by Heidi Swain
‘I don’t understand,’ I said, looking about me and fully expecting him to walk in.
Part of me wished he would. I had missed him more than I thought I would, given what I now knew about him, and when the door swung open I held my breath, but it was just Chris. Perhaps Mags had been right, even though she wasn’t privy to all the horrid details; perhaps the time apart had helped me gain some perspective about the situation after all.
‘I thought you said you wanted to thank me in advance for entertaining Ed while you and Liam enjoy some private time this weekend?’
‘Yes,’ she said, studying the menu on the table. ‘I do.’
‘But?’
‘But what?’
‘Well there’s obviously some other reason why you’ve dragged me out and I’m guessing now that it has something to do with Will, yes?’
‘Yes,’ she said again as she carefully put the menu back down. ‘There are a couple of things he’s asked me to talk to you about, Lottie.’
‘So why couldn’t you do it back at the cottage?’ I asked.
‘I just thought a change of scene would do you good.’
‘Well, come on then,’ I said, ignoring the fact that she had my welfare at heart and just wanting to hear what she had to say. ‘What is it?’
This was like trying to get blood out of a stone. She shook her head and I began to panic. Admittedly I hadn’t known her for long, but I knew when there was something wrong, and judging by the look in her eyes and the colour of her face this was very definitely one of those occasions.
‘Hello, Lottie dear,’ cut in Chris before she had the chance to say anything else. ‘How are you? I heard you’d been in the wars.’
‘Hello, Chris,’ I said, looking up at him, ‘just a bit of a misunderstanding, that’s all.’
‘So I see,’ he said, eyeing up my bruises. ‘I bet you wish you’d let me get on with the matchmaking now, don’t you?’
‘They weren’t fighting over me!’ I laughed, keen to dispel any rumours that were being bandied about.
‘Oh right,’ chuckled Chris. ‘You sure about that, are you?’
‘Quite sure,’ I said firmly. ‘It was just crossed wires about some work that I’m having done at the cottage, that’s all.’
‘And how are you finding life out in the sticks? I’m sorry I haven’t found time to call in as often as I’d promised. I hardly know where this summer’s gone.’
‘That’s all right,’ I said. ‘I know how busy you and Marie are. It’s been lovely,’ I told him enthusiastically, although not entirely truthfully. ‘It’s everything I hoped it would be.’
‘And much more, from what I’m given to understand,’ he added quietly with a frown.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I think Chris is talking about your new business venture,’ said Mags under her breath.
‘My new what?’ I squeaked.
How on earth did either she or Chris know about that? I knew Amber wouldn’t have told anyone and I hoped I hadn’t been going about telephoning all and sundry and spreading the word myself since I’d had my bump on the head.
‘I have to say it was a bit of a surprise,’ said Chris, rubbing his chin and looking around the bar, ‘and I dare say you’ve worked out that it accounts for the less than friendly welcome you’ve no doubt received here tonight.’
I followed his gaze to the row of bar stools and discovered quite a few people had turned around and tuned into our conversation. I looked back at Mags, who shrugged her shoulders and looked apologetic.
‘Do you really know about what I’ve been planning?’ I asked.
‘We all know!’ called Jim from behind the bar.
‘I had no idea they knew,’ said Mags urgently, grabbing my wrist. ‘I never would have suggested coming here tonight if I thought it was going to be a problem. I had no idea it was already common knowledge.’
‘What was common knowledge?’ I demanded.
‘That you’re going to turn that field of yours into a massive campsite,’ said Jim.
‘That you’re planning to clear the whole area and have it tarmacked over so you can squeeze in as many touring vans and motorhomes as you can,’ chipped in Chris.
‘And drive off all the wildlife in the process,’ added the man who had tackled me at the Cherry Tree.
‘And make the drove road even more hazardous to drive down!’
I sat open-mouthed, too shocked to respond.
‘But you’ll find you’ve got a fight on your hands now, Missy,’ Evelyn harshly added as she took her place next to Jim behind the bar. ‘Folk around here won’t stand for it. Even though you’re no doubt going to try and convince us the extra visitors will be good for the cash registers and bring more business to town. It’s too much!’
‘Who has been saying this?’ I shouted. ‘Who has told you this is what I had planned for my land?’
‘Will!’ they chorused.
Even Mags mouthed his name.
‘Well, I can tell you right now,’ I said, blinking back my tears and feeling determined to stand my ground, ‘he’s wrong.’
‘Well, you would say that, wouldn’t you?’ You were probably hoping to keep the whole thing quiet until you’d got planning permission!’
‘I have no intention of applying for planning permission,’ I insisted, ‘and I would never consider clearing that field or setting up anything as destructive as what you’re all suggesting.’
‘Yeah, right!’
‘And even if I did want to use the place for something different, I couldn’t because of the agricultural restrictions which are tied to it.’
‘The what?’ said a voice behind me.
‘The rules and regulations that are going to stop me doing what I actually want to do and which is absolutely nothing like what has been suggested here tonight!’ I said, spinning round and finding myself face to face with David Miller. ‘David,’ I gasped.
‘Lottie,’ he said, looking thoroughly confused, ‘what are you talking about?’
‘The ridiculous regulations which have put a stop to me earning a living from Cuckoo Cottage and its land.’
‘But . . . ’
‘The rules that mean I’m going to have to sell up next year and move on, just as you,’ I sobbed, pointing at the aggressive ringleader, ‘said I would.’
‘Lottie!’ said David, shaking his head. ‘There are no agricultural restrictions tied to Cuckoo Cottage.’
‘What?’
‘There are no restrictions,’ he repeated. ‘I explained that to Matt ages ago. He assured me that he was going to tell you.’
Chapter 33
I didn’t catch a wink of sleep that night. Mags had bundled me out of the pub door before the scene turned really nasty and I had refused to talk about any of what had just been said and discovered during the journey home. I wasn’t going to be discussing the situation with anyone until I had got things a little clearer in my own head.
Not only did it seem I had been betrayed by Will, who for some reason had taken it upon himself to tell everyone that I was planning to turn Cuckoo Cottage into some caravanning and camping Expo, I had also been duped by Matt, who knew full well there were no ag regs but had insisted to the contrary and in the meantime had been tempting me to sell up, move on and forget my freshly formed dreams. The very dreams I was certain Gwen had had in mind for me.
Of course she would have known the glamping site would have been a possibility. There was no way she would have gone to all the bother of finding, buying and storing the Cheltenham vans if there was even a hint of a doubt that I wouldn’t be able to make use of them. I should have taken that into account when everything started to go wrong.
Bitterness threatened to engulf me as I thought how for years I had been struggling to trust folk and now, the very moment I had begun to, I had been tricked and made to look a fool, but not by everyone, I forced myself to remember.
As soon as it was light, I dressed and fed Minnie
and set out in Birdie to apologise to Mags. My dear friend hadn’t deserved my sullen company on the way home the evening before and I wanted to apologise and ask her if she could shed any light on where Will had got his twisted ideas from.
‘Well, I’ll be . . . ’ I said under my breath as Will’s barn came into view and I spotted his truck parked in the yard.
I swung into the drive, screeched to a halt, jumped out and began hammering on the door. I didn’t give his fiery temper a second thought or what Matt had said he’d done to that poor family in Afghanistan. I knew now that Matt was so full of crap that was probably all lies anyway. I hammered harder, desperate to get to the truth.
Eventually Will appeared: half dressed, half asleep and, given his expression, only half surprised to see me.
‘Why are you telling everyone I’m out to destroy my land and turn Cuckoo Cottage into some sort of camping cash cow?’ I demanded as soon as he unbolted the door.
I pushed my way into the barn and waited to hear what he had to say for himself.
‘Hello, Lottie,’ he said, closing the door and running his hands through his mad bed hair. ‘Do come in.’
Gosh, it was good to see him, with his lovely bare feet and toned, tanned torso. No, no, no, I scolded my heart and stomach which were turning my insides to mush. Focus, Lottie, focus.
‘I said—’ I began again, louder this time.
‘I heard what you said,’ said Will sternly.
‘So answer me!’ I shouted. ‘Why?’
‘Because,’ he sighed, ‘Matt said you’d told him that’s what you were planning to do. He said that’s the reason why you have those vans in the barns and why you’ve applied for planning permission to build on the field. He told me he’s been helping you fill out the applications and that you’ve asked him to go into business with you.’
‘What?’ I whispered, my legs turning to jelly.
Will shrugged.
‘But that’s, that’s bullshit,’ I stammered.
‘So you aren’t planning to run a caravan and camping site, then?’
‘Not the sort that Matt’s been describing,’ I said truthfully, ‘absolutely not, and I certainly haven’t applied for permission to do anything or asked him to go into business with me.’ Perish the thought. ‘If my idea ever does get off the ground,’ which I had to admit was still looking unlikely, ‘you’d soon see exactly how small-scale and unobtrusive the whole thing was.’
Will mulled this hopefully reassuring information over for a minute and then shocked me by adding, ‘He also said that you were the best sex he’d ever had.’ He looked slightly embarrassed as he said it and I dare say I did too. ‘And even though that might be true for all I know, I couldn’t bear to hear him talk about you like that so I laid him out.’
‘Is that why you were fighting?’ I gasped.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘What did you think it was all about?’
‘He told me that you knew I was worried about him making work up and finding problems with the cottage that didn’t exist.’
‘Well, I did know that because you’d told me, but I would never have betrayed your confidence, Lottie. I never would have said anything to him without discussing it with you first.’
Of course he wouldn’t, and I bet his reason for leaving his army career behind and settling for a quiet life in the country was nothing like the story Matt had told me either. Will was an honourable man; I should have realised that.
‘I can’t believe you thought I’d say that to him,’ he murmured, sounding disappointed.
‘And I can’t believe you thought I’d sleep with Matt,’ I shot back. ‘Or that I’d purposefully set out to destroy the wonderful wildlife on my little patch. Didn’t our conversation the day we watched Grace fly in the field mean anything to you? Did you think I was lying or making my reaction up?’
‘Of course not,’ he said, walking across to the kitchen to fill the kettle. ‘I never thought that for a single second, but the day of the argument I couldn’t think about anything other than how disrespectful Matt was being. He managed to push all my buttons and I’d just had enough.’
‘You can’t solve every argument with your fists, you know.’
‘I know that,’ he said, reaching for two mugs, ‘but I did feel better when I saw him hit the deck. I know I shouldn’t say that, but I did. In fact, I was feeling on top of the world until you came out and ended up getting hurt for your trouble. How are you, by the way?’
‘Fine,’ I said, running a hand over my pastel-shaded bruises. ‘Will,’ I said, taking a deep breath and plunging in before my courage failed me, ‘will you tell me why you left the army?’
‘Why?’
‘Because I want to hear the truth,’ I said simply, ‘from your own mouth.’
‘Has Matt been making out he knows?’
‘Yes,’ I nodded. ‘I’m afraid he has.’
Will quietly made us both coffee and then sat and relayed the tragic events surrounding his decision to leave the army. He and his colleagues had been ambushed during a routine tour of one of the towns. He was the only soldier to survive the roadside bomb and subsequent exchange of fire and was taken in and hidden by a local family. When it was discovered what the family had done, they were slaughtered without mercy by the local rebels. All were killed except the father who, it was considered, would suffer more if he was left alive with his memories.
‘It was the final straw for me,’ said Will huskily as I nursed my mug and wiped my eyes. ‘I was the reason that man had lost his family and the horror of it almost killed me. I had to get out, Lottie, and I had to help get him out.’
‘And did you succeed?’
He looked at me and didn’t say anything, but I knew in my heart that the answer was yes. Somehow he managed to secure that man’s safety in return for his life and he was going to have to live with what had happened for the rest of his life.
‘I know,’ said Will, ‘that there’s no way on this earth that this is the version of events that Matt told you because no one except George knows, and in return for my honesty, Lottie, will you now tell me what Matt told you I had done?’
I shook my head.
‘Tell me what he said to you,’ he demanded. ‘I need to know.’
I knew without a shadow of a doubt that if I told Will the lies Matt had spun about what he had done, then Matt’s life wouldn’t be worth living, and as much as I hated him right now I couldn’t live with the consequences of what Will might do.
‘Tell me why he said I left the army!’
I stood up, knowing it was time to leave. I needed to find Matt myself before he heard what had happened in the pub last night and had time to concoct more lies and half-truths about why he had befriended me and carried out all manner of unnecessary work at the cottage.
Will stood up at the same time and for the first time I felt a flicker of fear. He was so impossibly tall and strong. I was no wimp, but I was certainly no match for him.
‘Do you know,’ he said slowly, ‘do you have any idea how hard it is for me to trust people?’
‘Yes,’ I said, because I did. ‘Of course I do.’
He looked down at me but didn’t say anything.
‘My mother left me when I was very young,’ I said, looking right back up at him, ‘and I haven’t really trusted anyone aside from my grandparents and Gwen since. I thought I could trust Matt in the beginning,’ I went on, tears pricking my eyes. ‘I thought I could rely on him to shoulder some of the responsibility for bringing the cottage back to life, but I was wrong. It didn’t need bringing back because there was nothing wrong with it, but his actions won’t stop me trying to trust again.’ The faces of Chris and Amber and Mags swam before my eyes. ‘I’m not going to let what he’s done destroy my new-found faith in people and you shouldn’t either. Look at all the good people. Look at George and Mags and Ed and Amber,’ I began.
‘And you,’ he cut in huskily.
‘And me,’ I whispered.
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Thankfully there was no time for me to duck out of the way. I had barely time to take a breath before Will pulled me to him and covered my mouth with his. His body felt hard and uncompromising against mine, which yielded without hesitation to his touch. He scooped me up in his arms and carried me off and I let him. I gave in and trusted him completely.
‘Do you have to go?’ said Will, leaning across the crumpled bed and trying to pull me back down next to him.
‘Yes,’ I gasped, my resolve weakening every time his fingers touched my skin. ‘I have things to sort out.’
‘With Matt?’ he asked, propping himself up on his elbow.
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘with Matt.’
‘Then I think I should come with you.’
‘No,’ I said quickly.
The last thing I wanted to witness was another showdown.
‘I can deal with him.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Absolutely,’ I said, reaching for my clothes which lay in a heap on the floor. ‘Don’t forget I have a secret weapon.’
Will looked at my bare body and licked his lips.
‘Not that,’ I laughed, flicking him with my lacy knickers.
‘Good,’ said Will. ‘You do know I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since the day I saw you in that shower, don’t you?’
‘I’m not sure I feel comfortable about that,’ I frowned.
I wasn’t prepared to admit that I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since I had seen him in his bath towel on the day of the storm.
‘Well, it’s the truth,’ he said, lightly running his fingers down my arm. ‘So anyway,’ he said, ‘what’s this secret weapon you’re planning to terrorise your demon builder with?’
‘Minnie, of course.’
I refused Will’s offer to use his shower before I went home because I knew if he followed me inside that cubicle I’d never leave. The day was pressing on and I was determined not to waste (not that my tingling body thought for one second that being seduced by Will really was a waste) a single second of it.
However, I now knew that, thanks to Matt, my entire time living at Cuckoo Cottage so far had been built on a foundation of half-truths and fabrications and I was determined to get to the bottom of them all and find out if there really was a way I could start living the life and building the business I had been dreaming of.