A Village Feud by Rebecca Shaw Page B

cheese out of me. We’re better off without him.’
    ‘Very well. But he’s the kind who’ll tell everyone he meets about what you’ve said.’
    ‘I’m not going to fret about that. They all know me better than that scruff and they won’t believe a word he says.’
    ‘Let’s hope so.’
    But Andy had every intention of patronizing the shop, seeing how convenient it was and what good produce was available in there. He’d worked out when neither Bel nor Tom would be working, because now that Jimbo had decided to open until seven he was employing part-time assistants who only worked from five to seven in the evenings and very likely wouldn’t know about the ban seeing as they didn’t know him.
    It worked well for a while until one night when Jimbo was working late redesigning his window display and spotted Andy in the queue at the till.
    He backed out of the window and emerged within feet of Andy, balanced on his good leg. ‘Thought I told you not to shop in here, that you weren’t welcome.’
    ‘Well, desperate, you know, for milk and that, so I thought you wouldn’t mind.’
    ‘Well, I do. So please pay for your shopping and leave and don’t come back.’
    ‘Jenny’s got a client tonight so I’m fending for myself. Thought one little trip to get myself into your good books would be—’
    ‘Well, it isn’t all right. I can well do without your patronage. Now, pay and go.’
    Andy turned round to speak to the other two people in the queue. ‘See what treatment I’m getting. This is all because I brought some ham back that had gone off. And this is how he treats me. Not much of the feelgood factor about that, is there? Him and his reputation. What’s he doing selling bad food, eh?’
    But he got little satisfaction from his tirade because it was the two Senior sisters waiting and they frequently came at this time to get the best chance of buying bread and milk at reduced prices because Jimbo wouldn’t allow it to be on sale after the sell-by date.
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ one of them said. ‘He never sells food that’s gone off. Never. Hurry up and pay and let us have our turn.’
    There wasn’t anyone else to whom he could appeal and Andy saw he was out of luck. Furious because he couldn’t make a display of his supposed discontent and spread the word about Jimbo’s tarnished reputation he said angrily, ‘Here, keep the lot. I don’t want any more of your mouldy old food. You can have it.’ He emptied his wire basket out onto the counter and didn’t bother when the eggs and the bacon landed on the floor and the eggs smashed. He stormed out, livid with temper, only to be greeted by an explosion of temper from Jenny who was waiting for the eggs and bacon to make an omelette for their evening meal.
    ‘And no milk, either. You are a blithering idiot. What are you? A blithering idiot. All because you want to ruin him. I tell you, you’ve set yourself an impossible task.’
    ‘I’m quite angry enough without you turning on me. The sod. It finished up with me leaving all my shopping behind, including a box of those chocolate brazils you adore.’ Andy didn’t even have the grace to have his fingers crossed behind his back.
    ‘Oh! You sweetheart, you darling boy. Well, it’s a jam butty for the two of us.’
    ‘You mean there’s nothing else in?’
    ‘My very words. So you’ll have to take me shopping in Culworth tomorrow. I don’t like driving when the roads are busy.’
    Andy let loose a stream of bad language which infuriated Jenny and in an instant they were fighting like cat and dog. Andy swiped at Jenny and accidentally broke a cut-glass vase that had belonged to her mother and which she genuinely prized. In retaliation she dumped some files of his in the water from the broken vase, which was now spreading across the kitchen table.
    Jenny wept real tears over her broken vase and Andy furiously mopped his files with the crocheted mat from the centre of the table.
    ‘Right