Escape to the Country

by Patsy Collins

  "Leah," Jayne interrupted. "Don't worry about it. There was nothing in that wardrobe that could be damaged by a drop of rain. I keep the few fancy outfits I do have somewhere safe."

  "You mean you knew the roof would leak?"

  "It's old thatch and an ancient cottage, so it's hardly a surprise."

  "If it's not a surprise then there's even more reason for your landlord to have done something about it before now."

  "He has. It's been regularly maintained, but thatch doesn't last forever. It's got to the stage of needing to be completely replaced. That's a major job and not that easy to arrange, but I expect it's all in hand. Come on now, we don't want to fall out over G-B do we?"

  "No, of course not. He's caused me enough trouble already." She saw Jayne's face and added, "Sorry."

  "What is it with him? I don't understand how you can so dislike someone you've never met."

  "You don't like Adam and you've never met him. Maybe it's something that runs in the family?"

  Jayne looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged. "Maybe. Now, brace yourself, we're going to get the chicken feed next."

  "Chicken feed doesn't sound scary."

  "It's not. I meant Jim the feed mill's manager. Not that he's scary, he's just... Well, you'll see."

  "Is Jim the one who sends the Christmas Valentine cards?"

  "Yes."

  They put Leah's purchases into the pick-up and drove to the yard to buy chicken feed. First they went into the office and Jayne paid for two sacks of mixed corn, a bag of organic layer pellets and ordered milk powder to be ready for when she got her lambs.

  "We pay here, then take the receipt to the mill to collect the feed," she explained.

  "Do they sell dog food too?"

  "Yes, but Tarragon's got plenty for now."

  "I promised him some chews," Leah said. She turned to the lady on the counter. "I'd like the biggest pack of the best dog treats you do."

  The woman tapped on her computer. "They're thirty-two pounds twenty-seven, plus VAT."

  "Fine, I'll have them," Leah said. She had no idea how much dog food cost, but thirty odd pounds was a small price to pay for being rescued and introduced to Dishy Duncan.

  "You'll have to stay for months now, Leah," Jayne said. "If Tarragon eats that lot this side of midsummer he's going to explode."

  They drove round to the mill to collect their purchases.

  A forklift appeared and Leah was impressed to see it carried their order.

  "Whatever you do, don't giggle, it only encourages him," Jayne said.

  Guessing she was referring to the driver, Leah asked, "How did he know what we wanted?"

  "Well, out here in the country we have these magic boxes that tell us stuff like that. I think they're called computers. You city types should get them, I'm sure they'd help with keeping your accounts straight too."

  Leah could have apologised for having thought everything in the country belonged in the past or even have pointed out that a computer seemed to have done the exact opposite of keeping her and Mr Gilmore-Bunce's accounts straight. She could have if her mind hadn't gone into shock at the sight of Jim throwing his arms around Jayne and lifting her off her feet. As Jayne was squealing and giggling like a schoolgirl it wasn't likely she was aware of Leah's lack of response.

  Jim, it had to be him, was well over six feet six. Leah could tell that much by the way Jayne's feet were nearly level with his knees and yet he still had to bend his head to kiss her. That was something he was doing with considerable enthusiasm. Leah couldn't help wishing she had a man who greeted her like that. Maybe she could; Duncan was, she knew, strong enough to lift her off her feet.

  Eventually Jim released Jayne and demanded an introduction to Leah.

  "Can't kiss a girl, even one as pretty as this, without knowing her name, can I?"

  "This is my niece, Leah. Leah, this is Jim."

  "I rather thought it might be. Hello, Jim."

  Leah, sure no amount of bracing would protect her if Jim really did try to kiss her, offered a hand to shake. Jim took it in his. Although his huge hand completely covered hers, he was very gentle.

  "So you girls have been talking about me, have you?" he asked, winking at Leah and keeping hold of her hand.

  "Yes and it was all bad, so don't you go getting yourself a big head, Jim Applemore!"

  "Too late, Jayne my love. I've got a big everything." He winked again and Leah felt a giggle build up. In an effort not to laugh she looked away from Jim's grinning face, down past her where her hand disappeared into his and right to the ground where she saw the most enormous pair of wellingtons in existence. Even Duncan's would look small next to Jim's. Surely he had to have them specially made?

  The giggle escaped. Instantly she was airborne and giddy. Jim had kissed her and set her back down again before she realised he'd picked her up and swung her around just as he'd done with Jayne. Well, it was almost the same. He'd given Jayne a full on snog but contented himself to a loud kiss on each cheek in Leah's case. If anything remotely like this had happened in her office at Prophet Margin she'd have slapped the man's face and filed a report for sexual harassment. This wasn't her office though and Leah was giggling just as Jayne had done. Big as he was, it was impossible to imagine Jim's greeting was anything more than excessively friendly.

  Jim loaded the first sack of feed into Jayne's pick-up as though they were no heavier than a loaf of bread. That left two more sacks and a huge box, which Leah guessed must be the milk powder,

  "Oh, you'll need this for my order," Leah said, offering her receipt.

  "No need, I've got them here." He indicated the box which was bigger than Tarragon himself.

  "Oh. Crikey."

  "Don't worry, the chews are all in smaller boxes inside, so they'll keep all right. They for Tarragon?"

  "Yes, he rescued me, well sort of. Really Duncan rescued me, but Tarragon fetched him."

  "Duncan? Now don't break my heart and tell me you've got a boyfriend?"

  Leah giggled.

  "She means Duncan, Mr Gilmore-Bunce's new foreman," Jayne explained.

  "But G-B hasn't..."

  "Yes, he has," Jayne interrupted.

  "Oh, right. I've not met him yet. Nice is he?"

  "Yes," Leah admitted and felt herself blush.

  "Ah, I see." Jim laughed. "Glad to know a country lad can turn the head of a city girl."

  Leah wasn't sure she could explain her head hadn't been turned because she rather suspected it had, so instead she asked why Jim was so sure she was a city girl.

  "I can tell you're down from the bright lights of London. Must be because I can see them shining in your eyes. They'd put the stars to shame."

  Leah couldn't help it, she burst into giggles again. Jayne was right about that only encouraging him, luckily most of his outrageous compliments were directed at Jayne, but Jim didn't leave Leah out of the conversation.

  Jayne mentioned they'd been into town buying new clothes.

  "You don't need them, Jayne. You look gorgeous in anything," Jim said.

  "Even this?" Jayne indicated the jacket which was probably once waxed and green but was now just held together by the grease from Rosemary the cow and the sheep's coats and by farmyard grime.

  "Absolutely." He caressed her shoulder. "Nice coat this, you know what it feels like?"

  "No?" Jayne said.

  "Girlfriend material."

  Leah giggled again.

  "You think I'm corny, don't you?" he asked Leah.

  She did a bit, but that didn't mean it wasn't fun to hear his outrageous compliments and she wouldn't at all mind having a man, provided it were the right man, look at her the way Jim was looking at Jayne.

  "Well..." She hesitated. Although she didn't want to cause offence by agreeing too easily, neither did she wish to imply she took his every word at face value.

  "So would you be if you handled this stuff all day." He pointed to the load of mixed corn on the tines of his fork
lift. "Suppose we'd better get it into the truck."

  He did the job quickly, then kissed both women good bye.

  "Nice man, hope I didn't offend him laughing at his chat-up lines," Leah said as they drove home.

  "He is nice, far too nice to be offended over someone's amusement. He likes to make people happy."

  "He certainly seems to like you and I got the distinct impression he'd like to make you very happy!"

  "Oh, he likes me all right, but then Jim likes everybody, at least everybody who's female. I bet he'd even flirt with Rosemary."

  Leah could well believe he'd flirt with a Jersey heifer if it'd get a laugh from Jayne, or even provoke jealousy, but that didn't stop her believing Jim had more than a passing interest in Jayne.

  "I think there's more to it than that."

  "No, lovey there isn't - take it from me. He was flirting with you too, wasn't he?"

  "Not like he was with you."

  "He doesn't know you as well as he knows me."

  And Leah didn't know him well enough to judge how he felt about Jayne. Come to think of it she was rubbish at judging how any man felt about any woman if her relationship with Adam was anything to go by.

  Leah had two missed calls on her phone. In London if she'd left it on her desk to go to fetch a coffee she could have that many. Odd how quickly she'd got into the habit of leaving it behind and strange that with only Jayne to talk to instead of constantly checking her e-mails and messages she felt that possibly for the first time in years she was actually communicating.

  The first number was Adam's and he'd left a message. The second was that of her colleague Rachel - a text asking her to call. Leah called her first. Cowardly perhaps but she thought it would be easier to listen to what Adam had to say if she had some warning first about how things were at work. She was also curious about why Rachel wanted to speak to her; hopefully not just to gloat over her troubles.

  "So what's it like stuck out in the sticks?" Rachel asked. "As dull as I imagine?"

  "There's no coffee shop for miles, no broadband signal, a bus twice a day, a couple of pubs but they don't serve cocktails."

  "Hell!" Rachel said.

  "Actually I'm finding it quite restful, but I expect you'd get bored pretty quickly."

  "I'll rest when I'm dead, thanks. Enough of the small talk, I have some good news for you. "

  "Tell me."

  "The top brass here at Prophet Margin have seen sense over this Gilmore-Bunce fiasco and are going to conduct a proper enquiry."

  "Oh good."

  "You don't sound very pleased. I assumed it's good news and you haven't decided to make yourself a wood cabin and marry a sheep?"

  "No, not that. It's just that they were so quick to suspend me without even giving me a chance to say a word in my own defence and not even letting me back into the building to collect my belongings that I'm not sure they're going to really look into it properly."

  "They what? That's dreadful!"

  "It is and what's to say the enquiry won't be more of the same? I know how easy it is for a company like that to blame the last one in and hush everything up as quickly as possible."

  "Ah, but you don't know who's conducting this enquiry."

  "Not Adam Ferrand?" It didn't seem likely that he'd jump to her defence, but she couldn't think who else it could be.

  "No, although it's funny you should mention his name in connection with this. It's me, Leah. I'm going to conduct this enquiry and believe me I'm not going to let them blame an innocent party."

  There was no doubting the sincerity in the other woman's voice.

  "Thank you, Rachel. I , I don't know what to say."

  "I like to get my teeth stuck into something and I can just feel there's more to this than meets the eye. At first I thought you'd simply made a mistake or even series of them and had been hustled out the way to stop you doing more of the same and so they could cover everything up before big investors got wind of it, but if that had been the case I think you'd have been paid off by now. Much better for them to put all the blame on an ex employee than a current one, don't you think?"

  "But now you don't think I made a mistake?"

  "No, I don't. I'm almost positive that someone deliberately messed up that deal and I'm going to find out who and why. "

  "Thank you. I hate to think of anyone believing I'd cheat people who'd put their trust in me."

  "Me to. That's why I was so annoyed about the Christmas party."

  Rachel was annoyed? It was Leah who'd been given the wrong address and made to look a fool. At least that's what she'd thought at the time. Maybe she'd been too quick to misjudge her?

  "Was I wrong, you didn't give the taxi driver the wrong address?"

  "No, of course I didn't. Why would I?" Rachel asked. She sounded offended.

  "I assumed to keep me out of the way."

  "Whoever it was who had you dropped off in a particularly dodgy part of the city at nine o'clock at night presumably did want you out the way, but I promise you it wasn't me."

  Leah believed her. Now she thought about it, if Rachel had done such a thing, she would have just laughed at how successful she'd been, not get upset and deny the accusation.

  "Sorry. I shouldn't have been so quick to blame you."

  "Water under the bridge, sweetie. Anyway, I did all right for myself without your redhead charms attracting all the attention. I can't prove who caused the trouble that time, but I think it's the same person as has got you involved in this mess, and I'm bloody well going to get him this time!"

  Any lingering doubts, that her problem wouldn't be properly looked into, evaporated.

  "Thanks, Rachel. What happens now?"

  "I'm going through all the paperwork first. Boring and probably won't help, but it's silly to overlook the obvious. Then I have to get crafty, believe me I can if I need to."

  Again, Leah believed her.

  "I might as well tell you that Adam Ferrand is involved in this somewhere."

  Leah gasped. What did Rachel mean by involved? In the fraud, or in the investigation?

  "You'd guessed that hadn't you, that's why you mentioned him."

  "Well..." If Adam was trying to help her, she didn't want to cause trouble for him.

  "Can you tell me why?" Rachel asked.

  "Not without betraying a confidence."

  "OK, I won't ask you to do that now, but if I guess or get told about it, will you confirm it?"

  "Yes, I will." It would be a relief to be able to talk to someone about her relationship with Adam and if Rachel found out, it would no longer be a secret. Leah gave Rachel her temporary address at Primrose Cottage; she didn't want it to appear she'd run away.

  Leah listened to the message from Adam. He was sorry he'd been so unfriendly on the phone when they'd last spoken. "I had a lot on my mind, but that's no excuse. You have enough worries of your own and I shouldn't burden you with my problems. Anyway, I hope you're having fun with your aunt. We'll speak soon. By the way, don't forget it's your parents wedding anniversary on the third."

  What was that all about? It was almost as though he regretted their split. Sweet of him to remind her about the anniversary too. She was terrible at thinking of buying cards in advance and probably would have left it too late to post one to New Zealand if he hadn't given her a nudge. He'd always been good at keeping her organised in that way. Even though he didn't know the people involved, he understood it was important to her to stay in touch. He'd not met any of her family when they visited London, but he always booked a comfortable hotel room for them, arranged taxis and suggested suitable places for Leah to take them.

  Suddenly she missed him and played the message again, just to hear his voice. Was this just another way of manipulating her, or was he simply trying to be nice? Either way it looked as though if she cleared her name she had a chance to get him back - if that's what she wanted.

  Chapter 5

  Leah awoke in a tangle of sheets, wondering where she
was. She'd had a confusing dream where nothing and no one were as they seemed. No doubt because her waking life had the same problems. No, that wasn't right. In real life, her problem was that everything was revealed to be exactly as it appeared. She'd worried her boyfriend was a commitment phobe who'd not fight for her, that rich and powerful men such as Mr Gilmore-Bunce could ruin her life on a whim and that her employers would drop her rather than lose his business. She'd also known Jayne would welcome and support her and she'd been right. She was right too, in thinking she deserved better than the poor treatment she'd received from the others.

  Jayne might be glad of help cleaning out the pigsties but she didn't demand Leah do all the dirty jobs and certainly didn't treat her as though that were all she was capable of.

  Leah's work problems could work in her favour. Once her name was cleared, Prophet Margin would have to apologise, admit she was trustworthy and treat her with respect. So would Adam. He'd expected her to always be available to do what he wanted, when he wanted, yet never had time for her friends or family. She suspected he'd only agreed to buy the flat with her because he couldn't raise a large enough mortgage himself and not because he really wanted to commit to owning a home with her. If they got back together it would be on her terms. He'd have to acknowledge her at work and he'd definitely have to come with her to Winkleigh Marsh.

  She leapt out of bed full of confidence and enthusiasm and dressed in her new pink sweater. In her bedroom it looked even brighter and clingier than it had in the shop. Leah grinned at her reflection as she imagined Adam's expression were he to see her in it. That was the least of what he'd have to get used to. As she trotted down stairs, she was pleased to notice that already her muscles were aching far less than they had after her first day of hard work.

  Leah added brown sauce to her plate of sausages and fried eggs.

  "Have you milked Rosemary?" she asked.

  "Yes, of course."

  "Oh, I thought maybe you'd teach me how to do it."

  "OK, but your lessons had better be during afternoon milking. I can't see you getting up before six."