“You sure you’ve never done this before?” asked Lenny, grinning and breathing heavily.
“You are a demon,” said Adrian, before diving in for another taste of Lenny’s mouth. At the same time, he lined up their bulges and began to move his hips forwards, to rub them together, even though they were both constrained by the material of their briefs. No matter, the friction felt incredible, and if the noises coming from below meant anything, Lenny enjoyed the sensation, too.
Adrian braced his arms either side of Lenny’s head, savouring the kiss and freeing Lenny’s hands to roam. Pinching both nipples to bring them alive, Lenny rubbed his thumbs around the sensitive flesh before smoothing both hands down from his chest to his stomach. This time Adrian moaned into Lenny’s mouth and began moving faster, pressing their erections harder together. When Lenny wrapped his arms around Adrian’s neck and wound his legs tightly around Adrian’s waist, he pulled away to take a breath. After their eyes met briefly and he dove back to graze his teeth along Adrian’s neck, Adrian almost lost control. But Lenny was the one to come undone first, his body stuttering and shuddering through his orgasm, with Adrian not far behind.
Adrian flopped onto his back next to Lenny, both of them staring at the ceiling. After a few moments Adrian felt Lenny’s hand thread into his own—another type of intimacy he had never allowed himself. The simple act had him as confused as the kiss, and rather than give in to the instinct to pull his hand away, he decided to lie there and savour the moment. Lenny was affecting him in a way nobody had ever done, and although he found the effect confusing, even a little worrying, he trusted Lenny.
“Okay. So. Messing my underwear wasn’t quite what I had in mind,” came Lenny’s amused voice.
“You didn’t enjoy it?”
“I loved it,” said Lenny, squeezing Adrian’s hand. “I—what we just did is a first for me. Not the kissing part. But you keep surprising me, Ade.”
“Same here.”
“Really? You’re an amazing kisser, by the way.”
“And that, believe it or not, was a first for me.”
“Was it good?”
“Better than. And even though we need to go shower and change now, I’ll give you whatever else you need later tonight, when we’re back here. Deal?”
“Shit.”
“What?”
Adrian sensed Lenny turn his way and met his gaze.
“I wish I wasn’t heading off tomorrow now. Imagine what we could be doing if—”
“You’re coming back next weekend, aren’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Then we can hold off for a week. Think of the sexual anticipation. Toni will be gone by Friday. Maybe you can check with your work folks and see if you can come down a little earlier.”
“I just checked with the boss. He said it’s fine.”
Adrian laughed as Lenny jumped up from the bed and held out a hand.
“Come on. The sooner we see Freya, the sooner we can get back in bed.”
* * * *
They parked up outside the pub just as the heavens opened. Torrential rainclouds had darkened the sky as they made their way from the house. Fortunately, Adrian had picked a spot in front of the main door and let Lenny out first before racing over to join him.
Lenny pointed out Pippa Redfern, sitting inside the pub by a bay window, overlooking the gloom of the waterlogged back garden and village green. Facing their way, she waved as they entered, and Adrian wondered if he imagined relief in her expression. The woman sitting opposite turned her head slightly but not enough to see them. She had a shock of pure white hair, worn long and wild, tamed only by thin braids tied off at the back. Both women had hardly touched their drinks, so when Lenny waved back, Adrian opted to get beers for them both.
“Now there’s a sight you don’t see every day,” said Mrs Megan Llewellyn, pulling a pint and nodding over Adrian’s shoulder to where Lenny joined the ladies.
“Freya Williams?” asked Adrian.
“She rarely leaves home these days. Once a month, maybe, she drives to get her food shopping over in the big store in Llandrindod Wells, which in itself is strange because she’s known to be a bit of a recluse. Surprised she doesn’t opt for home delivery. Would have thought she’d hate the crowds in that big store.”
“I don’t know. Sometimes you can hide a lot easier in huge, busy places.”
“Fair point. One thing I know for sure, though. Last time she came in here must have been over twenty years gone when her grandmother passed. I’ve not seen her here since. And I’m surprised to see her with Pippa. The two fell out years ago, not long after Freya’s brother went off on his travels. Is she here for your Mr Day?”
“She is, yes,” said Adrian, grinning. An oddly warm feeling filled him hearing her label Lenny as your Mr Day. “Mrs Redfern suggested Lenny talk to her about Luke.”
Megan shook her head slightly while looking down at the pint glass she filled.
“For whatever good it’ll do now. But I suppose he would be interested, being family and all.”
“I think that’s it, in a nutshell. Pure curiosity.”
Megan carefully set the second pint down in front of Adrian.
“And we all know what curiosity did to the cat, now don’t we?”
Rather than listen to her elucidate, Adrian handed over the money.
“Keep the change,” he said.
When Adrian brought the drinks over and took a seat, Lenny did a quick round of introductions. Adrian sat on the same side of the table as Pippa. He noticed Freya hugging a cloth carrier bag to her chest and barely looking at any of them as Lenny talked. Adrian realised then just how deft Lenny was at small talk, telling Freya how he had become the owner, about their progress on the renovations and his plans for the future of the place.
“You’ll be pleased to hear that my team is set to start first thing Monday if that’s okay by you?” said Pippa, and then to Freya. “Leonard has hired my company to do the landscaping.”
“That’s great news. Not sure I said on the phone, but I won’t be around. I need to get back to London,” said Lenny. “But Adrian here will be staying on all next week. He can give you access to the house if you need anything.”
“Thanks. Good to know.”
“I’ve got another contractor coming to join me,” added Adrian. “We’re doing some structural work. And then it’s plastering and sorting out the flooring. But Lenny has some firm ideas on that.”
“Used to be lovely,” said Freya, surprising everyone.
“Sorry?” said Adrian.
“Freya’s right. The house used to have lovely varnished floorboards,” said Pippa. “Until Mrs Darlington insisted on covering everything up with that dreadful linoleum.”
“Cheap. The woman was cheap,” said Freya, and Adrian couldn’t quite stifle a chuckle.
Having heard Freya speak, Lenny asked her a few gentle questions about what she did for a living. They found out she worked from home for an examination board helping to set the curriculum for national school examinations, as well as providing online tuition for students. She answered other questions guardedly, with few words. They discovered she lived alone, or at least with her two rescue cats. From the little she spoke, Adrian guessed Megan had been right, that she rarely left her home or mixed socially.
“Can I ask? When did you first meet Luke?” asked Lenny.
“When would that have been, Freya? Back in the seventies? I’m the oldest, and I’d have been around fourteen, so you’d all have been, what, twelve?”
“Twelve, yes. We were the same age, Luke, Howard and me,” blurted Freya, turning to Lenny. “But Luke was an old twelve, if you know what I mean?”
“True,” said Pippa. “A bundle of energy and fun around us, but serious otherwise. He was only usually here for three or four weeks over the school summer holidays, but we all took to him immediately.”
“Have you met the brother and sister?” asked Freya.
&nbs
p; “Only Matthew,” said Lenny.
“They took after their mother,” said Pippa, with a slight roll of her eyes. “Accompanying her on long walks in the countryside. Reading aloud to each other in the back garden. Church service on Sunday mornings followed by lunch in the gardens here. Then home for a simple tea in the afternoon. Like a family out of a Victorian novel.”
“Doesn’t sound so bad,” said Adrian.
“Mrs Darlington had her rules. They only read sanctioned books—which often resulted in them defaulting to Bible passages. And nobody was allowed to speak during their walks, except to smile and say hello to any fellow ramblers they met along the way. They had a television in the house nobody was allowed to watch. She forbade them from making friends here, because she said this was a temporary home and local children would most likely be unsuitable—”
“And yet Luke found you,” said Adrian.
“We found each other,” said Freya, which seemed an odd thing to say.
“Luke was a bit of a rebel,” said Pippa, giggling at the memory. “Just like in Star Wars, he used to say. The three of us—Freya, Howie and me—were sitting together on the village green the day he appeared. He wandered over to say hello while the rest of his family were finishing their lunch. Just plonked himself down, he did, cross-legged without waiting for an invitation. But he was one of those people you just gravitated towards. I remember seeing his mother get up and march over to get him, and that’s when I saw the annoyance in his eyes. Before she was within earshot, he’d arranged for us to meet up the next day, same place, same time. Said he would find an excuse to get away from them. And he did.”
“Did their father ever come with them?”
Pippa looked across at Freya.
“I never met him. Did you?”
“Once or twice,” said Freya. “And then he only stayed a couple of days. Luke said he worked really hard.”
“Strange,” said Lenny, sadly. “To think the two of you know members of a family I never met.”
Freya stared at him and appeared to remember something at that remark. She pulled the bag away from her chest and drew out a large brown envelope.
“I brought some old photographs. Ones I’ve kept over the years. Thought you might like to have a look.”
She reached inside and placed the small pile into the middle of the table. While Lenny sorted through the Polaroids with Pippa, Adrian picked up the single, larger monochrome shot of the group, worn and wrinkled but still sharp and clear, taken using what must have been a quality, maybe even professional, camera.
In the photo, the young man who was obviously Luke sat cross-legged in the middle of them all, beaming happily at the camera. In the bloom of youth, he had been a beautiful boy—transitioning into a handsome young man—with similar features to young Lenny and even sporting the same messy mop of chestnut hair Adrian remembered on Lenny from school. No wonder Pippa thought she had seen Luke’s ghost when she came to the house. To his left, the somewhat masculine features of a young Freya had been caught in a candid moment as she smiled adoringly at Luke, so different from the tired and faded woman sitting opposite. Pippa on Luke’s right, also caught unexpectedly, had been captured as she glanced sideways up at the camera. Older than the rest, she sat almost kneeling with her legs tucked to one side, a thick textbook open on the grass in front, her fair hair worn long and falling over one side of her pretty face. In the background, a boy that had to be Howie crouched down behind Luke, his tongue poked out and his hands placed either side of his forehead to look like antlers. Even pulling the funny face, and except for wearing his dark hair short, the resemblance to Freya was unmistakable. Overtly masculine, he had the same square chin and a Roman nose, the same bright eyes beneath thick eyebrows.
“My father took that one. In their back garden at Bryn Bach,” said Freya.
“I thought you said Luke’s mother didn’t like him having friends to the house?”
“She didn’t,” said Pippa. “But like I said, he used to come down at least a week earlier. To get the place ready for the family, he’d say. His dad was in sales and the head office was in Shrewsbury, so he used to drop Luke off here. And then we’d all usually help Luke out. The rest of the time, we’d just hang out together.”
“His real family,” added Freya.
“Can you show me the photo?” asked Pippa.
Adrian handed her the picture, and they examined the group together.
“Goodness,” said Pippa, chucking softly, running her fingers over the surface. “I remember this well. I must have been twenty, in my second year at Durham, studying business management. That’s my huge economics book laid out in front of me.”
“How old would Luke have been?” asked Lenny.
“Eighteen,” said Freya. “Same as me. But he always looked and acted older.”
“Who’s this?” asked Lenny, holding a Polaroid up.
In the faded photo a chubby girl with her brown hair tied back in a severe ponytail ate the remains of an ice lolly, her lips a deep raspberry colour.
“That’s Mary, Matthew’s twin sister,” said Pippa. “She was okay. In small doses. Fancied the pants off of Howie. She’d often agree be Luke’s decoy, telling his mother they’d gone for a hike so Luke could meet up with us. He’d bribe Mary with ice creams and sweets and the promise of time with Howie so she wouldn’t snitch on him. We still exchange Christmas cards each year.”
“Is anyone eating?” asked Adrian, halfway through his beer.
The question appeared to stir something in Freya, and she quickly finished her drink.
“I have to go,” she said, squeezing into her waterproof and pulling a closed umbrella from her bag. “My cats need feeding. And I have dinner already prepared at home.”
Adrian noticed the disappointment in Lenny. He’d enjoyed looking through the old photographs.
“Well, thanks for coming and showing us these, Freya—” he began, collecting them up and placing them back into the envelope.
“No, no,” she said, putting her bony hand on top of his. “I brought these for you. I thought you’d like to keep them. I have copies of the larger ones and lots of other Polaroids.”
With Freya gone, they ordered food and drinks, and the atmosphere relaxed noticeably. Pippa handed an envelope to Lenny— the contract for the landscaping work—which Lenny skimmed through and signed at the table. Adrian took the opportunity to chat with Pippa.
“Freya was in love with Luke, wasn’t she?”
Pippa choked on the vodka she had been drinking.
“How did you know?” she asked, eyes wide.
“The large photo,” said Adrian. “It’s so obvious. She was totally smitten.”
“You know, she absolutely hated when Luke gave me any attention. We fell out about it a couple of times. But I think all of us were a little bit in love with him, to be honest. Even Howie. Luke was like the brother he never had.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” said Adrian. “Luke had a certain charisma, didn’t he? So he and Howie were only ever friends, if you know what I mean?”
Pippa became pensive then.
“I was the one Luke confessed to. About him not being interested in girls. I think he sensed my attraction to him and wanted to let me down gently. But I’ve often wondered if there was something more between him and Howie. We spent a lot of time together, so if there was, well, let’s just say they kept everything well hidden. I remember one year both Luke and Howie got chatting to an Australian guy, a good-looking casual worker on a local farm, but I think that was more about research for Howie. He wanted to know the best places to visit in Australia. And then, of course, he disappeared off on his travels come his twenty-first birthday.”
“When was this?”
“Howie disappearing? The year before Luke killed himself. But honestly, I feel sure the two things aren’t connected. Howie’s intention to escape wasn’t a secret. For four years he’d worked a bunch of part-time jobs and saved up money t
o do exactly that, to go travelling once he was past his teens.”
“Did you ever hear from him again? After he left?” asked Lenny, looking up.
“No. Not even a postcard. But that doesn’t surprise me. Luke devoured books and enjoyed writing letters and postcards. Howie read comic books and signed the occasional greetings card, but that was about it. He wanted adventures, the wilder the better. Planned to travel and work his way around the world. And as I said, he couldn’t wait to get away from Hobbiton, as he called this place.”
“How about Freya? He must have kept in touch with her.”
“So there’s another thing. They may have had some similarities in appearance, but they had very different interests and rarely got along. Which was one of the reasons my mother asked me to befriend Freya. Luke was the one who brought us all closer somehow, partly because we were all so fond of him.”
“What about Freya’s mother and father?”
“For the most part, they were brought up by their grandmother,” said Pippa, and she appeared uncomfortable telling the story. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding indelicate. Freya and Howard were born out of wedlock. Their father had just turned sixteen, and had a holiday fling with a nineteen-year-old from Manchester, down this way for their summer holidays. A year later the girl’s parents turned up the doorstep and gave him an ultimatum. Either he took the babies or the girl’s parents would put them up for adoption. Mrs Williams, Freya and Howie’s grandmother, was a thoroughly decent woman, and agreed immediately. And with the help of her son, the father, they raised them both.”
“Is the father—?” asked Lenny.
“No, he’s dead. So is the grandmother. I think Freya’s grandmother’s death seriously affected her. Even as a kid she was never particularly outgoing, but the loss of the steadying presence of her grandmother sent Freya further back into her shell.”
Everyone fell silent for a moment, contemplating the story.
“Well, this has been a fun evening,” said Adrian at last, which at least raised a chuckle from Lenny and Pippa. Right at that moment, their food order arrived. “Tell you what, Pippa. To distract us and lighten the mood, why don’t you tell us what plans you have for the gardens of Bryn Bach?”
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