The Country Escape - Jane Lovering Page 0,62

inspiration.

I read a bit, then paced a bit. Got the buns out of the oven, redid my lipstick, then went upstairs to fetch my phone.

Gabriel had texted.

Sorry, the crochet is fighting back. Might not make it today, but I’ll let you know.

Wuthering Heights hit the wall.

I changed out of the sexily cut jeans and the slim jumper, as neither of them were keeping me warm, and put on baggy cords, a chunky sweater and my boots. Then I filled up the spare bucket and went out to top up Patrick’s water.

He was standing dozing at the far side of the orchard. His big piebald head came up when he saw me, but as I was evidently carrying nothing more interesting than water, it lowered again, and his fighting-crow ears twitched a greeting. I gave him a pat, ran a quick hand over his legs, which were so hairy that he looked as though he were wearing bootleg jeans, and could have had swellings from knee to fetlock but they’d have been invisible. Yesterday’s toing and froing didn’t seem to have done him any damage, other than exhaustion. He still had plenty of hay; his net was bulging from the tree, hanging damply in the unnaturally unmoving air. The forecasted storms were, so far, not evident. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the weathermen had it wrong and Poppy’s Halloween would be unruffled.

Then, reluctantly, I went up the steps to the van. I’d just lifted my hand to knock on the door, when the top half flew open.

‘You not got any friends, then, eh?’ Granny Mary poked her head out. ‘You having to come calling on me for someone to talk to?’

‘I was just going to ask if you’d like some tea,’ I said, stiffly, because she was a little too close to the mark for my liking.

‘I’ve got a kettle.’ She pointed over her shoulder. ‘Only thing I’m short of is biscuits.’

I took the hint and went back into the kitchen, returning to the van with the secret packet of Hobnobs that I’d had hidden in the back of the pantry.

‘Come on in and have a cuppa.’ Granny Mary had waited for me, her forearms on the door ledge, regarding the torpid orchard as though she were a fisherman on a seagoing vessel waiting for a whale to hove into view. ‘Young Gabe not turned up yet, then?’

I went inside. It was dark in the van, with just the faint gleam from the fire in the stove illuminating it. Not much of the feeble October morning light was getting in through the small, high windows. It was warm and slightly fusty with the smell of shut-in wood. ‘He’s probably not coming, he’s busy.’ I tried to sound airy and as though I didn’t care at all, but had to keep focused on the view of Patrick from the window, so she couldn’t meet my eye.

‘Oh ah. And here’s you needing someone to talk to.’ The kettle went on the hob. ‘And wearing make-up.’

‘I might go to Bridport. I came to see if you needed any shopping.’ Patrick was scratching his tail against the mossy old tree, and it was simply fascinating. On the ground at his hooves, a blackbird pecked at the remains of the fallen apples, doing jumpy little hops to avoid being trodden on as Patrick wiggled his rump against the trunk.

‘Hmmm.’ Doubt dripped from the syllable.

I weakened. ‘Yes, all right, I was hoping Gabriel would be coming, but it’s complicated, Mary. You were right, I do need to talk to him about… about who I was, but it’s—’ I stopped. Couldn’t put into words what it was. ‘I don’t think I can.’

‘And, what? You think I should tell him? Save you the trouble?’

I had thought exactly that, but realised it would be a mistake almost as soon as I’d thought it. ‘No. That wouldn’t be fair.’

‘Too right.’ Mary poured the whistling kettle full of water into two mugs. Today she was resplendent in a NiN shirt with the logo ‘Help Me, I Am In Hell’. It was disconcerting apparel on a little old lady pottering around in a caravan. ‘If it doesn’t come from you, it won’t mean anything.’ She pushed a mug towards me on the little table. ‘Sit down. You’re too big in here.’

I sat on the little bench that was fitted against the side of the van and tucked my legs under the tiny table, while Mary took up station on the other