Page 26 of Escape to the Country

Of course she did. There was always cherry cake. His favourite.

He sighed, so soft it disappeared on the breeze as he sat there. He had tried buying a cherry cake recently, but it hadn’t tasted the same. The missing ingredient was his gran’s love.

He felt Sam stand next to him. ‘Not so bad, is it?’ he said, his voice full of pride as he looked out across the grounds.

‘Definitely not bad,’ said Tom, draining his coffee cup.

‘Are you up to a tour of the grounds?’ Sam nodded at the crutches. ‘Unless your foot is too painful.’

It was. And the codeine was making him feel woozy. But he needed to try and wake up.

‘Unless you’re thinking about jogging round,’ said Tom, as he slowly stood up.

‘Well, the estate actually stretches for about five miles, but I’ll keep it local for today,’ said Sam, breaking into a grin.

They walked slowly along the patio which spread across the length of the back of the house.

‘Watch your step,’ warned Sam. ‘You don’t want to do the other foot in.’

It was pretty uneven as many of the paving slabs were broken, with weeds growing through them.

‘We ran out of money before I could do the garden,’ Sam explained, with an apologetic smile.’ But we still have Bert.’

‘Who?’ said Tom.

‘Bert is our elderly gardener.’ Sam glanced around him and then lowered his voice. ‘He’s nearly as old as grandad. In fact, I think they even went to school together. But he still wanders up twice a week to keep an eye on the vegetable patch. The rest, well, as you can see, it needs something more drastic. But Annie will kill me if I don’t get the kitchen sorted next.’

Tom noted that Sam’s eyes were softened with love as he spoke about Annie.

Beyond the triple garage were a couple of outbuildings in the distance. ‘That’s the old dairy house,’ said Sam. ‘There’s also a large stable block and, somewhere in the far distance, is the gamekeeper’s cottage. Just by the river. All in a complete state of disrepair, of course. It’s so frustrating. I care so much about trying to preserve the heritage of the place. I want to safeguard it for generations to come.’ He sighed. ‘If only there wasn’t quite so much of it.’

Tom realised that beautiful Willow Tree Hall also came with a heavy burden of responsibility.

He tried to cheer Sam up. ‘You’ve got a river?’

‘Just the one mile that goes through our grounds,’ said Sam. ‘Thankfully that doesn’t need any investment. Grandad taught me to fish down there. I’ll have to show you one day.’

Tom looked over with interest. Fishing he could certainly handle. On the boundary of the lawn, there was an ancient wood. A faint haze of blue remained from the faded bluebells that must have carpeted the ground in the spring.

‘But it’s a bit of a trek on crutches and our interest lies the other way,’ said Sam.

They turned and slowly went back across the patchy patio.

‘If you need anything whilst you’re here, just let me or Annie know.’ Sam cleared his throat. ‘Are you two getting on all right?’

Tom smiled to himself. He knew what Sam was asking.

‘I like her,’ Tom told him.

He had found Annie warm and friendly. And she was certainly a much better fit for his friend that his previous girlfriend, the famous singer Cassandra. Although her own career had come to an abrupt halt just recently. Tom didn’t feel particularly sorry for her. She had, unknown to Sam, made a pass at Tom one evening the previous year. But Tom wasn’t about to cheat on his friend, especially for someone as high-maintenance as the famous diva.

Sam beamed. ‘Annie’s one in a million,’ he said, his voice full of love. ‘It’s like a bloody thunderbolt. You’ll know. When it happens to you.’

Tom wasn’t so convinced. To let someone love you, you had to trust them completely and open yourself up to let them in. He just couldn’t see himself ever giving that much of himself to anyone.

As they reached the east side of the patio, the paving slabs stopped and gave way to a worn stony path.

‘There’s a walled garden over there,’ said Sam, as they carried on. ‘That’s the vegetable patch, which at least is well tended. But as you can see, the rest of it is run wild.’ He sighed. ‘Oh well. We’ll get there eventually.’