1
LETTIE
April
Lettie closed her eyes, relishing the warm early-morning sun on her face as she contemplated what to do next. This was her happy place where she had the time and space to think through all that had happened over the past few weeks, and nothing could beat it. She had missed coming to lie in the long dewy grass among the daisies and buttercups. This was her favourite meadow. She stretched out her right arm until her fingertips were cooled by the water in the stream that ran through several fields in Hollyhock Farm.
Finally, after a long, cold and mostly wet winter, April seemed to have finally arrived in all its blossom-filled glory. This was the first day for months that the weather would have been warm enough for her to lie like this without freezing or getting wet. The nearby fields were humming with voices and engines as workers – some driving tractors – and her father continued to harvest the Jersey Royal potatoes the island was famous for. Lettie knew April to June was the busiest and most vital time of year for her parents’ farm as the harvest continued and precious small, buttery potatoeswere packed up, the majority taken to the harbour ready to be shipped to the English mainland and sold.
She loved Hollyhock Farm, with its pink granite farmhouse, sunny yard and outbuildings surrounded on three sides by fields. These wild meadows and woodland had been the only home she had known until leaving the island five years before to study fashion at Loughborough University.
It made a pleasant change being back here with the only sound being the occasional seagull or pigeon, and she hadn’t realised how much she had needed this week’s break back on the island.
Lettie moved her hand above her face and closed her eyes as droplets of water splashed down onto her warm skin. She was single for the first time in two and a half years and although she had initially been delighted when Scott had joined the fashion house in the accounts department, discovering another side to him at work had soured their relationship and slowly his behaviour had worsened towards her, with him becoming jealous and more controlling of her until she had felt she had little choice but to end things with him. She had been surprised to discover that it hadn’t been nearly as difficult to get over her first great romance as she had expected. At least during this visit to the farm she didn’t have to spend the majority of her time pandering to him so that his rudeness didn’t annoy her parents.
‘Lettie, where the hell are you?’
She groaned, hearing her brother’s voice in the distance. It wasn’t like Zac to be up this early or be staying at the farm, but there had been issues with the boiler in his flat and their mother had insisted he come to stay with them for a few days while it was fixed. Lettie loved him but could have done with more time to herself. What did he want? She decided to ignore him for a bit, wanting to enjoy her peace for as long as possible.
‘Lettie, will you answer me?’ She could hear his footstepscoming closer to her. ‘I know you’re lying down in that damp grass again.’
‘For goodness’ sake.’ She gritted her teeth, aware he clearly had no intention of giving up until he had found her. She sat up and looked in the direction his voice had come from but couldn’t see him. ‘What do you want?’
Zac didn’t reply and she let herself hope that he had gone back to the farmhouse. She lay back down and closed her eyes. He probably wanted her to go and eat breakfast but she wasn’t very hungry, having got used to missing breakfast since living in the UK. It was something that exasperated her mother, who had always taken pride in the delicious meals she’d cooked them when they lived at home.
A shadow fell over her face and, opening her eyes, Lettie peered up at her brother’s scowling face. Lettie groaned. ‘What is it?’
‘Mum has cooked breakfast.’
‘I’m not hungry.’ She closed her eyes again suspecting her brother had been given instructions not to return to the kitchen without her.
‘You know as well as I do that isn’t an acceptable excuse as far as Mum is concerned. Now get up. I’m starving.’
Lettie sighed, aware that she had little choice but to do as her mother asked. ‘Fine.’ She got up and accompanied him through the long grass, stopping to pick several wildflowers to put into a small vase for her bedroom windowsill. ‘You’d think Mum would trust us to eat properly at our age, wouldn’t you?’
‘I guess. Unlike you though, I’m glad she still likes cooking for us.’
‘I suppose I am, too,’ she admitted as her stomach growled noisily. Maybe she was hungrier than she’d thought.
They passed the top field where earlier that morning their father had finished ploughing.
Lettie stopped and watched seagulls congregating on the rich, dark soil and was reminded how peaceful life usually was here on the farm.
‘Hurry up, sis,’ Zac moaned, walking a bit faster. ‘I prefer my cooked breakfast hot and anyway I have work to do.’
She followed him across the dusty yard. ‘I thought you were on holiday.’
‘I’m working remotely this week and—’ he checked his watch ‘—I have a Zoom call in a couple of hours, so please, let’s get a move on.’
‘Why didn’t you say that in the first place.’ Her brother’s lousy communication skills hadn’t improved, she noted, despite being well thought of as a sound engineer. Maybe it was because he spent more time working on a computer than speaking to people.
‘Where were you?’ their father grumbled before biting into a piece of buttered toast. ‘Down by the stream, I suppose.’
‘Right – first time.’ Zac pulled out his chair and plonked himself down, immediately reaching for some toast.
‘It’s the first opportunity I’ve had to spend time there since I was last here,’ Lettie said, sitting down. She smiled gratefully at her mother as she placed a plateful of perfectly cooked eggs, bacon, tomato, sausage and mushrooms in front of her. ‘This looks and smells delicious, Mum. Thank you.’
Her mother kissed the top of Lettie’s head. ‘I love having both my chicks back home again.’
