Escape to the Country (16 page)

"You know him better than me, but presumably he's capable of
being nice. You wouldn't have moved in with him otherwise."

"True."

"Talking of nice, the pigs are hungry."

There wasn't much time for thinking after that.

As they came in for their supper, Leah's mobile rang.

"Hi, Duncan," she said.

Jayne grinned and disappeared into the kitchen.

"I was hoping I could tempt you to come out with me again?"

"Yes, I'd like to... sometime," she said wondering when she
could say she'd be free.

"No pressure. I thought we could go to the pub tomorrow night.
There's a quiz on and me and my mates usually make up a team, but if
you don't fancy it..."

Obviously she hadn't sounded very enthusiastic.

"It's just that Jayne's going into hospital the day after
tomorrow."

"Oh yes, of course. I'm sorry, it hadn't occurred to me that you
wouldn't want to leave the farm. I understand though."

"That's OK. Shall I ring you when I'm free?"

Or you could come round here, she could have said if she'd had the
nerve.

"Yeah, sure. Give Jayne my best."

"I will. Speak to you soon."

Jayne put her head round the door frame and asked for an explanation.

"He suggested the pub tomorrow night, but..."

"That doesn't sound like you said yes."

"No. I didn't think I should."

"Why on earth not?"

Leah didn't like to explain. Jayne had spent most of the last week
apologising for being a nuisance and burdening Leah with the work of
the farm. She couldn't let Jayne think she was also spoiling a
beautiful romance.

"Oh, you know. I don't want to rush into anything."

"Leah, is this because of me going in for those stupid tests?"

Luckily for Leah, Jayne's house phone rang, saving her from having to
respond.

"Jim, nice to hear from you," Jayne said.

There was a pause.

"Jim Applemore, I'm having a test, not dying!"

Another pause.

"But you haven't asked me out in years."

Too late, because it had become too interesting to leave, Leah
realised she hadn't been as tactful as Jayne and left the room during
the phone call.

After quite a long pause, Jayne said, "Silly girl said no."

Guessing she was the silly girl, Leah gestured frantically at Jayne,
trying to signal that she wanted to say something and Jayne should
say she'd call Jim back.

"Hang on, Jim. She's having some kind of fit, can I call you
back?"

"The silly girl said no?" Leah demanded as soon as Jayne
hung up.

"Yes."

"Why didn't you say yes?"

Jayne raised her eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion. "Me?"

"Yes, Jim asked you out, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"And you said no. Why?"

"Well..."

"Don't want to rush into anything?"

"Exactly. Oh." Jayne's face showed she remembered Leah
using that excuses just minutes before and that she'd not accepted
it.

"You like him, he likes you. Where did he want to take you?"

"To dinner at the Frog and Bucket tomorrow night," Jayne
admitted.

"It's nice there. Say yes. Unless... he's not still married, is
he?"

"No."

"So, say yes. Honestly, I can't see why you two didn't get
together years ago."

Jayne frowned then her face brightened as though she'd had a
brilliant idea. "I can't say yes. You turned down Duncan to stay
in with me, so it would be very rude of me to go out."

Leah held up her phone. "I'll say yes if you will."

Jayne picked up the receiver.

Leah flipped open her mobile.

Jayne punched a button on her phone.

Leah followed suit. It felt like they were lining up for a duel.

Jayne stabbed her finger at another button.

Leah selected Duncan's number.

By the time they'd both contacted their prospective dates, the women
were giggling at each other. Fortunately neither man took offence at
that, nor minded the sudden changes of heart.

Jayne was so nervous the day before her hospital visit, both about
her examination and leaving Leah in charge of the farm, that Leah was
relieved not to be spending the evening with her. She felt sure she'd
say the wrong thing and upset her. Jim, she was sure, would distract
Jayne from her worries.

Leah was excited about the idea of meeting some of Duncan's friends.
That suggested he perhaps wanted her included in his world, rather
than to just pass briefly through it and soon be forgotten. She
decided to make herself memorable and wore her new pink, low cut top,
and figure hugging jeans. Jayne clearly approved of her choice and
when Jim arrived, he made it clear he did too.

"Oh stop it! You're chatting up the wrong woman," she told
him.

"Just trying to make her jealous," he stage whispered,
before taking Jayne away.

Duncan arrived almost immediately afterwards.

He kissed her cheek, the said, "Nice top, very... pink."
That gave him the excuse for a long, lingering look.

"In a good way?"

"Definitely." He kissed her again to make his point.
Thankfully he seemed to have forgotten his suggestion of them being
friends. She didn't need a friend - she had Jayne for that.

The pub was full, or more accurately, over full. Quiz nights were
obviously as popular here as in London.

"No team have won for weeks, so we've had lots of rollovers and
there's a big prize at stake," Duncan explained as he led her to
a table which already had three men sat around it.

He introduced Leah to his friends. "This sorry looking bunch are
Phil, Smudge and Jake." He pointed to each in turn. All three
were in their mid twenties, attractive and looked fit and strong.
With Duncan, Phil and Jake at Home Farm, it was a wonder there wasn't
a constant stream of single women wandering about getting stuck in
mud or otherwise needing attention. Actually, for all she knew, there
might be.

"Lads, this is Leah," Duncan said.

The three men nodded and grinned at her as though they'd worked that
out already and had heard something amusing about her. Who'd been
saying what?

"Hi, Leah. Where's Duncan been keeping you then?" Smudge
asked.

"He hasn't been keeping me anywhere." She'd snapped out her
reply before realising Smudge hadn't meant to imply anything and was
just wondering where she was from. "I live in London, but I'm
staying with my aunt, Jayne Tilbury, for a while," she
explained, guessing some of them might know Jayne.

"Oh!" Phil said as though he answer had solved a problem
that had been worrying him.

"Couldn't anything persuade you to stick around?" Jake
asked.

"Maybe, I..." If it was what his gorgeous team-mate wanted,
he could persuade her, but that was hardly the time to say so. She
felt herself blush.

Duncan seemed amused by the conversation, but came to her rescue,
sort of. "Mud should do it. Leah's good at getting stuck in the
stuff."

Fortunately the quiz started at that point. Everyone was quiet during
each round of the quiz. Teams conferred in whispers. Leah was able to
impress them with her knowledge of geography, PG Wodehouse novels and
ability to solve anagrams. Duncan answered as many questions as she
could and the others all had something useful to contribute. Their
final score was just two points short of a full house and one point
behind the teams tied on first place.

The draw bizarrely, seemed to make everyone extremely happy.

"It's another rollover," Duncan explained. "That's the
ninth in a row and means the prize fund is now impressively high and
the team who eventually win will be almost legendary."

"Why don't you just have a tie-breaker?" Leah asked as they
walked out to Duncan's car.

"It's a local tradition, going back to when licensing laws first
came in apparently. The story goes that the local police officer was
in a team who tied and then got the correct answer in the
tie-breaker, but not till after time had been called. The opposing
team said as the pub was officially closed, he couldn't claim his
prize. Another version says he gave the wrong answer, again just
after time. Either way, there was some heated discussion about
whether the prize should be awarded and the landlord declared the
contest invalid and banned tie-break questions. So now we never have
them."

Leah smiled as she remembered a phrase she'd used with Jayne on
several occasions.

"What's that expression for?" Duncan asked.

"I was just thinking that you country people are weird,"
she admitted.

"Unlike townies who drive themselves to the gym for exercise,
buy coats and shoes that can't be worn in the rain and get raised
blood pressure if the internet runs slowly for ten minutes?"

"Have you been practising that retort?"

"Yes. I guess it needs more practice with special attention to
spontaneity?"

"No. It works just fine as it is."

He hugged her and bent his head for a kiss but drew back when the
rest of their team, who'd followed them out of the pub, cheered and
clapped.

"Let's go," Duncan said and opened the car door for her.

Leah had enjoyed herself so much, she'd forgotten about Jayne's
medical worries and scheduled hospital visit. On the drive home, she
felt guilty about that and lapsed into silence. That didn't help as
she remembered how everyone who'd spoken to Duncan had used his name
without a trace of hesitation and proved how wrong she'd been to
suspect him of using it to hide his real identity. Even someone like
Gilmore-Bunce wasn't likely to have the power to make an entire pub
full of people pretend he was really a charming farm worker.

There were more lights on at Primrose Cottage when they got back than
when they'd left, but no sign of Jim's car. A pity because that meant
Jayne was home but hadn't invited him in for coffee.

Duncan walked Leah to the door before kissing her cheek.

She reached for his hand. "Duncan?"

He turned back.

"Sorry if I've been quiet. Got a lot on my mind."

He gave her a hug. "I know, but Jayne will be fine, you'll cope
brilliantly and I'm here if you need me." He kissed her again,
not passionately, but it was a proper kiss. "If you need
anything while Jayne's in hospital, don't hesitate to call."

"Thanks, I'll hold you to that."

Tarragon got slowly to his feet when Leah came in, as though pointing
out he'd have been fast asleep if it hadn't been his duty to get up
and greet those people who insisted on staying out late. His mistress
had sensibly gone to bed already. Leah hoped she was sleeping
soundly, not lying awake worrying about her medical tests scheduled
for the following day. Outside Jayne's bedroom door, Leah whispered
'goodnight' but got no reply.

The following morning Jayne was in a much more optimistic mood than
she had been for days. Leah felt better too. She was reasonably
confident she could cope with looking after the smallholding for the
day and things were going well between her and Duncan.

Leah had expected to be calming Jayne's nerves. Instead she was
listening to her sing very badly as she fried eggs and bacon.

"Good night was it?" Leah asked, teasingly.

"Yes, actually. Jim was good fun and the food was very nice."

"Good. And?"

"And I'm going into hospital today. It's too late to back out,
isn't it?"

Leah nodded. "Absolutely."

"In a few hours, they'll have done the tests and I'll know the
worst. How stupid will I feel if I get myself hysterical and it turns
out I've just got a boil on my bum?"

"Pretty silly, although I think your own doctor would have
diagnosed a boil."

"True, that's just the example Jim gave me. He searched the
internet for pains in the bum."

"I bet he got thousands of very odd results!"

Jayne grinned. "Yes, apparently he did. But even when he looked
at proper medical conditions he found dozens of different things. He
admitted none of them actually seemed fun, but he also said he didn't
find any there weren't any treatment options for."

Leah nodded in agreement. She was a little hurt that Jayne hadn't
seemed so convinced when she'd said much the same thing, but didn't
show it. "I'm sure he's right."

"He said to assure you that you can phone him anytime if you
have a problem or want advice or anything, he'll have his phone with
him even when he's at work. Said he'd much rather chat to you than do
his job, so not to worry about bothering him."

"That's nice of him."

"Anyone else I've listed will be the same, they know you're not
used to all this and won't mind if you call anytime about anything."

"Good, but hopefully I won't need to."

Jayne placed a huge cooked breakfast in front of Leah.

"Are you expecting me to eat all of this?"

"Yes. I put enough bacon in for both of us without thinking.
Still as you'll be working for both of us, you'll need plenty of
energy."

A huge bouquet arrived just a few minutes before they'd planned to
leave for the hospital. The flowers were for Jayne.

"Gosh, what did happen last night?" Leah asked.

"I don't think these are from Jim." Jayne opened the card.

"Well?"

"G-B."

"Why's he sent flowers?" She couldn't help the suspicious
tone in her voice.

"To be nice? He says he hopes everything goes well for me and
that if there's anything he can do to help, I'm to let him know."

"Oh and he'll rush over and feed the chickens will he?"

"I expect he'd send Duncan. Do you disapprove of that?"

She didn't, of course. She really had to get out of her stupid habit
of thinking the worst of the man for no good reason.

"He's just being nice, Leah." Jayne spoke as though trying
to reason with a three-year old.