Chapter 33

James did indeed write to the chairman of the Venture board. He said how pleased he was that an amicable agreement had been reached and hoped that the board would be happy with it. He added that he was glad Mr Gordon had accepted his argument for retaining the discount on beer but was not sure that he had understood the underlying need. He was very grateful to Mr Williams for explaining it to him.

Jenny thoroughly approved of the letter. "Brilliant, darling! That's exactly right. You haven't actually said anything derogatory about the Egg but you have intimated that he was unable to understand something that was perfectly clear to one of his team. Excellent!"

Kathy and Co. came in for Sunday lunch again and were in fine fettle. Wayne had been promoted supervisor of the shelf stackers at his supermarket with a substantial pay rise. Not only that but Kylie had been moved from check-outs to Customer Service. Her manager had been quick to notice that, after her photograph and the story in the Journal, a lot of people had recognised her and lingered to talk to her. She reckoned that, quite unconsciously, Kylie would be ideal at dealing with queries and the odd complaint. People would be less inclined to argue with her. Not only was she right about that, in addition she found that Kylie was a natural at making friends with people. Kylie also got a pay rise.

Not content with that, Kylie had found part time employment with one of the Pitsbury vets as a trainee veterinary nurse. "I love it," she said. "I'm not allowed to do very much but I am able to comfort the animals in unfamiliar surroundings and be there for them when they come round from an anaesthetic."

"That's marvellous," said Jenny warmly. "How long does the training go on?"

"Depends on me. I have to cover a number of stages with practical experience and written tests. I looked at a Stage 1 test paper and it didn't look at all difficult."

"How many stages are there?"

"Six. The practice nurse thinks I ought to be able to hack it in eighteen months max."

"Great! Good for you."

Kathy volunteered to be a barmaid and, with Libby gone, was accepted immediately. She proved herself after two training evenings when she, Gavin and Jenny were on on a Saturday night. It was hectic but Kathy was efficient, smiling friendly and seemingly tireless. The Jays took her on for Fridays and Saturdays.

The big surprise though was when, in the middle of the following week, James's father rang. As luck would have it, James answered the telephone.

"Good morning. The Crown."

"Hi, James!"

"Dad! Good to hear you. What can I do for you or is this just a social call?"

"Both, I suppose. First of all, can I book for dinner on Friday?"

"Of course you can. Just you?"

"No, two. I have a client staying the night."

"Male, I'll bet."

"Right!"

"Bad luck! What's second?"

"I've got myself involved with starting up a young peoples' village football side."

"Great. Are you the coach?"

"No fear but we are doing quite well and have won our first four matches."

"Well done!"

"So I thought a little reward might be in place. I could have done this here and I'm sure Jim would have done us proud but I thought a minor outing might mean a bit more to them."

"Go on."

"Could I bring a gang of twenty-two to lunch on Sunday?"

"You bet you can. What would you like us to lay on?

"Just main course and pud. What could you do that for?"

"As it's a set menu, how about twelve quid a head?"

"That sounds good."

"Any vegetarians?"

"Oh Lord, I've no idea."

"Don't worry; I'm sure that if there's anyone that doesn't eat meat someone else outside the party will. We'll do roast beef and Yorkshire pudding followed by treacle tart and ice cream. Sound good?"

"Just the job."

"If you can run it past them without encouraging changes I'd be grateful."

"Sure. We've got a practice tomorrow evening so I'll let you know on Friday."

"Fine. Look forward to seeing you then."

James was thrilled. His father was coming up out of his misery.

Jenny was delighted too. "I wonder if there was anything in particular that triggered it," she wondered.

They made a fuss of Richard on Friday night and a number of the people who he had met when Bill was over, chatted to him. The Jays both reckoned he was in much better form.

It started James thinking. There were a lot of young in his village with nothing to do and some of them could well become Martys. He mentioned it to Roy and asked if he knew anyone who had been a half decent footballer.

"There's Stan Hawkins as used to play for Pitsbury. 'E must be in 'is late forties so I don't know as 'e'd want to take it on."

James spoke to him over the weekend and Stan was full of enthusiasm. James did not want to get too closely involved so he suggested that Stan mention it to Jim Withers as chairman of the parish council. Inevitably, despite verbal support and permission to book the recreation ground, there was no money available but Jim undertook to approach the county council for a grant. Within a fortnight Stan had organised three practices a week, wangled some old balls from Pitsbury Football Club and had twenty to thirty young of both sexes turning out. Kathy and Co. were among them and acted as energetic recruiters. The younger teenagers were flattered to be approached by the older ones and joined up enthusiastically. Over the course of the autumn and winter Stan managed to arrange a number of friendly fixtures. For the home matches Hilda Wilkins rounded up a bevy of women and provided tea in the village hall. Henry Everleigh felt he should get involved and appeared at every match and a number of practices.

"This was a wonderful idea of yours, Stan," he said at one of the early practices.

"Weren't mine," said Stan. "Blame James at the Crown."

Henry told Ginny who stored it away in her mind along with the other things the Jays had done for the village. He also congratulated James.

"The next thing is a teen cricket side in the summer," said James.

"I could get involved with that," said Henry. "I used to play a lot. Free Foresters. I'm also a member of MCC. I might be able to get one of their coaches down for a weekend. You know, after that charity match you organised earlier this summer we ought to be able raise an adult team too."

"Have a word with Jim Withers," James advised. "It would help to have the parish council on side."

"Good thinking. I will."

Despite trade increasing and despite his satisfaction at the increased involvement of the pub in village affairs James was worried. Both he and Jenny had lost weight in their first six months and he reckoned that they were both a lot fitter for doing so. His weight had remained stable but Jenny was now as thin as a rake. They were both working six long days a week. Jenny, in particular, needed two days off a week. He was confident that Gavin and Jean could run the place and he was not worried at all about their honesty. He decided therefore that, instead of him taking Monday off and Jenny Tuesday, they would both take both days off. Jenny argued but not very hard.