Page 34 of Summer At Willow Tree Farm

Was it her imagination, or was no one making eye contact with her?

‘I’ll have one too, Tess,’ Dee remarked as she sat down beside Ellie.

‘Your mum says you’ve been hard at work on the accounts all weekend.’ Annie nudged the loaded plate across the table. ‘So either you’re a masochist or it’s even worse than we thought.’

The bold statement delivered in Annie’s no-nonsense accent and the concern on all three of their faces made two things clear.

The coffee and cake invitation hadn’t been as spontaneous as it appeared. And the farm’s dodgy financial situation was not going to be news to any of them.

This was an intervention pure and simple.

The good news was it was an intervention that was long overdue and that Ellie could wholeheartedly support, except…

She took a generous bite of lemon drizzle and let the rich, tart taste melt in her mouth, the nerves starting to jitterbug in her stomach as if they were in the final round of Dancing with the Stars.

Whatever her past issues with Dee, the opinion of all three of these women, their friendship and respect, had come to mean something to her, and she didn’t want to muck that up.

She sipped the coffee Tess placed in front of her, and swallowed the cake. Surely there was no harm in at least telling them the whole truth about the farm’s finances?

‘From what I’ve seen so far, your financial situation isn’t good,’ she said. ‘Certainly not if you want to keep the business viable for the foreseeable future. Or even the next twelve months, frankly.’

Tess sighed, Annie swore and Dee looked devastated. And it was that crestfallen look that had all Ellie’s caution jumping up and darting right out the window into the bright summer day.

Sod it, Dee was her mum. And she’d welcomed her and Josh here when they’d needed a place to stay. This suggestion didn’t have to have anything to do with Art. She was over-complicating things.

‘But I found something that might provide a solution,’ she heard herself saying. Pam’s idea was a good one, she’d laid the groundwork for something that could save this place. And however inappropriate it might be for Ellie to be making this suggestion, it was entirely up to them what they did with it. ‘Or at the very least is worth considering.’

Dee’s head came up. ‘What is it?’

‘We’re all ears,’ Tess chipped in.

Here goes nothing.

Ellie watched their faces, and took an unsteady breath, her stomach having jitterbugged right into her throat. ‘How do you feel about opening a farm shop and café on the premises?’

PART TWO: RELIGHT MY FIRE

THEN

Eloise Charlotte Preston’s Diary: Anyone who reads this will die a horrible death in total agony (worse than Jack’s in Titanic. MUCH worse).

1 July 1998

Two absolutely shocking things happened today and I don’t even know which is the most shocking.

FIRST BIG SHOCK OF THE DAY: I saw my mum and Pam kissing in the kitchen. Not a friendly peck but real snogging. Like Pam was trying to explore my mum’s tonsils. I mean, yuk! Who wants to see their mum kissing anyone? I wouldn’t even want to see her kissing Dad. What if my mum is in love with Pam? Is she really going to divorce Dad? She wasn’t just saying that! We may never go back to London. We’ve been here three weeks now and I’ve lost all hope. I’m going to have to write my dad and ask him to come get me.

I’ll have to do it tomorrow, though, because seeing Mum kissing Pam wasn’t the only shock of the day and after this shock I totally forgot to write to my dad.

SECOND BIG SHOCK OF THE DAY: I saw Art TOTALLY NAKED. I was hiding out in the old mill house after seeing Mum and Pam, when I spied him swimming in the millpond all by himself. I wanted to call out to him – it was hot and I wanted to go swimming too – but I didn’t call out in the end because I knew he’d just be nasty to me like he always is when I try to talk to him or join in with stuff. Plus, I’d been crying, so he’d probably call me Princess Drama again.

So I kept quiet and watched him swimming instead, and when he came out of the water, he had no swimming trunks on. He didn’t even have his underpants!!! And I could see EVERYTHING. His bum (very white compared to the rest of him) and all the places he’s got hair and even his you-know-what.

He has a huge scar on his stomach, which actually made me feel a bit sad for him. How the fudge-sicle did he get that? Did someone try to kill him? I know he’s super annoying but he’s not THAT annoying! I willed him not to put his clothes on because I wanted to go on looking and – guess what – he didn’t. He smoked a cigarette first, like that’s perfectly normal to do when you’re stark naked (as if!) and then he laid down in the grass and started to stroke his whatsit.

No really, he did!

He got all red in the face and started moaning and groaning and he was going for it so much I thought he might chafe himself. I almost laughed at first, because it did look pretty silly, but the laugh got stuck somewhere. And I got hot all over instead.

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