Page 6 of Escape to the Country

Chapter 3

After a sleepless night of tossing and turning, Eleanor had finally fallen asleep at dawn. When she woke up, it was late in the morning. Her boyfriend Lucas had left for his high-flying city job many hours earlier.

She got up out of the huge bed and staggered over to the window. Flinging open the curtains, it took her eyes a moment or two to adjust to the bright sunlight. But when the city view finally came into focus, she sighed. London. That big, beautiful, brash, bonkers capital city.Hercity, or at least it had been for the past eight years after leaving university.

It had been such a contrast to the tiny village of Cranley where she had grown up. It had taken a while to get used to the busy streets and the constant noise. But she had battled through her fears and had finally conquered the metropolis.

Most of all, it had been a city to escape to, away from the pain of her teenage years and her parent’s broken relationship.

And now? She still couldn’t believe that she had been made redundant. What on earth was she going to do?

Glancing at her emails gave her some idea. She had been called into the Human Resources department that afternoon to receive her redundancy package and to hand back her office pass card.

She scratched absent-mindedly at her neck. She could feel yet another eczema patch appearing. She dragged her hand away, not wanting to make it any worse and went to check in the mirror.

She sighed at her reflection. There it was. An even bigger patch of scaly skin than the last time. She glared at herself in the mirror, her green eyes scowling. She hated her eczema. It showed through every make-up and disguise that she had tried. And she had learnt a long time ago that looking anything less than perfect meant an unhappy ending for everyone.

She knew the eczema was a sign of stress. But Lucas’s fancy bathroom soap that he insisted on using didn’t help either. The stuff her boyfriend used was hideously expensive, which was ridiculous given the number of chemicals it had in it. Although it did smell very nice, she privately thought.

She glanced down to see the red patches forming at the base of her fingers as well. She smeared a layer of E45 cream over the various patches but knew that it would be weeks before they went away again.

If she had the time, she could make up her own cream as she had done many years ago, but there was never any time these days. Every day she was rushing to some book or album launch, a party, some kind of movie premiere. Besides, the eczema always appeared when she was worried and, right now, she was on a high level of anxiety.

The trouble was that she was just so used to being in control of her own destiny. She had wanted good grades and had achieved them at college. She had wanted a career and she had made it happen. Okay, so it hadn’t exactly been the high-flying journalism job that she had craved but she had gone along with it for as long as she could.

Except her career had just crashed to a halt. The floor had been taken away from her and she could feel herself tumbling downwards with no safety net.

Feeling her pulse begin to race with the stress once more, she turned away from the window and decided on a plan for the rest of the day. She just had to take control again. That was all. She could handle it. She was strong enough.

She quickly got dressed and paced across the polished floorboards into the lounge, glancing at the designer sofa. Expensive but not exactly comfortable. Not that she wanted to relax anyway. She was too uptight.

She briefly thought with longing about her own studio flat where she had lived for two blissful years. After years of flat-sharing, she had found a tiny place to rent by herself. The rent had been extortionate and had eaten up most of her meagre salary, but it had been worth it to have her own space, without worrying about her flatmates ‘borrowing’ from her designer wardrobe. Best of all, there was a tiny Juliet balcony where she had been able to plant up some window boxes full of flowers and herbs which she had used for various oils to help her skin.

But then her precious little flat had been declared unsafe due to subsidence so she had temporarily moved in with Lucas whilst deciding where to go next. Her landlord had promised to find her another apartment but it had never happened. So after seeing Lucas for two years she had moved in three months ago. It had been a reluctant joint decision. Neither of them had been quite ready for the next step in their relationship. And it was the longest she had ever lived with anyone apart from her mother. But after a few nervy first days, they seemed to be getting along, even if his choice of bathroom soap was causing her skin problems to flare up.

She stared around the huge space of the lounge, wondering what to do next. As usual, she decided not to hang around the flat on her own. It was too empty. Too cold, despite the sunny day outside. And she didn’t like the way every noise echoed around the place.

So she decided to head across the capital to pick up her redundancy package.

Back at the office, Eleanor was grateful not to bump into Theresa or Kourtney in the corridors or the lift. That would have been particularly awkward. Thankfully the meeting with the Human Resources manager was brief and she was able to quickly get out of there. On the way home on the bus, she flicked through the paperwork, at least assured that the magazine had given her the three months’ pay-off that she had been promised. That would last her the summer, but then what?

The trouble was, the newspaper and magazine worlds were in sharp decline due to online competition and jobs for experienced journalists were thin on the ground.

Sighing, she glanced out of the window and just caught sight of the Shard, glinting in the afternoon sun. She smiled as she recalled meeting Lucas for the first time up on one of the top floors, the city glittering far beneath them. It had been a fancy party, full of celebrities and high-flying bankers, one of which was her future boyfriend. He had been handsome, witty and, she had quickly realised, a like-minded spirit, somebody who was anxious to move quickly up the corporate ladder. Except his career had headed higher and higher whereas hers had stagnated.

She shook her head and brought her phone out of her handbag. She was a victim of bad timing, but that didn’t mean she had to think like one.

She set about working her way through all the contacts she had made in the media. But after spending the rest of the afternoon searching, she felt exhausted by the lack of work out there. Her worst fears were confirmed. Things were tight across the whole industry. There were no spare jobs to be found anywhere.

Feeling overwhelmed, she decided she needed a drink. She took one of Lucas’s crystal wine glasses from the display cabinet and poured herself a large chilled Prosecco.

She continued to idly flick down the list of contact names but knew it was a fruitless search. She bit back the tears, feeling more frightened that she had done in a long time. What on earth was she going to do now?

She was halfway through her third glass of wine when Lucas finally returned from work later that evening. She automatically checked her hair, smoothing down a rogue wave that had kinked out of place. She’d just slicked on some more lip gloss so that was already in place. Finally, she switched on a smile. ‘Hi.’

‘What a day,’ said Lucas, by way of greeting. ‘Bloody markets had millions wiped off them.’

Eleanor watched her boyfriend as he continued his rant. Some might have said that he was a little too obsessed with money, with an excessive amount of one-upmanship over his colleagues at the stock exchange where he worked. But she found that competition healthy, exciting even. It showed drive and initiative.