Authors: Lyndon Stacey
His lengthy protests fell on deaf ears but in the event he had to admit that he was grateful. Still uncomfortably weak and feeling emotionally below par, Pippa's unfussy good sense and Giles' undemanding company were the best possible aid to his recovery. His usual sense of humour was soon restored too, by Mrs Morecambe's dire predictions of his likely demise if he failed to follow the doctor's instructions to the letter. His strength had quite quickly returned with good food and complete rest, and all in all, he felt better after just six days than he could have dared hope.
Logan and a senior officer had visited him twice and from them he'd learned that Milne had been arrested and charged with the murder of Slade and the theft of the paintings but appeared to regret neither. In turn, he'd given them a truthful, if incomplete, account of recent events, and if Logan was aware that they were being fed a budget version - and Gideon was almost certain that he was - he didn't say anything in front of his superior. At the end of their second visit, however, he lagged behind as they got up to leave.
`If I let it go at that,' he said quietly, `then I'll expect the full story one day, off the record. I think you owe me that.'
Gideon had to agree. It was just a fraction of what he owed the man.
A growing babble of voices brought him back to the present and he glanced at Pippa who was trying to hide a smile. The door from the main hall burst open and suddenly the room was full of people. Gideon looked up, wonderingly, scanning each face as they came in.
Naomi led the charge, followed closely by Tim and Rachel, Sean, Cathy and Daisy Rosetti, Mary and Anthony Collins, and a woman Gideon felt he should know but couldn't place.
Gideon got hastily to his feet. `What the ... ?'
Naomi looked at Pippa with mock despair. `He still hasn't, has he?'
Pippa shook her head. `It's his age, poor old chap! And that knock on the head didn't help.'
`Oh, my God! It's my birthday, isn't it?' Gideon exclaimed, and then through the general laughter, `Why didn't someone tell me?' `We couldn't believe you'd really forgotten!' Pippa said. `All except Naomi. She said you quite probably had. I must say, it's a completely new twist on a surprise party to me!'
`There's someone else outside,' Tim announced over the hum of amused comment. `Someone special!'
He opened the door with a flourish to reveal Joey's half-sister, Jez, looking uncharacteristically pretty in a flowered dress, and a little overawed by the occasion. She came in glancing shyly up at Gideon, who rewarded her with a huge grin.
`Wow! Don't you look nice!' he said. `How are you doing? Feeling better now?'
`This is for you from Ma,' Jez said, holding up a large, expensively labelled, bottle of whisky. `She said to say thanks for everything.'
`Well, thank you.' Gideon accepted it, greatly surprised. `That might have an interesting effect, mixed with my painkillers! It's lovely,' he assured the child, who was looking a little uncertain.
`Joey says he's going to buy me a pony, and Tim says we can keep it at the Sanctuary,' she announced, moving on to matters of greater importance.
`Hey, that's brilliant!' he said. `And how is Joey?'
`He's home again now but he said he wouldn't come here,' Jez
confided. `But Curly isn't coming home for a long time, Ma says. Joey says it's a bloody good thing too!'
Gideon coughed to hide a smile. `Joey's probably right,' he agreed amidst the general amusement.
'Gideon, you remember jenny, don't you?' Pippa prompted, touching his arm and drawing his attention to the older lady at her side.
`Of course I do,' he responded gallantly. `How are you doing? And how's Willow?'
`She's fine. We both are, thanks to you.' The intense gratitude in her expression made Gideon fidget, and she said quickly, `Oh, I'm sorry. Pippa said you'd be embarrassed if I thanked you.'
`Oh, she did, did she?' he asked, raising an eyebrow. `Who's the behaviourist around here?'
Sherry and fruit punch were offered and the gathering settled into easy companionship, everyone blending well. Gideon was inclined to think that Joey had been right to decline the invitation. His presence might have been a little unsettling for some.
After a while Mrs Morecambe appeared and a buffet lunch was served on the kitchen table, after which everyone sat chatting in the various chairs, comfortably full and basking in the warmth of the range.
As coffee and tea were passed round, Naomi and Tim produced their birthday gift of a new waxed jacket, to replace the one that was ruined on the night of the fire. Mary and Anthony gave Gideon a top-notch pocketknife and the Rosetti family produced a beautiful, silver half-hunter watch.
Rachel gave Gideon a lavishly wrapped package and a huge, uninhibited hug, her face radiant with the release from worry and the joy of her burgeoning relationship with Giles.
`I can't get used to the new look,' she said.
`Me either!' he admitted. A visit from Pippa's hairdresser, the day before, and painful memories of his tussle with Slade's heavy, had resulted in not only Pippa changing her gingery mop to
blonde, but also in Gideon sporting a short head of hair for the first time since his mother had last cut it when he was fourteen. Rachel's parcel contained an antique carriage clock which prompted him to exclaim, `Hey, are you lot trying to tell me something? Either there's something wrong with my timekeeping or you're hinting I should retire!'
Jenny Weatherfield and Jez- had both brought small gifts and, after all had been admired, Pippa announced with a gleam in her eye that if he wanted to see what she and Giles had got him, Gideon would have to go outside. Giles, it seemed, had already slipped out.
Muttering audibly about the proper consideration due to an invalid, Gideon hauled himself out of his chair, aided laughingly by his sister, and joined the general exodus towards the front door.
`Like the hair, Bro,' Naomi commented, taking his arm. `I see Pippa's had hers done too.'
`Yeah, well, I'm fed up with being called "Girlie" and Pips wasn't happy when Rachel's charming ex-husband called her a redhead.'
`Well, I think you make a charming couple,' she said with a playful look.
`Now don't start that again! Just let me organise my own love life, will you?'
'Ah, so I'm on the right track, then?'
`Mind your own business,' Gideon said severely, and Naomi laughed.
Outside, parked on the gravel, was a dark green, short-wheelbased Land Rover. Not new, it was nevertheless in very good condition, and Gideon was speechless for a moment.
`You're not serious?' he asked finally.
`Quite serious,' Pippa told him. `We decided the only way to be sure of having our own cars when we needed them was to provide you with some sensible transport of your own. Now you've finally wrapped that prehistoric motorbike round its last tree!' she added with what Gideon felt was rather an unkind degree of satisfaction.
He ignored it.
`I don't know what to say,' he said, shaking his head. `It's incredible!'
`Well, before you work yourself up to a thank-you speech, I should warn you, it comes with a condition.'
`Er, yes?' Gideon said warily. `Go on.' `Look inside. Try it for size.'
He walked across to the driver's door and was about to open it when a small, brindle face and two paws appeared behind the glass. Gideon stopped, his hand on the door handle, and started to smile in spite of himself. As the puppy began to wriggle with glee at the prospect of company, the female portion of the party uttered a synchronised `Aahh!' and he knew protest would be useless.
Aii hour or so later, with just the dogs for company, Gideon sat in the Priory kitchen with the brindle pup on his lap. The guests had departed, Pippa was out in the yard seeing to the horses, and Giles and Rachel had offered to feed Elsa for him.
`I suppose I'll have to find a name for you now,' he told the drowsy pup. `See, I knew you were going to make work for me!' He was wondering if he could really live with a dog called either Logan or Joey, and also whether either of them would receive the tribute in the spirit that it was meant, when he made a discovery. Inspecting his birthday gifts once again, he turned the Rosettis' watch over and opened the back to look at the works, and there, inscribed inside the silver cover in tiny but clearly legible script, were the words, With Thanks for Second Chances.