‘He seems very kind and thoughtful,’ Jenna murmured.
‘Oh yes,’ Gran said. ‘You can never underestimate how important kindness is, you know.’ She leaned forward. ‘That’s what drew me to your grandad, believe it or not. He’s got his faults—’ As Grandad’s eyes widened in indignation she continued, ‘Well, I’m sorry, but you have! But what I knew about your grandad was that he was kind, and you can’t put a price on that. I’d courted a few lads before him, you know. Proper Jack the Lads they were, an’ all. Your grandad there, he asked me out a few times, but I wasn’t sure. I’d had enough of stupid boys, to be honest, and what was to say he was any different?’
‘So what changed your mind, Gran?’ Jenna asked, amused.
‘My irresistible good looks and suave sophistication,’ Grandad said, licking ginger cake crumbs from his fingers.
‘Ha! You’ve got to be joking!’ Gran laughed then turned back to Jenna. ‘I’ll tell you what it was, love. I’ll bet you don’t even remember this, Stan.’
‘Oh, I do,’ he said. ‘You’ve told me enough times. It was Mrs Hall’s shopping bag.’
‘Well I never,’ Gran said in surprise. ‘Fancy you remembering that! He’s right,’ she told Jenna. ‘I was sitting on the bench outside the church?—’
‘Kissing and canoodling with that Jimmy Hilton,’ grumbled Grandad.
‘Talkingwith Jimmy Hilton,’ Gran said firmly, though not particularly convincingly, ‘and I noticed old Mrs Hall walking by the gate. And bless her, if her shopping bag didn’t give way and a dozen eggs dropped to the pavement.’
‘She’d bought them from Watersmeet,’ Grandad explained. ‘Did a lot of baking, did Mrs Hall. And the folks at Watersmeet – before Mac’s parents bought it – they had a lot of free-range hens and quite a nice little business selling the eggs.’
‘Jimmy Hilton,’ said Gran, shaking her head in disgust, ‘burst out laughing. Honest to God! There was poor Mrs Hall – eighty if she was a day – standing there in tears, trying to scoop up all those broken eggs, and this awful lad just found the whole thing funny.’
‘But Superman swooped to the rescue,’ Grandad said triumphantly.
‘Give over,’ Gran said, waving a hand at him impatiently. ‘You weren’t that amazing! Mind, I have to say Iwasimpressed. See, while Jimmy sat there laughing, I got up to see if I could help, and with that your grandad came running up and I watched him through the gate, crouching down to pick up any unbroken eggs and packing them in his pockets for her. He walked her home, didn’t you, Stan?’
‘She made me tea and gave me some of her apple pie,’ he said dreamily.
‘Your grandad went back to the farm and got her some more eggs out of his own money. I just remember thinking, how kind was that? Well, I looked at him, and I looked at Jimmy, and there was no contest. I thought,I’ll be all right with him. He’ll look after me. The next time he asked me out – your grandad, I mean – I said yes straight away.’
‘And the rest is history,’ Grandad said with a satisfied nod.
‘What a lovely story,’ Jenna said.
‘Mac’s the same. He was always a kind little boy,’ Gran said thoughtfully. ‘I remember him well. The other children made fun of him sometimes. I think he was bullied a fair bit. But what I remember about him was how he always looked out for the little ones. He was a Cub, you know, and then a Boy Scout, and he seemed to take it upon himself to watch over the younger children and make sure they were okay. I always noticed that, and I remember thinking,That one’s kind, just like my Stan. He’d be good for our Alison.’
‘They were kids!’ Grandad said. ‘You had them practically married off before they were ten.’
‘Don’t be daft.’ She shook her head. ‘It was just a thought, that’s all, and sadly Mac moved away to go to university and that was that. Not,’ she added hastily, ‘that I was sorry when she married your dad, Jenna. He was a lovely man too, and our Alison picked wisely both times. Like I said, you can’t go wrong with a kind man. Well, I’m sure you know that already.’
Jenna thought it was probably a lesson she’d learned a little too late. She’d been attracted to Joel because he was fun and sexy and confident. Kindness hadn’t even been a consideration, and when she thought about it, she couldn’t say it was ever a quality she’d associate with him.
In fact, she was pretty sure that he’d have been like Jimmy Hilton, laughing at old Mrs Hall and her broken eggs, or one of the children who’d bullied Mac at school. It wasn’t a comfortable thought.
‘What are your plans for the summer then?’ Grandad asked, changing the subject, to Jenna’s relief.
‘I’ve not really made any plans,’ she admitted. ‘This was very much a last-minute thing. I just decided it wasn’t fair on the twins to be stuck at home with me when they could be here in the fresh air, playing on the beach, being with Mac’s animals, and getting to mix with their family. We don’t see nearly enough of any of you.’
‘It will be good to have them around,’ Gran agreed. ‘I hope they don’t get bored, though. There’s not a lot here for them, is there? No shops or amusements – although there’s that little play park halfway to the beach. It’s got swings and a slide and a roundabout. I suppose that’s something.’
‘You should take them to Millensea,’ Grandad suggested. ‘Plenty of amusements there. Mind you, it’ll cost you a fortune. You want to do what I used to do and pretend the machines were broken.’
‘Like our Alison ever fell for that!’ Gran gave him a scornful look. ‘It was me who ended up giving her the money, you know. Mind you, I always got it back off him. I’ll give him one thing, he was never stingy with the housekeeping, and I could always wrap him round my finger if I needed more.’
‘You’re not wrong. I remember once giving you the money for the quarterly phone bill three times in a month!’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said indignantly.
‘Hmm.’ Grandad gave her a meaningful look and popped another chocolate in his mouth.
