‘Oh, I wonder why!’ said Fran, keeping up her teasing for a second before going back to sorting letters. ‘Hey! Here’s an official-looking one for Roy.’
‘Open it then,’ said Issi.
‘Should I? It’s not addressed to me.’
‘Did he leave a forwarding address? Or just his dirty washing?’ Issi was dismissive of Fran’s qualms.
‘I don’t know.’
Issi sighed impatiently. ‘Let’s go and see if he’s left any sort of forwarding details. If he has, we don’t open it, but if he’s just scarpered, we do, OK?’
‘Why exactly are you so keen to see that letter?’
‘Because it’s from the planning office! Didn’t you see the envelope? You’re not really on it this morning, Fran. Although I suppose you’ve been busy.’ She smiled at her vast understatement.
‘Let’s check Roy’s room and then I promise I’ll tamper with the post.’
His room looked like a student had got up late for a lecture and just run. The bed was unmade and there were dirty clothes on the floor and on thechair.The wardrobe was empty – possibly he’d never really unpacked.
‘If you’d been renting him a room you could have refused to give him his deposit back,’ said Issi.
‘You’re right. I will open the letter. After all, it’s the planning office so it must be about my farm.’ She gave a little squeak of pleasure. ‘My farm. Think of that!’
‘Come on. Coffee, toast and that letter.’
Fran sat at the table and slit open the letter with a knife. It was long and closely typed. ‘Well, I think it’s good news,’ she said at last. ‘For me, that is, not Roy. Planning has been rejected on most of the site.’
‘Can I see?’ said Issi, obviously itching to get her hands on the letter. When she’d read all the jargon and provisos, she looked at Fran. ‘Interesting. You can have a change of use for most of the farm buildings.’
‘I know. Including my cheese room! Bloody cheek.’ Fran reached for the Marmite. ‘I must turn the cheese that’s in the quarry later. I would have been so sad and fed up if I hadn’t been able to do that.’
Issi crunched thoughtfully for a few seconds. ‘I have to say, Fran, I thought you’d be jumping for joy a lot more about inheriting the farm.’
‘I am jumping for joy,’ Fran said flatly, ‘in my heart. But I am worried. It’s a lot of responsibility and I don’t want to let Amy down.’
‘Butyou’ve been running it for a while now and you’ll still have Tig for the cows. He’s not going to abandon you. What’s different?’
‘It hasn’t really been paying its way, has it?’ said Fran. ‘I mean my hard cheese could really take off but will it really earn enough money? I’m hoping there’s enough money in Amy’s estate to pay off the bank loan but she was running the farm at a loss for years. I’m at least adding value to the milk cheque but – well, I don’t really think it’s ever going to be enough.’
Issi put her hand on her friend’s.
Fran sighed. ‘When I said all this to Antony last night, he said something that indicated he didn’t think it would make money either. I have to do something else to keep it going. Otherwise, like Roy said, annoyingly, I’ll have to keep selling off little bits, like the stone tiles off the outbuildings. Eventually it would just be a farmhouse in a truly magnificent position.’
‘Beautifully done up with Antony’s money,’ suggested Issi.
‘I don’t want that, Is! I want to pay my way. Antony is truly the most wonderful man, in so many very important ways, but he’d be a bit easier to love if he wasn’t so rich.’
‘Fran? Are you feeling OK? He’s gorgeous, really nice, good and kind and well off, and you’re complaining?’
Franlaughed. ‘I’m not really complaining. Far from it. I feel incredibly lucky, but I want to pay my way in the relationship. He’s giving up a lot to be with me. He’s agreed we’ll live here, for example, and I know he’d let me spend money on the house – and God knows it does need money. I’ve no idea what the real state of it is, but I expect it’s got a lot wrong with it we’re just not aware of. It could be a money pit. I need to make it profitable, not a drain on Antony.’
‘I do understand,’ said Issi after a few moments’ thought. ‘Actually …’
‘What? You’ve got an almost visible thought bubble coming out of your head.’
‘Ever since I’ve known you, before this farming lark came up, you’ve wanted to run a restaurant. Why not run one here?’
Fran bit her lip to help her think. ‘Would people come here for a restaurant?’
