As she walked out of the care home she felt desperately hurt. And she missed Antony terribly.
Issi and Tig were at home, drinking tea by the fire. Fran flopped on to the sofa.
‘What’s up?’ said Issi. ‘Hang on, don’t tell me, I’ll make you some tea first. Unless you’d prefer wine?’
Fran glanced at her watch. ‘Wine, please.’
‘I’ll sort it,’ said Tig. ‘Unless you’d rather I went home?’
‘No!’said Fran. She sighed. ‘Roy came while I was with Amy. Amy seems completely besotted with him. I wouldn’t mind, really I wouldn’t, not inheriting Hill Top. But Roy only cares about Amy because he wants the farm.’
Tig came back into the room with a bottle of red wine and some glasses. When Fran was settled with one they sat in silence for a while.
‘I try so hard to improve her life but no matter what I do, there’s always something Roy can do that’s better.’
‘What she would really like, I think,’ said Tig, ‘would be to see the farm again. Don’t suppose Roy could make that happen.’
‘But could I?’ said Fran, her spirits lifting a bit at the thought.
Tig nodded. ‘All you’d need is an all-terrain vehicle.’
‘A quad bike? But surely Amy couldn’t go on one of those?’ While she was denying it was possible, Fran was thinking hard. Of course Tig was absolutely right. Seeing the farm would be what Amy wanted most.
‘I bet Antony has a quad bike that can take a passenger,’ said Issi. ‘Or access to one, at least.’
‘I’ll email him,’ said Fran, excited at the thought. While her head believed he loved her, her heart was taking longer. It seemed so impossible that such a wonderful man could love an ordinary girl like her. Shewasn’toverly modest, she knew she was reasonably attractive, but with Antony, she felt out of her league.
‘Shall I cook something?’ said Tig.
‘Yes please,’ said Fran.
‘I’ll help,’ said Issi. ‘You get in touch with Ant.’
Fran wished she could text him instead of emailing, then she wouldn’t have to write so much or wonder how to sign off. Sadly, the dodgy phone signal meant a text might not get through. She kept the email short.
Do you have access to a quad bike that takes two people? F x.
Who wants to know and why? A xx, he replied instantly, giving Fran a little burst of happiness.
Me, and it’s complicated. F xx(two kisses when he’d given two kisses was definitely OK).
Can you talk if I phoned you? A xxx.
People are here, F xxxwas her reply. She’d have loved to have a long conversation with him but he’d have to use the landline and so it would have to be fairly businesslike.
The phone rang almost immediately.
‘What’s all this about a quad bike?’ he said.
Not the most romantic words ever heard but they made her smile inordinately.
A couple of weeks later, towards the end of April, Fran and Antony set off for Amy’s care home. It had taken a lot of organising and preparation buttheday had come for Amy’s visit to the farm. And the sun was shining. Better even than fine weather was, in Fran’s opinion, the fact that Roy had gone down to Cornwall with some mates to watch some sort of match – football or rugby, or possibly even darts. He would be out of the way all day.
There was only one small cloud of anxiety threatening Fran’s happiness: how would Amy react to Antony? Roy had had ample opportunity to drip poison in Amy’s ear and had even taken Megan in with him to bump up the dose. According to a nurse, who had become a friend of Fran’s, Megan had pulled no punches, and had reported that Fran and Antony were living in sin (this expression had made Fran smile) with no regard to Amy’s wishes in the matter.
However, Amy hadn’t actually called Fran on this and Fran sensed that Amy didn’t believe it. And given that Antony had been away so much, and Fran had been working so hard making cheese and selling it to Roger (her produce had been ahugehit at the food festival), when she wasn’t making tasty morsels for Amy, it was very far from the truth.
‘Remind me,’ Fran said as they drove along the lanes towards town, ‘what did your grandfather actually do to annoy Amy so much?’
