Free The Great Village Show by Alexandra Brown

woman chairing the meeting had waved her over to join them, Jessie had panicked. With all eyes on her and the bruises on her thigh, not to mention the scrape on her back from a previous altercation, a continuous reminder of how inadequate and raw she felt for not having the courage to call Sebastian out and challenge him, the little confidence left in Jessie had waned entirely.
    ‘So what are we going to do then?’ Jessie asked tentatively, glancing at the grass. Yes, far better to let Sebastian feel in charge; let him think a change of plan was his idea.
    ‘Well you need to get them into the village school, of course!’ Sebastian instructed. ‘And sharpish, because it seems a state school education is de rigueur these days, according to today’s
FT
.’ He paused to do quote signs in the air. ‘Yes, “state till eight”, it said, so before you know it, every bugger will be jumping on the bandwagon …’
    ‘Is it really?’ Jessie replied carefully, with just the right amount of surprise in her voice.
    ‘Indeed. So don’t fuck it up and forget or they’ll miss out on that too. I’m not paying for home tutors. Not after the fortune I forked out on that useless Norland nanny.’ Sebastian turned to walk away, leaving Jessie with an enormous sense of satisfaction as she ducked down out of sight behind the potting shed to do a silent high five. And it had never been Jessie’s wish to employ a nanny, anyway. Sebastian had selected her, saying it was the norm in the section of society that he came from, further highlighting the chasmic difference in their backgrounds. Jessie had been relieved when the nanny had declined to come to Tindledale with them.
    As Jessie was inwardly celebrating this unexpected triumph, something caught her eye – a white wooden object, covered in mud. After quickly checking over her shoulder to ensure the triplets were still happy and OK inside the safety net of the trampoline, Jessie pulled on her gardening gloves and carefully reached in amongst the overgrown mass of stinging nettles.
    A hive!
    Jessie’s heart lifted even higher as she brushed away the worst of the grime, making a promise to herself to try again to get involved in village life. Perhaps she could offer to make some honey? If she got a move on she could harvest a small batch of jars to sell at the village show. All she needed was to catch a swarm, and she could do that with her eyes closed – well, perhaps not like that exactly, but certainly with a net curtain, a dustpan brush and a cardboard box, she recalled, having achieved this feat as a teenager when a swarm descended on the village fete and she had rounded up the bees before gently coaxing them into the box and taking them home to live in one of her hives, earning herself a hearty round of applause from the gathered crowd.
    With Sebastian off to Zurich soon for a few months, she wouldn’t have to put up with his mood swings, and then when the children joined the village school, Jessie would meet new people. Maybe there’d be a friend she could confide in, someone to talk to about her sham of a marriage, an ally to draw strength from. Jessie had contemplated a life without Sebastian, but she knew with absolute certainty that he would never let her take the children, and she refused to leave them alone with him. So, for now, she had no option other than to try to make a happy life for herself and the children.
    Jessie took a deep breath and wandered over to the trampoline to show the children the hive, pondering that perhaps coming to Tindledale really was the perfect move after all.

T he following morning, Saturday, and I’m up early and raring to go. I’m already in the High Street, having enjoyed a very pleasant stroll in the magnificent morning sun, taking the long route round past the pond and village green, stopping to offload my leftover stale bread for the greedy geese and ducks, something I haven’t done since Jack was a little boy, but only because