Chapter 34
Four weeks to go
It had been another difficult day on the farm. The last of the Jersey Royals had been harvested and the equipment cleaned and put away. Lettie thanked the workers, and after treating them to an enormous cottage pie, she bid them farewell and called her uncle to thank him for letting his employees come to her farm to help her getting in the harvest.
‘You’ve done an excellent job there, Lettie,’ he said. ‘I was disappointed at the beginning when you mentioned your intention to try and run Hollyhock Farm, but I’m glad your father gave you the opportunity. You have the makings of a farmer and you should be proud of yourself.’
‘I’m not so sure about that,’ she said close to tears. ‘I’ve never been this tired and I’m sure I haven’t done all that much really.’
‘If you sat and wrote down all that you have done each day you’d probably be surprised.’ He laughed. ‘It is a bit daunting though for you, I imagine.’
She sighed. ‘Most days I feel like an exhausted hamster on one of those wheels, constantly running to catch up with myself and getting nowhere.’
‘Don’t be so hard on yourself.’
They ended the call and Lettie leant back against the barn door. She knew her uncle meant well and was trying to bolster her confidence but she also knew that she couldn’t keep this up. Her stamina might be building and her muscles were more toned than ever before, but she was drained. Realising the time, she hurried inside and showered ready for Brodie to collect her and Spud on his way to the beach.
Lettie sat next to him in his car, enjoying their friendly banter as he animatedly relayed stories about his day at the practice.
‘Then Mrs Fitch told me that her husband was insisting they keep the largest of the pups from the litter, whereas she wanted to keep the runt. They apparently fell out.’ He shook his head and laughed as he turned down a lane taking them to the beach.
‘And, don’t tell me…’ Lettie giggled feeling slightly better now that she had stepped away from her responsibilities for a while. ‘They ended up keeping both and together with the mum they now have three dogs.’
‘Five.’
‘Five?’
‘Yup.’ He slowed and waved the driver of a small car out of a difficult turning before continuing on their way. ‘They already had a couple of dogs their daughter insisted on taking on when she moved back home a couple of years ago. She’s since moved away and is working in Spain, leaving those dogs with her parents.’
Lettie tried imagining having so many pets somewhere that wasn’t a farm. ‘It sounds like they have a right menagerie going on there.’ She heard the crashing waves before she saw them and closed her eyes to listen more intently to the sound that took her back to her childhood.
‘Being back on the island I can’t imagine how I managed to live away for so long,’ she said almost to herself.
‘I was thinking the same thing when I was out surfing the other day. How do we islanders ever really imagine we’ll be able to settle anywhere far from the sea?’
‘I suppose it’s the yearning for something exciting and different to what we know.’
Brodie turned to look at her briefly. ‘I know I couldn’t wait to move to England and experience the thrill of the Underground, all the noise and hustle and bustle only to end up in Devon. I loved it there but it wasn’t too unlike living in this place.’
Lettie wasn’t so sure about the Underground being remotely thrilling. All it had ever been to her was a way to get from A to B without getting wet when it was raining. A necessity but not at all exciting. ‘I did hanker after the nightlife in London before I moved there,’ she admitted thinking back to when she was younger and how the urge to move to London had filled her every waking thought. ‘And if I’m honest, I enjoyed having places to go for food whenever the mood took me, discovering shops and cosy pubs down back streets that were hundreds of years old, that sort of thing.’
‘And now?’
She smiled. ‘Now, if I want to go somewhere with a bit of history, I go to one of the older parish pubs, but I haven’t done that yet apart from the other night. I haven’t felt the need, or had the energy,’ she said realising it for the first time. ‘Although I did enjoy the few drinks I’ve had at The Plough recently.’
She noticed Brodie stiffen and realised he assumed she was referring to her evenings with Joe. Not sure where their relationship was going, or what it was, she didn’t want Brodie to get the wrong idea about them.
‘Of course, I saw you at the pub recently, didn’t I?’
His voice was chilled as he turned off down towards the beach. Brodie parked the car and the two of them got out, taking each of their dogs with them down the cobbled slipway to the beach. Once they were on the sand, Brodie looked left, then right.
‘Which way shall we go?’
She breathed in the cool salty air, looking first to the left at the longer expanse of beach, then to the right. Seeing a small group of people walking to their right, she pointed left, wanting to walk for as long as possible with him.
‘There are fewer people that way. It’ll be less distracting for these two.’
‘Looks like rain is coming towards us across the Channel.’ Brodie pointed out to sea where Lettie saw a steel grey band of clouds looming ominously between them and Guernsey.
She didn’t like the look of the sky or the different look of the sea where the rain was falling. ‘How long do you think we have before it reaches us?’
‘Probably half an hour,’ he replied thoughtfully. ‘Maybe slightly less but enough time for a bit of a walk anyway.’
‘We’d better get a move on then.’
They began walking, each lost in their own thoughts as the dogs trotted along in front of them, leading the way.
‘Gosh, it’s windier down here than I expected,’ Lettie said trying to tuck a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear but giving up when it kept escaping and whipping in front of her nose.
‘I meant to reply to your question.’
Lettie wasn’t sure what question Brodie was referring to, then recalled her mentioning them seeing each other in the pub. ‘I wasn’t sure you heard me,’ she fibbed, wanting to let him off the hook in case he didn’t wish to continue with the subject.
‘I did, then I was distracted by driving.’ He turned to look at her slowing his pace. ‘I remember seeing you and feeling envious that Joe was the one out with you.’
Surprised by his admission, Lettie forgot to make the next step and stood still, watching him take a couple more paces before realising she had stopped and turning back to her.
‘You OK?’
‘Er, yes. I hadn’t expected you to say that.’
He gazed down at his feet for a moment before looking her in the eye. ‘I probably shouldn’t have admitted as much, but it’s true.’
Lettie’s breath caught in her throat. She’d never experienced such honesty from a man and was taken aback to hear someone she found as attractive as Brodie admitting he liked her. Her spirits soared and she struggled to contain her reaction.
‘I see.’ It was the best she could do if she wasn’t going to show herself up.
Brodie reached out his hand waiting for her to take it. ‘Do you mind me admitting my feelings towards you?’ He looked away in the direction they were walking. ‘I’d hate to think I’d spooked you by doing so.’
She took his hand and cleared her throat, trying to gather herself. ‘No, I’m just surprised you feel that way.’ She didn’t add that after being kissed by him on two occasions in her life with neither occasion leading to anything romantic, she had presumed he wasn’t interested in anything serious.
He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. ‘Would you mind me asking how you feel about me?’
‘I like you, Brodie,’ she said honestly. She saw him smile, and added, ‘Quite a lot.’
She lost her next thought as his hand gently squeezed hers and he stared down at her, an intensity in his beautiful dark blue eye that made her stomach flutter. He opened his mouth to speak but before he said anything, she felt a drop of rain on her nose. Then another immediately after. Brodie glanced up at the sky just as it began to pour.
‘So much for half an hour,’ she teased.
‘Bugger, I think we should get the dogs back to the vehicle. This looks like it’s going to be heavier than a shower.’
The wind had picked up too, she noticed. ‘Good idea,’ Lettie agreed, disappointed that their chat had been interrupted.
Back at the car, Brodie lifted the boot to shelter them as they quickly bundled the dogs inside. He grabbed two towels from the back seat and handed one to Lettie to dry her face and hair before using it to take the worst of the rain from Spud’s fur.
As she dried Spud’s head, she gave Brodie a surreptitious look and caught him watching her back. He smiled and she couldn’t help reciprocating. ‘This is more fun than I would have expected.’
He rubbed Derek’s back. ‘I was thinking the same thing.’
She finished with the towel and was holding it when he took it from her and pulled her gently into his arms. ‘Would you mind if I kissed you?’ he asked, brushing away several raindrops that had fallen onto his forehead from his wet fringe.
‘You didn’t dry your hair before doing Derek’s fur did you?’
‘I must have forgotten.’
His voice was gentle and Lettie sensed he wasn’t thinking about anything other than the two of them standing in each other’s arms.
‘You didn’t answer me.’
She tried to think what he might have asked her, then recalling his question about kissing her, she decided not to waste any more time talking and slipped her arms around his neck, pulled him gently down to her level and pressed her lips against his in a kiss. His immediate response thrilled her and Lettie had to focus on not getting too carried away. Brodie kissed so beautifully she doubted she would ever wish to kiss anyone else ever again.
An ear-splitting rumble of thunder shocked them out of their kiss and Lettie gasped at the same time Derek growled and began trembling.
‘I think we need to get these two home, don’t you?’
‘I do.’ She watched him cuddle Derek, and as she stroked Spud’s head, looked up at the sky just when it lit up with an enormous crash of lightning. ‘The sooner the better too by the looks of the storm that’s about to hit us.’
They closed the boot and ran around to get into the vehicle.
Within minutes they arrived back at the farm. The storm was nearly overhead with thunder and lightning coming almost simultaneously. Derek cried out and began howling, then Spud joined in.
‘I think you should come into the farmhouse with me,’ Lettie suggested, deciding it was the best option. The rain hammered down onto the roof just as the sky lit up once more, followed by the loudest crack of thunder so far. ‘We need to get Derek somewhere quieter than this car.’
‘You’re right.’
They leapt out of the vehicle and ran round to the back of the car. ‘Hold on tightly to his collar,’ Lettie shouted trying to be heard over the din of the storm. ‘We don’t want him running off again.’
She rummaged in her jeans pocket for her house keys, cursing to herself when she dropped them. Bending to pick them up, she had to let go of Spud’s collar and he immediately jumped down from the vehicle and ran towards the barn.
‘Here, take these and let yourselves inside.’ She threw the keys to Brodie and ran after Spud calling out his name repeatedly.
Grateful that the barn door was ajar, she raced after Spud, relieved to reach him as he cowered in the corner. ‘Hey,’ she said crouching and cuddling the trembling dog to her. ‘Why are you so frightened?’ He was never usually bothered by storms. Maybe he had been frightened by Derek’s terror. ‘We’re perfectly safe,’ she soothed. ‘Come along, let’s go back to the house and I’ll find you a treat.’
At the word treat, his black ears pricked up and his tail began wagging. She was relieved he had forgotten to be frightened. She didn’t need her brilliant farm dog to find a belated fear of storms. She decided it might be best not to take hold of his collar and brazen out their run back to the farmhouse, hoping he didn’t take fright again.