Chapter 4

Gina seemed to take note of the elephant story and in particular drew the lesson that her father would not love her any less because he had two other people to love. In addition he made the point of taking her off on his own to visit her grandparents in the New Forest. She started to smile at Dan and was rewarded with him showing her greater friendliness. She also treated Molly with greater warmth and found that that paid dividends too: hugs and endearments not to mention doing some cooking with her.

Just when things were really running smoothly Denise gave her notice. As Molly and James had foreseen it set Gina back badly. There were tantrums and tears with Denise who tried her best to comfort her.

"I shall only be down the way in the village, Gina love, and you'll always be welcome to come and see me."

"It's not the same," wailed Gina. "You won't be here at bathtime and bedtime and kiss me goodnight and things."

"But you're quite a big girl now though, dear. You ought to be able to bath yourself now. I mean you have been doing really for some while."

"It's not the same. You won't be there to talk to me."

"I'm sure your mother or father will sit and chat to you while you bath and make sure you wash behind your ears."

That attempt at extracting a smile went down like a lead balloon.

"She's not my mother!" Gina shouted.

"Your step-mother."

"I hate her!"

"No you don't and you know it. You've become great friends. That was a very nasty lie and a very naughty thing to say."

Gina stamped her foot.

"And don't you stamp your foot at me, you rude girl."

Gina glowered at her. "You don't love me anymore."

"Yes I do. I love you very much and always will."

"You love Craig more."

"Yes, dear, I do but I don't love you any less. Remember the elephants?"

Gina nodded reluctantly.

"Well then."

Gina ran to her room and slammed the door behind her.

Denise went sadly downstairs to find Molly.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Bentwater," she said. "I knew Gina'd be upset but not this badly."

Molly smiled at her. "You're too good a nanny," she said. "She'll get over it."

"I told her she can come and see me whenever she likes. I hope that's all right."

"Of course it is, Denise. She needs to go on helping you look after Buttercup and Daisy too."

"Can I really go on riding Daisy?"

"Of course you can. Then Gina can graduate to her when she's bigger and your children will be able to ride Buttercup."

"That's very, very kind. Thank you."

"Practical too," grinned Molly. "They both still get looked after free apart from rent and food."

Denise smiled back. "I'd better go and see if I can get the young lady in the right frame of mind for Our Time. Oh, by the way, I told her that you'd sit in at bathtime when I've gone. I hope that's OK."

"Fine. It'll give me a chance to talk regularly with her."

Everyone, not only Denise, was in Gina's bad books: even James. He was told in no uncertain terms at one Our Time that he should not allow Denise to go.

"I can't do that, poppet. It's her life and she loves Craig."

"I thought she loved me."

"She does love you."

"So why is she leaving me?"

"Do you want to go with her?"

That floored her for a while and then she got an idea. "Why don't you marry her?"

"Because I'm already married to Molly."

"Why didn't you marry her before?"

"Because while I like her very much I don't love her and she doesn't love me. We like each other but we don't love each other."

"But she loves me."

"But she can't marry you and you don't want to go with her."

"It's not fair."

"No, poppet. Lots of things that happen are unfair. Anyway you'll still see her whenever you want to. You'll look after the horses together and you'll still be able to go riding with her."

None of this made Gina any happier and she became morose and a loner. Molly explained to Dan what it was all about and asked him not to be impatient with her. Dan did his best and largely avoided her when he was at home.

Molly spoke to the head teacher at the village primary school who agreed to keep an eye on Gina. While there had been no improvement at home the head teacher reported after a month that Gina still seemed to be the bright, cheerful, energetic girl she had always been.

"So it's just us in the doghouse," observed James to Molly.

"Yup. I'll start riding again and take her out with me."

"You ride? You never told me?"

"Brought up on a farm? I could hardly not. I'd better go out for a couple of hacks on Daisy first though just to make sure I remember everything."

Molly did that and had no problems apart from remembering muscles she had forgotten about. She also discovered to her delight that the farmer who stabled the horses had a double horsebox which he was prepared to lend free of charge provided the fuel tank was topped up each time it was used. That meant they could ride on The Plain as well as just locally and take the dogs without fear of roads.

If the truth be known Gina was thrilled but did her best not to let on. She exulted in being able to gallop half a mile in a straight line. She enjoyed Bella running with her and laughed at Susie, ears flapping, trying gamely to keep up and failing dismally.

"You'll have to grow longer legs," she teased her.

Daisy of course being bigger was faster than Buttercup so Molly always gave Gina a start but she made a point of not always letting her win a race. That caused some pouting but it never lasted.

Slowly Gina got back to being friends with Molly. The latter was fully aware that it was not the love that had developed for Denise but she was content with that.

Gina continued to see Denise but realised fairly soon that while Craig was always pleasant to her he did not want a little girl constantly hanging about the house, particularly at weekends when he wanted to enjoy time alone with his wife. That made her unhappy and sulky but Denise explained it all gently to her and she accepted it and cheered up again.