Page 24 of Escape to the Country

I felt a surge of excitement. Recently it was as if all my senses were being woken up. I hadn’t been excited about life for so long; I’d actually been just existing. And the feeling I was getting right now told me that there was a huge difference.

11

The door to the Dog and Duck clearly needed a good spray of WD40 as it creaked open, alerting everyone inside to a new customer, although ‘everyone’ in this particular instance consisted of just the young girl behind the bar and Ivan, who was sat on a bar stool with a pint of mild.

‘Good Lord, is that you, Madison Young? Haven’t you got that high falutin’ job in the city? It’s not often we see you around this neck of the woods. I didn’t recognise you at first. What are you doing in here on a Sunday afternoon?’

‘Hello, Ivan, you’re looking well. Sadly, I don’t have that job any more. In fact, I don’t have a job at all right now. I’m helping up at Giddywell Grange for the moment while Beth is recovering from an operation.’

Patting the stool beside him, he invited me to join him. ‘Come on, lass, sit with me. What’s your poison?’

Not really used to drinking in the afternoon, I wasn’t sure what to have, so I asked for a gin and tonic. It was a long drink, not too strong, and it would last me a while. As it was being prepared, we started to chat about life. After he’d told me all about his bunions and I’d managed to stop myself from heaving when he offered to show me one – which I obviously declined – I finally got round to telling him about my good fortune at suddenly becoming the not-so-proud owner of a plot in the allotments.

Once I got Ivan talking about his favourite topic, he was in his element and I couldn’t shut him up. Another two pints of mild and two gin and tonics later, I had written down three lists: one of things that I needed to do, one of things that I could grow and the final one of things I needed to get. Apparently I needed a rototiller, which would enable me to till an entire area of soil in minutes (whatever that meant) but he had one that I could borrow to keep the costs down. He also told me that I’d get hung, drawn and quartered by the other owners if I put weeds in the wrong compost bin because they’d take root, and that a water butt was a must.

When I showed Ivan the pictures on my phone, he said that I’d got nearly everything I would need right there in my shed. The big metal bin was a compost bin and the huge thing I had been unable to identify had turned out to be a water butt. Big necessities, which were already in situ. Ivan was getting more excited about my allotment plot than I was and promised to come over in the next day or two to have a look and offer me his expert advice on the land and what order to tackle it. He also said that he’d try to introduce me to a friend of his son’s called Vinnie who was a landscape gardener and who lived in one of the neighbouring villages, Little Ollington, and had studied horticulture at university. Apparently Vinnie was amazing at anything to do with gardening and landscaping and had helped Ivan a few times with his allotment, and he might also be able to help me out with some hints and tips.

I decided that I needed to pay a visit to the ladies’, and when I moved, I wobbled and nearly fell off my stool. Ivan grabbed my arm to right me, laughing that I probably wasn’t used to drinking doubles in the afternoon. Bloody hell, doubles? That meant I’d had six! I wasn’t used to drinking in the day at all. No wonder I felt totally squiffy.

When I came back from the loo, there was my hero, standing at the bar. ‘I had a feeling I’d find you here.’ Alex grinned at me across the room. ‘Ivan, I do hope you haven’t been getting this young lady drunk, have you?’

‘Me? Never!’ Ivan grinned and glanced at his watch. ‘Bugger me; I’d better be going. Marjorie will batter me with a frying pan if I miss my dinner.’ He patted me on the arm as he jumped off his stool really sprightly for an older gent who had been on the mild all afternoon. ‘Always around for you, me darlin’, I’ll be over to check out your patch very soon,’ he said, and he winked at me on his way out. I giggled, thinking how funny it was that an eighty-year-old man could make a double entendre out of talking about allotments.

‘Come on, you. You’d better leave your car here and fetch it tomorrow. I’ll take you home.’ Years ago I would have longed to hear him say that. Alex offered me his arm and a spark of electricity ran through me as I tucked my arm into his and we meandered out to the car park. I thought I could get used to this. But then I told myself that lovely as Alex was, I didn’t need a man in my life to depend on. I was perfectly capable of looking after myself. Just like Mum had been capable of looking after us both. And I certainly didn’t need one that was in a relationship.

I talked complete nonsense in the car all the way back to my riverside apartment, the combination of the gin and his presence making me feel a tad giddy. Alex walked me up to the door and made sure I got in safely. He hovered on the doorstep and I thought about inviting him in, but I’d had way too much to drink to behave sensibly and there was a little bit of me that wanted to throw caution to the wind and just chuck him on the sofa. But then I remembered that he was not mine. That thought sobered me up, and I kissed him on the cheek, thanking him politely for making sure I got home OK, and when he shut the door on his way out, I stumbled over to the sofa and conked out.

12

Swallowing two tablets down with a huge gulp of water to stop my banging headache wasn’t the ideal way to start the day at Growlers. While the filter coffee machine was creating the liquid fuel that I craved and the aroma of fresh coffee permeated through to the bathroom, I stood under the shower for what seemed like an hour but was probably only ten minutes. It did the trick perfectly and woke me up. Feeling much more refreshed and sure that the tablets were working their magic, I wrapped myself in my towelling dressing gown and flicked on the radio. As I poured myself another strong black coffee, I was starting to perk up and found myself singing along and dancing around the kitchen to the radio while waiting for my toast to pop up. When was the last time I had done that? This was a complete contrast to my working life at Ronington’s. I’d been constantly stressed to the max, checking emails, answering calls and rushing around all over the country whilst all the time portraying professionalism. I felt that some of the stuffiness of the old me was being gradually cast aside and a new me was starting to shine through, and to be honest, I quite liked this new Maddy.

Walking into my bedroom with a piece of toast hanging out of my mouth, I grabbed the pair of jeans I had taken off last night from the chaise longue in the corner, as my guess was that a clean pair wasn’t going to stay clean for very long, along with an old sweatshirt that I found at the back of my wardrobe and hadn’t worn for years. That’d do. It wasn’t like I was on the pull or anything. Well, obviously Alex would be there, but he’d seen me look way worse than this over the years. And it wasn’t like I was trying to pull him. Firstly, I’d be punchingwayabove my weight and secondly, he was married to bloody perfect Sophie, so it wasn’t like it really mattered anyway.

I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, swirled some bronzer over my cheeks, gave my lashes a quick lick of mascara and swept a natural-coloured lip gloss on. Looking in the mirror, I thought I looked reasonably presentable considering the state I had come home in, and I headed over to Giddywell Grange where Uncle Tom was waiting at the gate.

* * *

Russell was telling me that he was desperate to become a vet in the long term. If he failed his vet’s exams, he said he would ‘downgrade and be a doctor’, which I found bizarre. If you were not good enough to become a vet you could become a doctor?

We took the dogs back through to the main kennel yard and put them back in the indoor barn where they all went for a lie down in various corners. To be honest, I could have done with one myself. That was the most exercise I’d had for ages. It was so much fun watching them chase the toys. Such a simple game to us meant the world to them. Dogs didn’t ask for much, did they? Just love and food, a bit of company and a play from time to time.

Russell and I chatted about him popping round to the Darbys’ house and he said he’d be delighted to. Every bit of extra cash helped his uni fund build nicely and he was really grateful for any additional work.

I went back into reception to see Uncle Tom and we sat and pondered over another rota to keep the business ticking over nicely, slotting in times so that someone was always nearby and able to check in on Beth from time to time and make sure she was fed and watered at mealtimes, as well as the dogs.

‘So how long is Alex over for, then?’ I asked casually. ‘Do we work him into the rota too?’ I thought it was a good way to satisfy my curiosity.

‘Not too sure, to be honest. He and Sophie have got some stuff that they need to sort out over the next few months or so, so I know he’s definitely going back, but I also know that he wants to be around for Beth too, so who knows? I think we should leave him off the rota, and then any time he can do is a bonus. Russell is prepared to work some extra hours too, so hopefully we’ve got it all covered.’ He covered my hand with his. ‘Thank you, darling, for helping us out like this. I really don’t know what we’d have done without you right now.’

‘Well, like Beth said, perhaps the universe was conspiring and made me redundant just at the right time. At least I’m able to help out here, while I’m looking to get back into the world of PR.’

As the words left my mouth, I already couldn’t imagine myself back in that world. It was as if that life belonged to another person, even though it wasn’t that long ago. The fact that it was all I knew made me quite honestly feel really low and I was struggling to find any excitement about searching for work in that field again. Perhaps the best thing I could do would be to put the feelers out as soon as I could before I took too much time out of the corporate workplace. That would also be frowned upon by future employers. But working here would keep me busy in the meantime anyway. More than that, it was fun, which was something that had been missing from my life until recently.

* * *

Lunchtime soon came around, so I walked across the yard, noticing that Alex’s hire car wasn’t there any more, to the farmhouse kitchen, to make us all a sandwich. It seemed that I’d quickly morphed into Beth’s role and I was actually loving it – loving being needed for something other than facts and figures for a change.

I wandered up to Beth’s room and poked my head around the door and noticed that she was sitting up in bed, reading.

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