Village Fortunes (Turnham Malpas 17) Read Online Free Page B

good idea after all. She’d think about that another day, but at the moment a nice cosy evening watching the TV and then off to bed early to catch up with her sleep was the only decision she intended to make. Fran didn’t want her dad to find reason to criticise her for being tardy, not right at this moment in time. She needed to keep him sweet.
    Fran was about to leave when the bell signalled the arrival of another customer. It was Chris, Johnny Templeton’s brother. Since he’d arrived about eight weeks ago he’d been a fairly frequent visitor to the store and they all knew him.
    ‘Good afternoon, everyone. Johnny! Isn’t it wonderful news, everybody, about the baby? He’s coping very well. Flowers. I’ve come to buy flowers for the new mother. Have you got any?’
    Fran didn’t offer to assist him but Jimbo did, acknowledging the smell of money that surrounded the Templeton brothers. ‘Here we are, Chris. This is what we have left. If we’d known . . .’
    ‘I’ll take the lot. Make them into a bouquet, would you? I’m going up there to see my newest nephew. I expect you’ve all heard the news. Johnny was like a man walking on hot coals all yesterday but I told him time and again that everything would be fine. And here we are, with another strong healthy baby boy who has just joined the human race! Brother Chris knows, and I’ve been proved right once again.’ He thumped his chest like a gorilla in acceptance of the approval he got. ‘It seems we Templetons can do nothing but breed boys. Nicholas has two, there’s three of us, and now Johnny has two.’
    Chris slapped Johnny on his back and rather ostentatiously gave him a great hug. They were all used to Chris’s larger than life reactions to everything, and took it as being part and parcel of this younger brother up at the big house.
    Meanwhile Jimbo had got himself in a tangle with the bouquet and Fran had to rescue him. ‘Look, Dad, I’ll see to it. Leave it to me.’
    ‘OK. OK. I will. Chris will you allow me to give you a bottle of champagne? To wet the baby’s head?’
    Fran, her face shielded by the sheet of coloured cellophane she was using to wrap the flowers, smiled, recognising her dad’s business technique for what it was.
    ‘That’s mighty generous of you, James, mighty generous. Thank you. I’m sure Alice will be able to have a sip, just a sip I know, but it’ll make all the difference to her. Can’t leave her out of the celebrations, can we, when she’s done all the hard work? Thank you, Fran, you’ve made a gilt purse out of a sow’s ear, well and truly.’ As Fran handed the bouquet to him Chris slipped an arm round her shoulders and chastely kissed her cheek. ‘Beautiful, just beautiful. Thank you.’
    ‘I’ve just had a thought, I don’t think the hospital allows flowers?’
    ‘They will, I’ll make sure of that.’ His supreme confidence in his ability to flout hospital rules amused them all. They just knew he’d get round them some how; he was that kind of man.
    Chris left in a flurry, opening the back door of his vivid red sports car and carefully placing the bouquet on the back seat, laying the champagne on the front seat; then he tooted his horn several times and left. Everything always felt flat once Chris had gone. Fran went off home, Tom took his afternoon break, Jimbo cleared away the buckets the flowers had been standing in, and silence fell.
     
    Jimbo sat on the seat provided for the person in charge of the till and contemplated money . Obviously Johnny had money; money of his own, and also the money and properties left him by Sir Ralph. It seemed to Jimbo that Chris had money too, but all of his came from the hotel business they owned back in Brazil. Money on a scale that no one in the village had now nor ever would have, not even Craddock Fitch in his prime. Jimbo liked Johnny and when Chris joined him up at the big house he’d imagined it would be like having two Johnnies instead of one. But it