Escape to the Country (14 page)

Leah said, "I, we, think it would be good if I could see a cow
giving birth before Rosepetal has her calf. Help prepare me a bit."

"Yes, I see. We have plenty of cows due to calve over the next
few weeks. I'll give you a call when it looks like a good time to
come and watch."

"Thank you," Leah and Jayne said together.

The three of them got through two pots of tea and most of a walnut
cake before Duncan said he'd better get going. "Leah, before I
go, come out and see that Rosemary is OK. I wouldn't want you
thinking I'd been unkind to the old dear."

Jayne seemed to suddenly choke on a piece of cake. Either that or she
was smothering a laugh.

Rosemary looked perfectly content lying on her straw bed and chewing
the cud.

"Looks like she had a good time," Leah admitted.

"So that drink we mentioned, how about it?" Duncan asked.

"Yes, I'd like that. Thanks."

"Pick you up about seven on Saturday, then?"

He gently brushed her lips with his own before leaving.

Chapter 9

Leah learned as much as she could from Jayne about looking after the
animals. When she wasn't worrying about all the things that could go
wrong whilst Jayne was in hospital, she worried about all the things
that could go wrong on her date with Duncan.

He'd offered friendship. Was that all he wanted? He did seem to want
quite an affectionate type of friendship which included a few kisses
and she was happy to encourage that. She'd need to be subtle though,
she might make it too obvious she fancied him and scare him off. That
would be a disaster.

Leah wanted to get to know him better, a lot better, but she also
needed his help in learning about calving. Not only that but he
seemed the only person who was making any attempt to get Mr
Gilmore-Bunce to honour his obligations as a landlord.

Leah confessed some of her worries to Jayne as she waited for Duncan
to collect her. "I don't know what we'll talk about."

"Rubbish, you've found plenty to talk about up to now, haven't
you?"

"Yes, but we don't really have anything in common."

"Then talk about your differences! Honestly, it sounds as though
you're trying to make things difficult."

"I'm not. It's just... well, I don't exactly want to remind him
of our differences and that I'm not the obvious choice to fit into a
farmer's life." Leah felt herself blush.

"Oh, I see." She gave a smile that anyone less charitable
than Leah would have described as a smirk. "You could swap
stories about the disgraceful things you got up to as children. That
should break the ice."

"Maybe he didn't get up to anything disgraceful?"

"Oh yes he did!"

"You sound very sure."

"Of course I am. Just like with you when you were here it was
often me who was the victim of his pranks."

"You were? But I thought he was new here?"

"Oh! Yes. He used to come here as a child. Well not here here,
but to this area."

Tarragon yapped and bounded to the door.

"Looks like he's here."

"Yes. But Jayne, you said..."

Jayne wasn't listening, she'd gone to open the door to Duncan. She
let Tarragon out, then scolded him for rushing up to Duncan. "Daft
animal, get back here, you'll trip him up. Don't get him all muddy."

Leah frowned at the fuss she was making. Tarragon never jumped up at
people and Duncan was casually dressed.

"Hello, Jayne," Duncan said. "Are you OK?"

It was nice of him to be concerned, but he seemed more interested in
greeting Jayne than looking at her. Why hadn't either of them said
they'd known each other before? Was there something else they weren't
telling her?

"Duncan, I was just telling Leah how we've actually known each
other since we were kids," Jayne said.

Of course, as Duncan wasn't all that much younger than Jayne, they'd
have been children at the same time.

"Oh good. Leah, I did want to tell you the truth, but we
thought..."

"It's my fault," Jayne interrupted. "Leah, you were so
set against G-B that when I realised who your dishy tractor driver
was, I didn't like to say."

Leah blushed when Jayne described Duncan as dishy, he was bound to
guess it was Leah who'd told her that.

"But it's best you know the truth," Duncan said.

"Absolutely and anyway, you don't hate G-B anymore, do you?"
Jayne asked.

"No, I suppose not." She was ashamed of her previous
irrational dislike of a man she'd never met, especially as two people
she really liked both had a different opinion. Her beliefs that he'd
deliberately got her into trouble at work and he'd neglected Primrose
Cottage were both wrong, but she hadn't been mistaken about the
abrupt communications she'd received from him demanding immediate
changes to his investments or sudden withdrawals all without any kind
of explanation or thanks. "I still think he's rude, pompous and
arrogant, but I admit I over reacted a bit."

Duncan looked uncomfortable.

"Right, but you wouldn't blame anyone else for his actions?"
Jayne asked.

"No."

"Duncan is a relation. He used to visit Home Farm in the school
holidays."

"Oh! It's surprising we never bumped into each other."

"Actually, I think we may have done," Duncan said. "I
do remember a little girl with hair the colour of yours running away
from some Llamas."

"Yes, that would have been me. It was all Jayne's fault."

Duncan grinned. "I believe you. Come on, I'll buy you a drink
and you can tell me all about it."

Conversation was easy after that. Leah told him about all her visits
to Primrose Cottage and her obsession with the orphan lambs. Duncan
tried to remember where he'd have been at the time and to work out if
they'd ever met then.

"Probably not. I went to boarding school so my parents were keen
to keep me with them during the holidays. About the only times I left
my grandparent's smallholding was when I walked across Home Farm
fields to spend my pocket money in the village shop. Now that's odd -
I took the same route as the day you had to rescue me, but I never
got chased by cows. I don't remember there being any, it was more
like walking through a maze."

"That's exactly what it would have been; a field of maize."

Leah didn't know what maize was, or how Duncan could have known and
remembered what had been growing there.

"It's like sweetcorn," he explained. "Used to make
silage. I used to ride in the tractor sometimes when it was sown and
every year, we all picked some and cooked it in its husks on portable
barbecues at the side of the field. The type grown for animal feed
isn't reckoned to be as good as that grown as a vegetable, but picked
young and eaten straight away, it's delicious."

"I remember Jayne telling me about that. Well, taunting rather
than telling because I love sweetcorn and was always back at school
before that happened. She was really mean to me sometimes." Leah
gave what she hoped was a cute looking pout.

"She was a bad girl all round as I remember." Duncan told
her about the occasion he'd caught Jayne and a boyfriend in the hay
loft at Home Farm. "I didn't actually see anything other than
the two of them sneaking out, but she went so red when I mentioned
it, I knew she'd been up to something she shouldn't."

Leah giggled. Twenty years afterwards didn't seem too long for her to
continue the teasing on the subject.

"To be honest, I was so young and innocent I thought they might
have been drinking cider."

Leah wouldn't mind giving him a practical lesson in what a couple of
teenagers were likely to have been getting up to in a hay loft. Good
thing he wasn't really the mind reader she'd thought him the first
time she met him.

"Maybe they were?" she asked. She didn't want to give the
impression she had a one track mind.

"Trust me, they weren't! I suspect my turning up just then
blighted her love life for months."

"I don't think either of us helped her love life much. I pulled
a mean trick with some frogs one night when her parents went out and
left her baby-sitting me."

In the pub, they sat opposite each other, both of them leaning over
the table. There was plenty of eye contact and some of the physical
kind too. Their hands occasionally brushed as they reached for their
drinks and sometimes they touched deliberately. It was just a playful
slap of his arm when he was cheeky or touch of her hand when making a
point, but it felt good.

Talking to Duncan about their almost shared childhood made her feel
much closer to him. When he held her hand to walk with her to his
car, it felt perfectly natural. They didn't talk so much on the drive
home, but it felt friendly and companionable, not awkward. Leah had
to concentrate hard not to stare at him all the way home.

She wasn't surprised when his kiss goodnight was more than a brief
peck. He held her close and moved slowly, giving plenty of time for
her to offer a cheek if she didn't want to be kissed on the lips. She
didn't turn her face away.

Duncan didn't release her immediately after the kiss. He held her
gently and said he hoped to see her again soon.

"I'd like that." She was aware of the blood rushing round
her body and felt warm and happy.

"We're busy with the first calves at the moment. Hopefully I'll
be able to get you over to see a birth soon, but I'll give you a call
soon anyway."

"Great, I look forward to it."

She was a little disappointed he hadn't arranged another date
immediately, but she didn't show it. He was definitely being more
than just friendly. That would have to do for now.

Duncan phoned quite early Sunday morning. "It looks as though
we're going to get some calves today. You're very welcome to come
over, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to come and get you."

"That's OK, I'll drive round once we've finished here. I won't
miss everything if I don't get there straight away?"

"No. Once one calves, it's quite common for that to set the
others off, but the first one has only just started."

"OK, I'll get there as soon as I can."

Jayne overheard the conversation and, guessing what it was about,
said, "Best go now. You'll want to see the first signs of
calving, so you know what to look out for."

"Yes, that's true." And it gave her the opportunity to
spend more time with Duncan. "Thanks, Jayne, I'll see you
later."

Leah saw Duncan's car in the yard at Home Farm and parked next to it.
Beeping her horn seemed rude and she didn't want to go to the
farmhouse and risk coming across Mr Gilmore-Bunce, so she followed
the sound of cows mooing in the hope of finding Duncan.

She spotted him the other side of a huge pen, full of enormous cows.
They seemed even more massive than the ones who'd scared her the day
she got stuck in the mud. Duncan didn't seem bothered though, he was
in with them shaking straw about for their bedding.

He saw her and waved. "Come here, you'll want to see this."

Leah would much rather see whatever it was from a safe distance, but
it was clear he expected her to join him.

"It better be worth it," she muttered under her breath,
before climbing onto the metal bars of the pen. She swung her leg
over the top and took several steps without incident. The cows
nearest her were lying down. She negotiated safely round them, then
found her way blocked by a standing cow. The thing was so tall she
couldn't see over it to where Duncan was waiting.

After a moment's panic, Leah saw it was chewing the cud. That placid
behaviour reminded her of Rosemary and made her braver. She put her
hand on the animal's back and gently pushed, just as Jayne had shown
her to do when she needed to move one of the Jerseys.

"Move over, girl," she whispered.

The cow obeyed and wandered slowly out of Leah's way. Gosh, she was
getting to be a proper farm hand. With considerably more confidence,
Leah walked ever closer to Duncan. Soon another cow blocked her
progress. This one's belly was huge, it had to be having triplets at
least.

Leah decided there was just room for her to squeeze by.

As Leah edged alongside the big beast, another cow had the same idea
and came towards her. That one was the fattest yet. The one at her
side had nowhere to go, the one approaching didn't have space to move
aside and a glance behind her showed Leah she was being followed, so
couldn't make a hasty retreat. Couldn't the cow coming towards her
see it was going to crush her, or didn't it care?

She put her hand out like a policeman stopping traffic and ordered it
to, "Stay."

The cow kept coming.

Leah's throat became so tight, she wasn't able to repeat her command,
let alone yell to Duncan for help. She closed her eyes and waited.

The smell of cow was really strong and Leah could feel their warmth.
Then came the impact. First it was like being jostled on the
underground. Then nothing. She opened her eyes. The cow had gone. Did
that mean she was dead and it had walked right through her?

"She's not due until next week," Duncan said.

Leah realised she was holding onto a cow for support. She tried
taking a step. Everything seemed to be in working order and although
Duncan was giving her an odd look, it wasn't one that suggested he
was conversing with the dead.

"You OK?"

"I thought I was going to get squished."

Duncan grinned. "Never looks like there's room for them to get
by, does it? Luckily their big bellies just swing out the way."

"I'm glad my near death experience amused you!"

"Oh, Leah! I'm sorry if you were worried, but honestly I
wouldn't have got you to come in here if there was any danger."

She took a few deep breaths. "So, what did you want me to see?"

As Duncan pointed out cows in various stages of pregnancy and
explained how she could tell, she forget her annoyance. He was trying
to help her and he had contacted her at the first opportunity and
invited her over, so she should be grateful.