled the buckets with the grain and pellet mix that made up the hens’ main diet, and chatted away, explaining everything she did. Then she led Hannah to the large fenced enclosure where they poured the mix into a big circular trough. Next, Adrienne showed her the tap that supplied fresh water to the bird feeders.
When they finally let the hens out, they came bustling and squawking down a wooden ramp, furious bundles of feathers as if indignant at being cooped up for the night. Adrienne laughed with delight.
‘Morning, ladies, welcome to the day. This is Hannah. She’ll be keeping an eye on you for the next few weeks.’ She turned to Hannah. ‘I’ll tell you their names later when you get to know them; you’ll not take it all in today and once you know their characters it’s easier to remember them all.’
Most made a beeline for the feeder but a couple were more canny and loitered near Adrienne and Hannah, as if they knew that the tin buckets they held contained the juicy kitchen scraps of broccoli, cauliflower, raspberries, and potatoes.
‘They’ll eat most things but we only give them organic stuff,’ explained Adrienne as she scattered the scraps across the ground to the delight of the hangers-back who immediately began pecking with comical staccato jabs. Hannah laughed and watched as one came right up to her feet, nosing quite happily around her. She’d never thought of chickens as cute before but she was quite taken with them.
‘Watch this one. I said I’d give you their names once you’d got to know them. This one, I call Attila.’
Hannah laughed. ‘Of course, she’s the leader of the pack.’
‘Exactly. She’s very bossy and convinced that she’s queen bee. There’s a pecking order, as you’ve probably seen.’
‘Is that really where the phrase comes from?’
‘Oh yes. Bottom of the order here is Henrietta.’ She pointed to a lone white chicken loitering at the back. ‘So I always save the best scraps for her.’ Adrienne gave her a pixie-like grin which was reminiscent of her mother-in-law, Bridget, and quite at odds with her usual slightly scary business-like manner. ‘She’s a sweetheart. And that’s Elsie, she’s got attitude, and that one is Audrey. Don’t you think she’s got a bit of Hepburn about her?’
Hannah stared at the little black and white chicken who strutted along with quite a sassy wiggle and couldn’t help laughing again. ‘You’re right.’
Adrienne lifted her shoulders in a casual of-course-I-am shrug that made Hannah grin.
