up to it. No disrespect to you, of course,’ Anna said to Gaby, when she was clearly thinking something very cutting indeed. ‘But you are new and it is a huge responsibility.’
Gaby opened her mouth to try and get a shot into this game of Godrevy ping-pong, but Will batted his response back too fast.
‘Mum. It’s only for a day and Gaby knows exactly what she has to do. She’s been here six months and if there’s a crisis, I’ll have to bring the boat back, won’t I?’
Anna pursed her lips. ‘And wouldn’t you just love an excuse to do that?’
‘It’s fine. I promise you there won’t be a crisis.’ Gaby finally jumped into the rally. ‘So, you can all go and have a lovely time at the wedding. Don’t worry about anything. Enjoy your day,’ she said emphasising the word ‘day’, so Will knew he had to stay away.
‘Thanks a lot,’ said Will, his eyes gleaming with a mix of gratitude and exasperation.
Gaby grinned. ‘You’re welcome.’
‘Well, as there’s no one else, I suppose we’ve no choice,’ Anna muttered. ‘Now let’s get on our way before you change your mind. I know how much you’d love to find another reason to get out of this. Your aunt fully expects you to find some way of wriggling out of it as it is, so we’re going to show them, they’re wrong.’
Anna stumbled. Will caught her arm and stopped her from slipping into the mud.
‘Be careful, Mum. Now, come on or we’ll be late for this damn wedding.’
‘I’ve been telling you that for the past hour!’ Anna shrugged off his arm and squelched off, holding up her hem and muttering about where Jess had got to now and hoping she’d have a lovely day as she deserved some fun after what that bloody postman had done to her.
Will turned to Gaby and mouthed ‘thanks’.
Gaby watched him trudge after his mum.
She was pleased to be given the chance to show she could look after everyone despite the moths stirring in her stomach. All she had to do was show the rookie team how to harvest the crop and get it done by the time Will got back. That would show Len and Anna. Most of all, it would give her something to focus on, on a day that held such bittersweet memories.
Gaby was glad the four new pickers couldn’t see her churning stomach as they gathered outside the packing shed. They’d only arrived the previous day and most bore the same expression that she must have had on her first day: a rabbit in the headlights. They shuffled around, dressed in a jumble sale mix of hats, jumpers and gloves.
There was a slight look of the chain gang about them, Gaby thought, stifling a giggle. By now, they would have realised that, until tomorrow at least, there was no way off the island even if they’d wanted to leg it. Pickers were often native Scillonians but today there was only one local who was new to picking. The other two were from the mainland UK and one was Polish. Natalia was about Gaby’s age and from a small town outside Krakow. She’d worked in various market gardens in East Anglia over the past couple of years and looked slightly less terrified than the others. She also knew Cambridge a little, which had broken the ice between them when they had been briefly introduced the previous evening.
Gaby straightened herself up to her full five feet one and a half and threw them all a confident smile.
‘OK. You’ve already had your induction and health and safety with Len yesterday, so we’re going to get straight to work,’ she said. ‘We need to pick the Daymark and Yellow Cheer today. This is a Daymark. You can tell it by the bright orange cups.’ She held up the distinctive flower in one hand and a paler yellow one in the other. ‘And this is a Yellow Cheer, but of course, we don’t want to pick any that are already in bloom like this one. We look for tight buds that will be ready to open when they reach the customers. Don’t we?’
Natalia nodded but the others seemed nonplussed.
‘Come on! You can do better than that,’ she said, feeling like an aerobics instructor faced by a Monday morning class.
‘Yes, Gaby,’ a faint chorus and a few smirks. She suspected they knew she wasn’t used to being in charge and were obviously looking for signs of weakness.
She soldiered on. ‘You don’t have to worry anyway, because I’ll show you the exact varieties we’re going to be working on. You’ll soon be able to tell which is which by their scent alone. I’ll be around to help if anyone has any questions or problems.’
Although, by now, she could have picked and packed with her eyes shut, it was another thing instructing a group of newbies who were staring at her as if she was the fount of all knowledge.
She grinned. ‘Come on then. Let’s get on with it before this lot is already in bloom.’
The local pointed to the nearest field. ‘That’s the field we’re doing?’ he asked incredulously.
‘What? All of it?’ a skinny guy with a Scottish accent asked. He was called Robbie, appropriately enough, thought Gaby, resisting the urge to quote Burns. That really would freak everyone out.
‘Yes. It’s perfectly doable before the end of the day. Even for beginners,’ Gaby added with a touch of sarcasm. Len would have been proud. Will must have carefully calculated exactly what the novice team could pick in the time allotted. So, she was damn well going to get it done, no matter how much they moaned.
Without giving them any more time to revolt, she marched them to the field, setting to with gusto and hoping to lead by example. However, it was frustrating work as she had to break off every few minutes to correct someone’s technique or answer questions about whether the bloom was at the right stage. Normally, Len drove the quad bike full of crates back to the packing shed, but Gaby had to do it herself, which meant she had to leave her team for minutes at a time and wait while the crates were unloaded at the packing shed and collect empty ones.
By lunchtime, they’d only done a third of the field, but everyone, including Gaby, was desperate for a break and there was no way she would expect anyone to work through.
The moment lunchtime was over, Gaby led her crew back to the field, trying to work at double the rate. Ignoring her aching back, burning arms and sore fingers, she did her best to make up the difference. Her team were more experienced now; even though they were tired, they’d had a morning’s practice and there were less interruptions. The general manager, Lawrence did her a favour by collecting some of the full crates on the quad bike and bringing empty ones back when he could spare a few minutes from the office.
By mid-afternoon, Gaby was starting to think they would come close to finishing the job but not quite. Her heart sank. She’d wanted to get it done, and show Anna, Len and Will that she could do it – and mostly, she relished the challenge. She had a feeling that Will wouldn’t be disappointed if she didn’t. Perhaps, he never really expected it, but for her own satisfaction, Gaby wanted to do it. Bizarrely, she also had the idea that she needed to do it for Stevie. There was no rational reason for this, although the analytical part of her brain suggested it was probably another way of coping with her emotions on a difficult day. It was certainly a way to keep busy and ensure she went to bed completely
