The Little Orchard on the Lane: An absolutely perfect and uplifting romantic comedy

by Tilly Tennant

  ‘Lachlan…’ she began, ‘about today…’

  She waited, and getting no response carried on.

  ‘What happened after I got stung—’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

  ‘I’m not. I’m not sorry at all. I let it go too far, but the rest of it… I loved it.’

  ‘Posy, I can’t—’

  ‘Why not?’ she demanded. ‘What’s stopping you?’

  ‘For a start you’re going back to London.’

  ‘I don’t have to.’

  ‘Of course you do. Secondly’ – his tone darkened – ‘you can do better.’

  Talk about your clichés… ‘Don’t you think I ought to decide that?’

  ‘I’m not good to be around.’

  ‘You’re a miserable pig, I’ll give you that.’

  The glow of his lantern cast his face into an odd pattern of shadows. She stepped into the circle of light and moved towards him. He gave a pained smile but didn’t step back. She’d barely seen him smile at all since she’d met him, but somehow it hadn’t seemed to matter. She’d assumed he would when he found something funny. Now, seeing the pain in this one, she wished he’d go back to being dour again.

  He held his hand out. ‘Best to be friends, eh?’

  She looked down at his gesture. It looked like they were meeting to discuss a bank loan. ‘I can’t do that.’

  ‘And I can’t do anything more.’

  ‘You like me – you must have done to kiss me today…’ she said. She sounded needy; she was probably a bit whiny, but something about him made her powerless to stop.

  ‘Of course I do! That’s the problem!’

  ‘I don’t understand… how can it be a problem?’

  ‘Please… I’m asking you for the last time – offer me friendship but don’t give me anything else.’

  A few days ago she’d have seen friendship as a triumph. Not now. She couldn’t get their kiss out of her head. How could a kiss that had burned like that mean nothing to him? How could he pretend it had never happened? She couldn’t. She’d never be able to look at him without thinking of it.

  Her voice was thick with emotion when she spoke again, but she did her best to contain it. ‘Do you still want my help tomorrow?’ They’d already agreed it, but she didn’t know what else to say.

  ‘I’ll understand if you don’t want to come.’

  ‘I said I would.’

  ‘Still, it’s a promise I wouldn’t hold you to.’

  She shook her head, still fighting to keep a grip on tears that even she didn’t understand. She was only glad it was dark so he wouldn’t notice her struggle. It wasn’t the rejection that hurt, but frustration that he was so willing to discard something she felt could be amazing. It didn’t make any sense. ‘I said I’d come and I will.’

  ‘Thank you. So I’ll see you first thing? I’ll leave the gate open.’

  She nodded silently, now afraid that if she spoke her voice would betray her.

  ‘Goodnight, Posy,’ he said.

  She turned and started the walk back down the hill, feeling more foolish than she ever had in her life.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Asa was already up when Posy went through to the kitchen at six the next morning.

  ‘Wow,’ she said. ‘What happened to your bed?’

  He gave a slight smile. ‘Couldn’t sleep.’

  ‘Anything you want to talk about or just too much coffee before you turned in?’

  ‘Neither,’ he said. ‘Speaking of coffee…’

  He held up the jar and Posy nodded. ‘It’s not Drew, is it?’

  ‘Well, he is still messaging but you don’t need to worry about that – I’m staying strong.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘You’re going up to the vineyard today?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I never heard you come in last night.’

  ‘You were snoring on the sofa so I went to bed. That’s probably why you couldn’t sleep in this morning.’

  ‘Probably,’ Asa agreed.

  ‘So much for your hour and then you’re sending out a search party,’ Posy added dryly.

  ‘I’m a terrible uncle.’

  ‘Yes, you’re rubbish. Good job you never had to babysit me when I was a kid. But you do make a great friend.’

  ‘So do you,’ he said, and then turned away to mess around at the sink, washing mugs that Posy was pretty sure were already clean, having been just fetched from the cupboard.

  ‘Asa…’ She put a tentative hand on his shoulder.

  He sniffed hard but he didn’t look round. ‘I’m just… they looked a bit dusty.’

  Posy left it. She didn’t have to ask – she understood. In a couple of days she’d be on her way back to London and this wonderful summer would be over. She was going to miss Astercombe but, more than that, she was going to miss all the people in it. She’d be able to visit, of course, but it wasn’t ever going to be like this again. Oleander House had felt like home and everyone here had become family – and not just by blood – so quickly it was like they’d always been in her life.

  ‘I thought I might lend a hand today,’ Asa said, turning to face her now and seemingly composed once more.

  ‘At the vineyard?’

  ‘You said how much there was to do and things haven’t really got going here with our harvest yet. I’ve just sent a text and cleared it with Giles.’

  Posy had hoped for this, even thought about asking, but after last night’s conversation with Lachlan she was no longer certain that she wanted to go to the vineyard today, let alone take anyone else, though she’d still woken early with the intention of going.

  ‘I thought about asking Mum to come and help when she gets here later, but I suppose she’ll be tired; it’s a long drive. Although Lachlan could certainly do with as many pairs of hands as he can get.’

  ‘Is that him talking or you?’

  ‘Me,’ Posy said with a smile. ‘He’d never admit it. He doesn’t even have Pavla there today so if we don’t go he’s on his own…’ She hesitated, but then wondered why she was hiding things from Asa. ‘I saw him last night and he was still out working.’

  ‘In the dark?’

  ‘Yes. He had a lantern but…’

  ‘You do what you have to do to get a crop in.’

  ‘You say that, but he doesn’t. He pushes everyone away who wants to help.’

  Asa appeared to weigh her up for a moment. ‘By everyone do you mean you specifically?’

  ‘No, I mean everyone.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Asa turned back to making their coffee while Posy took a seat at the table, yawning. ‘No regrets about Jackson this morning?’ he asked after a brief silence. His tone was casual but the question felt loaded.

  ‘Did you think I would have?’

  ‘No, but you came to a very swift decision after you’d dithered for so long. I wondered if something might have prompted you to change your mind like that.’

  ‘Why does everyone think everything I do is because I fancy Lachlan?’ Posy snapped.

  Asa’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. ‘Nobody’s saying that.’

  ‘I’m sorry…’ Posy traced a finger along the grain of the wood on the table. ‘The truth is I do like him. OK? Happy now that I’ve admitted it?’

  ‘You don’t owe me an explanation.’

  ‘No, but I want to get it off my chest. He drives me mad. There’s no reason on earth I ought to feel the way I do about him – he certainly doesn’t provide any. He’s rude, he’s stand-offish, he’s antisocial, arrogant, opinionated, uncommunicative, stubborn…’

  ‘Kind, principled, determined and very, very hot. He’s your classic tortured, misunderstood soul, and there’s nothing more attractive than that.’

  Posy looked up with a half-smile. ‘Pathetic, isn’t it?’

  ‘What are you going to do about it?’

  ‘Nothing. I’m going back to London after this weekend – what’s the point in doing anyt
hing?’

  ‘So it hasn’t crossed your mind to tell him how you feel before you go?’

  ‘It wouldn’t change anything.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  ‘I mean, it might change the way we thought about each other but I’d still have to leave.’

  ‘I suppose I was hoping if you two got together you’d stay after all.’

  ‘And live here? I couldn’t live here forever.’

  ‘There’s an empty building, don’t forget.’

  ‘I thought Sandra wanted to turn that into a holiday let?’

  He shrugged. ‘Plans can change. I think Giles and Sandra would agree to you renting it if you wanted to, so it would be your own place.’

  ‘What would I do for work?’

  Posy was throwing out obstacle after obstacle, but even as she did new and fantastic possibilities occurred to her, snapshots of an alternative fantasy life in which she stayed in Astercombe for good, able to live and work in this glorious place at a pace and manner of her choosing, in which she had the independence she could barely afford in London and yet caring family on the doorstep. She’d have to leave her mum, of course, but hadn’t that always been the plan? Carmel would worry far less about her if she was living with Sandra, Giles and Asa close by. And hadn’t Carmel said she’d begun to dream of a life outside London one day? Maybe eventually she could relocate to Astercombe too? As for Posy’s dad, he’d be happy with anywhere as his base, and her friends could come and visit as often as they wanted to.

  But was any of this a realistic prospect? It wasn’t as simple as upping sticks and moving her stuff in, was it?

  ‘You said one day you’d set up in business for yourself,’ Asa said. ‘Screw the job in London and do it from here.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Well, it’s miles from everything.’

  Asa frowned. ‘It’s miles from London…’ He slapped his forehead. ‘I’m so sorry; I forgot that London is, in fact, everything! What does that make the rest of the country – Scotch mist?’

  ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘No, I don’t.’

  ‘I thought you liked London.’

  ‘I do, but I don’t think it’s the centre of the universe.’

  ‘Neither do I.’

  ‘Then why can’t you find a way to work from here?’

  ‘Asa…’ Posy said, tempering the tone of frustration that was beginning to creep in, ‘I love that you want me to stay and a bit of me wants to stay too, but I’m too young to settle into a life out here. I need to build my career first and the best place for that to happen is in London. This job – it’s too good an opportunity to throw away.’

  ‘I think you’re making excuses because you’re scared to take the risk.’

  Posy sipped at her coffee but she didn’t reply. Maybe Asa was right, but this morning she felt as if she’d taken all the risks she wanted to and they hadn’t exactly turned out well for her. Risk-taking was overrated and if she got through the next ten years without having to do it again she’d be very happy.

  ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said, which was all she could say without offending her uncle with a flat-out refusal of his idea. ‘It’s a kind offer, but I think you’d make more money renting that place out to holidaymakers than you would to me.’

  ‘If you decide you need to we can talk it through with Giles and Sandra,’ he said, seeming satisfied with her answer for now. ‘Do you want some breakfast before we go out?’

  ‘It’s a bit early for me. Maybe I’ll take something for later.’

  ‘Me too,’ Asa said. ‘I thought my days of early starts were over when Giles put me in charge of the publicity for the orchard – I must be mad volunteering for this.’

  ‘Won’t you be getting up early when it’s the orchard’s turn to harvest?’

  ‘Not quite this early. After all, I can roll out of bed and walk across the courtyard, ready to go.’

  ‘Well,’ Posy said, downing the last of her coffee and realising, with a wince, that it had probably been too hot to drink that quickly, ‘we’d better get dressed and get to the vineyard if we’re going to be any use to Lachlan at all.’

  * * *

  ‘Oh…’

  If Lachlan had been surprised to see Posy he looked even more surprised to see Asa with her.

  ‘He wanted to lend a hand today,’ Posy said firmly as she saw his uncertain expression. He looked set to protest but she wasn’t going to stand for it. Besides, it was deeply ungrateful to do that with Asa standing there ready to go, and if one word along those lines came out of Lachlan’s mouth she was going to say so.

  ‘I know I look like I’d snap in a headwind,’ Asa said, cannily reading the situation and defusing it, ‘but I’m stronger than I look. I do work at the orchard, after all.’

  ‘Of course,’ Lachlan said. ‘I’m just… I wasn’t expecting you.’

  ‘I know, but I’m here now, so use me.’

  Lachlan might not have recognised Asa’s cheeky innuendo for what it was but Posy did, and on a different day she might have laughed out loud. Today she was too tense. Things that had been said and done the day before were still fresh in her mind and emotions still raw. She wondered if they troubled Lachlan the way they troubled her, but it was hard to tell with him.

  Asa shielded his eyes from the sun with an outstretched hand and gazed up at the hillside climbing away from them, row after row of vines heavy with fruit. ‘Think you can get all this in on time?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Lachlan said, throwing Posy with his candour. Perhaps he felt his white lies and bravado would be wasted on Asa, who knew enough about fruit farming to see right through them. ‘Depends if the weather holds and how many hours a day I can stand up for.’

  Asa grinned. ‘Spoken like a true farmer.’

  Posy was more than a little surprised to hear this from Asa too. He’d always seemed so at odds with his life in the countryside that she’d assumed he wasn’t attuned to it at all. But, she supposed, you didn’t grow up surrounded by apple trees and not learn a little about growing them.

  ‘I’ve only got two trucks,’ Lachlan said.

  ‘Have you got spare cutters?’

  ‘Yes; I’ll have to go and get them from the quad bike.’

  He strode off and Asa fired a grin at Posy. ‘Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.’

  ‘Maybe he’s not as stubborn as people think.’

  ‘Or maybe he’s just that desperate.’

  Whatever the reason, Posy was glad she’d decided to come after all. If only she could lock her feelings away for the next few hours she might just get through this and do a good thing in the process. And at least she had the arrival of her mum to look forward to. If anything could make her feel better it was that.

  Asa began to inspect the nearest vine. He pulled off a grape, rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger and then popped it into his mouth.

  ‘Not bad.’

  ‘I take it you’re saying that with your alcohol-brewing head on because I ate one yesterday and it was disgusting.’

  Asa laughed. ‘I wouldn’t want to live on them but they’re not that bad – a little on the dry side maybe. I would imagine they’d make a good wine.’

  ‘That’s what Lachlan said.’

  A movement at the corner of her eye made her look to see him returning. He handed a pair of cutters to each of them.

  ‘That set’s a little rusty, I’m afraid,’ he said to Asa. ‘Will you manage?’

  ‘I expect so,’ Asa said cheerfully. ‘Show me where to get started and I’ll soon find out.’

  * * *

  Asa was telling Lachlan that the forecast was for rain by the close of the weekend. Actually, as Lachlan was half a dozen vines up, Asa was shouting this information to him. He snipped away as he did, barely even looking at his work. He’d picked up the technique quickly, far quicker than Posy, who still took great care with hers, and he was now wh
ipping through the harvesting. As for the weather forecast, Posy was sure Lachlan would have checked this for himself and would be well aware, and she wondered whether Asa was simply trying to break the unbearable tension.

  Even when she wasn’t looking she could feel Lachlan’s eyes on her, and whenever she did glance up he turned quickly away. He’d barely spoken to her, apart from giving directions for their work and to inquire early on how her wasp stings were healing, but even that question seemed to have a sting of its own because recalling the wasp stings also forced Posy to recall what had happened after that, and she guessed it would do the same for Lachlan. She’d never been in a situation like this before and she didn’t know how to deal with it.

  Asa’s packing for the day was far more comprehensive too. The weather was mellow, hot and humid again as it had been the day before, but whereas Posy had come armed only with water, Asa had brought a Thermos flask full of iced pomegranate juice and a cool bag containing fruit, crudités and other nibbles for lunch. Lachlan had apologised that he’d only been expecting Posy and had made only enough cheese sandwiches for the two of them, and although Posy appreciated the gesture they looked a bit rubbish compared to Asa’s feast. Whatever talents Lachlan might have, catering wasn’t one of them.

  They’d stopped to eat when there were voices from the gate. Posy twisted on her blanket to see Carmel, Giles and Sandra walking up the hill.

  ‘Mum!’ she squealed, quite forgetting that she’d ever been in a weird mood and leaping up to go and meet her. Carmel threw her arms around her daughter and held on tight.

  ‘Look at you!’ she said as they let go, running her eye over Posy. ‘Like a regular country-dweller now, aren’t you?’

  Posy glanced down at her denim shorts and walking boots, her tanned legs bearing the scratches she’d earned walking up the hill in the dark the night before, her knees grass-stained and her top all crumpled. Carmel reached to pull a twig from her hair and held it out for Posy to see. ‘You don’t get that walking around Knightsbridge!’

  Posy laughed. ‘No. When I’m here I feel like I’m in one of those Famous Five stories you used to read to me. I keep expecting some mad old uncle to tell me not to go snooping around mysterious caves.’