by Heidi Swain
Armed with sandwiches, a couple of bottles of juice and some apples from the pantry, we ventured out into the yard. It was a warm day, clear and bright and nothing like the wet and windy evening that heralded our arrival the night before. However, not even the cloud-free skies could show the collection of ramshackle buildings in a better light. Everything carried an air of neglect and, although even to my novice eye nothing looked completely beyond repair, it was immediately obvious that there was work to do, and plenty of it.
Taking a few more steps away from the house and shielding his eyes from the glare of the warming spring sun, Jake stared long and hard at the roof of the house.
‘That’s going to have to be my first job,’ he informed me, pointing at an ineffectual piece of tarpaulin that had obviously slipped in the gale the day before.
Where there should have been three, possibly four tiles, there was a gaping hole and exposed rafters, which no doubt accounted for the avant garde addition of the metal bucket to the decor in our bedroom.
‘I need to replace some tiles up there and repair some of the others,’ Jake continued. ‘That hole is right up above our room. I don’t know if you noticed,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘but the rain is actually coming through the ceiling now. Annie’s put a bucket in there to catch the drips.’
‘Yes,’ I said with a nod, ‘it had caught my eye.’ I didn’t mention that it had also kept me awake half the night.
‘Right,’ he smiled, clearly undaunted by the thought of scrambling about on the roof, ‘we’ll start with the hens. I’m hoping you’ll be taking them on from tomorrow, assuming, of course, your hand is OK.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘Come on, let’s get started.’
I swallowed hard and followed on as Jake made his way over to the little shed that stood closest to the house. Bella and Lily, clearly unimpressed with the tour having been on it countless times before, wandered off leaving me to explore my new office in peace.
‘We’ve only got three hens at the moment,’ Jake explained. ‘We did have half a dozen just a few weeks ago, but the fox has been busy, I’m afraid.’
‘You mean it’s killed them?’ I asked horrified.
‘Yep,’ Jake nodded, ‘afraid so.’
‘But that’s awful!’ I cried. ‘How did it get in?’
‘Well, the hens come and go as they please during the day,’ Jake explained. ‘They’re easy targets so really, even though you might not think so, we’ve been lucky. More often than not a fox will keep coming back until it has had the lot. Really, I’m amazed we’ve still got these.’
He pointed to the edge of the yard where a couple of plump brown hens were scratching about under the hedge.
‘That’s Martha and Mabel,’ he told me. ‘All our hens are ex-battery ladies and they might look all right now, but they were in a shocking state when Annie collected them. She calls Skylark Farm the “Last Chance Saloon” for her girls and personally tends to their every whim until they find their feet and can be left to their own devices.’
I didn’t ask how she prepared them for combat in case the fox came skulking.
‘So,’ I said, cautiously opening the henhouse door and trying not to react to the pungent smell that instantly assaulted my nostrils, ‘if they’re out and about in the yard, what do they use this place for?’
‘They come back here to sleep and more often than not they lay their eggs in here as well, but not always, mind you. If you do find an egg in the yard, unless you’re a hundred per cent sure it’s fresh, it’s best to discard it. Unless Annie’s around, of course,’ he added as an afterthought. ‘As I recall she knows some old country ways of checking the freshness of an egg.’
I poked my head right in and spotted the third hen staring beadily back at me from her station in one of the nest boxes.
‘That’s Patricia,’ said Jake with a nod. ‘She is Annie’s absolute favourite. She needs lifting off the eggs every morning at the moment because she’s gone broody.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Basically it means that she’s stopped laying eggs herself, but wants to sit on any she can find and hatch them off,’ Jake explained.
‘Oh,’ I smiled, delighted by the thought of having some cute chicks running around the place, ‘why don’t you just let her?’
Jake looked at me and shook his head.
‘Because the eggs aren’t viable,’ he explained patiently. ‘We haven’t got a cockerel so there’s no chick inside.’
‘Oh,’ I blushed, ‘of course.’
I really did have a lot to learn.
‘But if you’d like some chicks,’ Jake suggested, ‘I could always buy in a few fertile eggs and put them under her.’
‘Would that work?’
‘Yes,’ Jake nodded, ‘as long as she stays broody she’d hatch them off all right and you could pick which breed you like the look of. It would make a nice change to have some fancy birds about the place after years of Annie’s ragtag girls. Of course we’d have to build a pen to begin with,’ he added, ‘just to give them a fighting chance in case the fox turns up again.’
I didn’t much like the thought of losing any more birds to the horrible fox, but the lure of some newly hatched bundles of fluff and feather was very tempting.
‘Right,’ said Jake, leaving the picnic outside, ‘I’m hoping you’ll be doing this tomorrow so watch carefully. I’ll lift her off and you grab what she’s sitting on.’
Patricia was less than impressed as Jake gently lifted her off her makeshift nest. She squawked and flapped and took more than one peck at his hands as I looked in wonder at the bounty she had been protecting. There, nestled amongst the straw and feathers, were four large brown, slightly speckled eggs. I carefully picked them up, surprised by just how warm they were, and carried them out of the shed while Jake set Patricia down outside. She clucked off, indignantly shaking her feathers and stretching out her wings with many a disgruntled squawk thrown in for good measure.
‘Wow,’ I beamed, still looking at the eggs.
‘Lovely, aren’t they?’ Jake said.
‘I can’t say I’ve ever taken all that much notice of an egg before, but yes, they are rather lovely.’
‘Two of those must be the pair left from yesterday,’ Jake frowned. ‘Annie must have forgotten to collect them. Hens only lay one egg a day you see so—’
‘Yes,’ I laughed, cutting him off, ‘that much I do know.’
‘So,’ he grinned, ‘do you think you’re up to taking them on then?’
‘Absolutely,’ I smiled back, ‘you’ll have to tell me what else to do with them, but yes I’m sure I could manage to look after them. Assuming there are some gloves around here somewhere that would save my hands from Patricia’s vicious little beak!’
This was exactly what I needed: something completely different, something that was a world away from my old life, something simple with a very different routine. Even though I was inwardly terrified of the responsibility and strangeness of it all I was determined to say ‘yes’ to everything Jake suggested and not allow myself to talk my way out of anything.
‘Well,’ said Jake, ‘let me think. You’ll have to let them out every morning and shut them up at night. They find their own way back in, of course, so there’s no chasing them to bed. Then you need to collect the eggs, feed and water them and clean the house and, if you could manage it,’ he added, looking back inside, ‘a complete sanitisation wouldn’t go amiss. We don’t want to be plagued with mites, especially now the weather’s warming up.’
I have to admit I didn’t much like the idea of scooping up chicken poo or fumigating mites, but I was determined to do my best, otherwise what was the point in coming? I might even be able to find the little basket I’d been thinking about to collect the eggs in.
‘OK,’ I nodded, ‘consider me the new Hen Welfare Manager at Skylark Farm.’
‘Very grand,’ laughed Jake, ‘trust you to put a spin on it! Next thing you�
��ll be telling me you want specialist equipment.’
I raised my eyebrows, but didn’t dare tell him about the basket idea.
‘Anyway,’ Jake continued, ‘we’ll see about getting some eggs for Patricia to hatch before the novelty of sitting disappears and it’ll be all systems go.’
‘OK,’ I said, ‘excellent.’
I knew one of the magazines I’d packed in my suitcase had a three page spread entitled ‘Fancy Fowl’ and I was already looking forward to choosing my own.
‘Where shall we put these?’
We took the still warm eggs back to the house, popped them in a large earthenware bowl in the pantry and carried on with the tour. Next were the geese. There were five of them in all and they were housed in a paddock at the end of the yard. They also had their own little shed for sleeping in and, judging by the way they flapped their large wings and honked as we approached, I guessed the fox wouldn’t be bothering them.
‘Don’t you like the geese?’ I said, bending down to stroke Bella.
She had wandered up to take a look, but refused to go right up to the fence. Her thick tail thumped against my legs and the sorrowful look in her eyes suggested that the geese were no fun at all.
‘No,’ Jake laughed, ‘she doesn’t. She had one encounter too many with them when she was a puppy and she doesn’t go anywhere near them these days. In fact,’ he added, looking me up and down, ‘I’m not even sure that you could outrun them, Amber.’
‘Oh thanks,’ I pouted, ‘I’m pretty fit, you know!’
‘I know you are, but they’re nasty buggers. Come with me when I’m sorting them out by all means, but you’d best leave looking after them to me for now. Come on, let’s go and meet Pip.’
Now accompanied by both Bella and Lily we made our way to the last field before the orchards began.
‘So, this is Pip,’ I smiled.
Jake shook a bucket filled with what I guessed was her breakfast and the little pony cantered up the field with surprising speed considering how short her legs were.
‘Mmm,’ said Jake, ‘don’t let her size and cute face fool you. She’s a feisty one and not beyond giving a nip or a kick if she doesn’t get her own way.’
‘Harriet said you met Jessica when Pip arrived. Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ said Jake as the little pony thrust her head over the fence and her nose in the bucket. ‘Thinking about it I haven’t actually known Jess for all that long, although it already feels like forever. Her mum bought Pip for the stables. She was supposed to be an ideal starter pony for their juniors’ class, but they hadn’t had her five minutes before they realised she wasn’t going to work out. You don’t like being ridden much, do you, Pip?’
Pip shook her head and fixed me with her dark stare. Tentatively I reached out and stroked her thick black mane. She ignored me completely, which according to Jake was a good sign, and went back to her chewing.
‘So basically, she’s going to see out her days here at the farm?’
‘Exactly,’ said Jake, ‘she keeps the paddock in check and Jessica pays for her feed and vet’s bills and so on. Helena, Jess’s mum, would have sold her on but Jess wouldn’t hear of it.’
‘Sell her on to where?’ I asked, leaning over and roughly rubbing Pip’s back.
With an indignant neigh she kicked up her heels and was off.
‘I’m not entirely sure,’ said Jake, shaking his head and watching her tear away.
By the time we’d completed a tour of the orchards it was almost noon and warm enough to picnic down by the river that ran through the bottom of the farm boundary.
‘So, when will the blossom start to appear?’ I asked, looking back towards the rows and rows of uniformly pruned apple trees.
‘Probably in a couple of weeks,’ said Jake as he spread out the blanket under the willow trees and glanced up at the sky, ‘but if the weather stays as mild as this, it might be even sooner.’
‘I can’t wait to see it,’ I smiled.
‘And I can’t begin to tell you how beautiful it is,’ he sighed. ‘It wouldn’t matter how hard I tried to describe it, no words could do it justice. We really couldn’t have moved here at a better time.’
I looked up at the blue sky and listened to the gurgling river as it wove its merry way to Wynbridge. Already I felt so at home, so relaxed. Yes, it was weird not having my phone constantly attached to my ear, but nice weird, and I knew that had I flown to Dubai, I wouldn’t be feeling anywhere near as happy as I was right then sitting beneath the willows, even though the dogs were hogging the sunniest spot on the blanket.
‘Harriet was telling me that you met her because of the orchards,’ I said, trying to help unpack the picnic with my functioning hand.
‘Yes,’ Jake laughed, ‘we did. Did she also tell you about the rollicking stomach ache she ended up with as well?’
‘Sort of,’ I nodded, ‘she said she and her friend never stole anything again.’
Jake threw himself down on the blanket and I snuggled up to him. He didn’t say anything else and I remembered the look that had passed between Harriet and Jessica earlier. I knew it wasn’t any of my business but I couldn’t resist asking.
‘So who was the friend?’ I said, trying to keep my tone light-hearted. ‘Harriet said—’
‘It was Holly,’ Jake cut in. Suddenly he sounded far from light-hearted. ‘Her name was Holly. She doesn’t live around here now.’
‘But are you all still friends?’
‘No,’ said Jake, turning to face me. ‘Look, you might as well know, Amber: Holly and I used to be a couple. We were together for quite a while actually, but we split up and she moved away.’
‘Oh no,’ I joked, trying to convey that I wasn’t the slightest bit fazed by his admission. ‘Should I be feeling jealous of this summer teenage romance?’
‘Of course not,’ said Jake seriously, a deep frown appearing for the first time since we’d arrived at the farm. ‘Absolutely not, but the relationship was rather more than that. I wouldn’t have bothered mentioning it if Harriet hadn’t first. Can we just drop it, please?’
‘OK,’ I shrugged, not feeling quite as unfazed as before, ‘I was only teasing.’
‘Life in a small community like this isn’t the same as London,’ Jake continued, still sounding concerned. ‘You have to be prepared for a certain amount of tittle tattle here, Amber, especially in the pub.’
‘Oh, that reminds me,’ I said, keen to dismiss all thoughts of the girl who had occupied Jake’s heart before me, ‘Jessica asked if we were going out tonight.’
‘What did you say?’
‘I said I didn’t know, but I would like to. I really liked her and Harriet. Jess even asked if I’d help out with her wedding plans.’
‘Well, let’s not make up our minds about the pub just yet,’ said Jake as he passed me a sandwich, ‘let’s see how we’re feeling later.’
Chapter 10
Jake and I spent our first afternoon at Skylark Farm together lazily dozing and chatting under the dappled shade of the willow trees which lined the stretch of the River Wyn that ran through the farm. For early April it was incredibly mild but, Jake was quick to remind me, that could all change in the blink of an eye if the wind swung round to the north or east.
‘So,’ I yawned, forcing myself to sit up and have a stretch, ‘after you’ve fixed the farmhouse roof, what then? What else can I help with?’
‘Well,’ said Jake, squinting up at me, ‘I know it isn’t very glamorous but, as well as taking on the hens, if you wouldn’t mind helping Annie out with some of the household stuff, that would be great. She’d rather die than ask, but she is struggling and I know it sounds old-fashioned but she certainly wouldn’t let me do anything.’
‘Of course,’ I said, ‘absolutely.’ I understood exactly what Jake meant, but I wanted to be doing more than just household chores. ‘But what about helping outside? I really want to get stuck in. That’s the whole point of me being here after all
.’
‘Well, you could help me with the repairs to the outbuildings and learn how to look after Pip,’ he suggested. ‘When the harvest comes I’m going to need as much help as I can get so it makes sense to get everything as shipshape as possible now. That is, as long as you’re up to it, of course,’ he added, looking pointedly at my hand.
‘Oh don’t,’ I blushed, looking at the potato packed bandage. ‘I still feel such an idiot about this.’
‘Could’ve happened to anyone,’ Jake said kindly, then pulled me back down so he could kiss me. ‘And of course, I was forgetting there is one other very special lesson I have to teach you about life in the country,’
‘Oh,’ I said, my body emitting a little tremor as he ran a trail of soft kisses along my jaw and down my neck, ‘and what is that?’
‘I feel it is my duty to instruct you in the art of outdoor lovemaking,’ he whispered, brushing my lips with the softest kiss and slipping his arm around my waist, ‘assuming of course you aren’t already an expert.’
‘At ease, soldier,’ I laughed, pulling away slightly, ‘even I know it has to be warmer than this for rolling about in the great outdoors!’
‘Oh well, it was worth a try,’ he smiled, releasing me and sitting up. ‘Come on. We’d better go and see what Annie’s been up to this afternoon. We’ll walk back through the orchards.’
It was cooler walking through the trees and quiet. As strange as it might sound, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were holding their breath, patiently waiting to give their first spectacular performance of the year.
‘You know,’ I said, crossing sides and reaching for Jake’s hand, ‘I’m surprised you haven’t got any bee hives set up in here.’
‘We did have,’ he told me, ‘a few years ago, but the chap gave them up and I’m ashamed to say we never looked for anyone to replace them.’
‘Well, perhaps you could now,’ I said, thrilled that the suggestion wasn’t a complete non-starter. ‘What with bee populations diminishing and so many people trying to keep hives at home, I bet you’d find someone local who would jump at the chance of setting up in here.’