The Little Cottage in the Country. Lottie Phillips

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СКАЧАТЬ out. Left-hand side has taken a bit of a beating but otherwise it’s in good working order.’

      ‘It can join the other dents,’ she said and, another glug of wine later, smiled. It wasn’t his fault he spoke the way he did or that she had made the huge mistake of even coming to the countryside. ‘Thank you and please thank your wife for the food. It’s the happiest I’ve seen them all day.’ She nodded towards the children.

      ‘My pleasure but…’

      ‘Mummy, Freddie ate my food.’

      Anna turned her attention to her son. ‘Don’t eat your sister’s food.’

      ‘I’ll leave you to it. I don’t want to get in the way,’ Horatio said, moving towards the door. ‘Let me know if you need anything, like I said before.’

      ‘Thanks, but we won’t be staying.’ She followed him to the front door, carrying her glass and the bottle. ‘It was silly of me to think we could make a go of this. I blindly brought my two young children to the middle of nowhere.’ She frowned. ‘I may not be a perfect mother but it doesn’t seem fair on them.’

      Horatio nodded. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ He looked at her in earnest. He paused briefly and said, ‘I thought a lot of your aunt.’ He looked regretful. ‘But maybe you’re right, maybe it’s for the best.’

      Anna ignored his last comment. ‘You knew her?’ She supposed he would have, but she hadn’t really thought about it.

      ‘Very well.’ He smiled. ‘She would often come up to the house.’ He gave a small shake of his head. ‘My parents’ house,’ he corrected himself. ‘And she would chat with me. She talked of you often.’

      ‘She did?’ Anna felt a pang of sadness.

      ‘Yes, she was very proud of you.’ He looked as if he wanted to say more but stopped himself. ‘I know it’s none of my business but the house is on its last legs.’ He looked around him. ‘Maybe you could rent locally instead?’

      ‘I can’t. It’s either this or nothing. My aunt left me this house, otherwise I’d be stuck back in London in my poky flat.’ She looked at him. ‘Do you have children?’

      He nodded. ‘Yes.’

      ‘Well, then you’ll know how hard it can be at times, but the difference is you can talk to your wife about it. But try imagining what it would be like doing this kind of thing by yourself with no one to voice your concerns to.’

      ‘Like what?’ he said. ‘It looks like you’re coping just fine.’

      ‘Like, um…’ Her head had started to grow fuzzy with the wine and she found herself flicking through the parental-disaster book she stored at the back of her mind. ‘So, um…’ She drank deeply again. ‘Like sending your little boy to school with his lunchbox, only to get a call from his school about its contents.’

      ‘Contents?’

      ‘His teacher wanted to know why I had sent him to school with a Nicorette patch, a Weight Watchers milkshake and the last of the Christmas liqueur chocolates.’ He laughed and she pouted. ‘All of that, in a sodding Thomas the Tank Engine lunchbox. I mean, there’s probably some government health warning about mothers like me.’

      ‘I bet yours was nice, though.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘Your lunch.’

      ‘Yeah, I got the corned beef sandwich and Penguin, but that’s not the point. So you’ve got to understand, Mr Spencer…’ She had downed the remainder of the glass of wine and it was giving her that joyous feeling of confidence and control. She refilled it quickly, slurped some more and continued. ‘I think I was really selfish coming here. Maybe I didn’t really think about what I was taking them away from. I mean, we had a pretty poky flat in London but it was still home, you know? They were just about to start at a local school… but it was a crap one. That was when I knew we had to move, when the children didn’t get into their first choice and Simon, that’s my ex, started giving me a hard time and…’ Her eyes smarted with tears. ‘You see? It’s not fair. And then you – yeah, you – come along all hoity-toity on top of a horse called Taittinger. I mean, seriously? And then you stand there and laugh at my predicament.’ She drank deeply again. ‘I mean, you can’t just stand there and laugh at a woman’s predicament. Well, you can, but it’s not on.’ Oh bugger, she was bulldozing. That’s what her mother called it. In other words, she had lost the ability to stop talking.

      ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself,’ he said kindly, appearing to have lost his la-dee-dah extra bits like the ‘yahs’ and the ‘jolly-whatsits’. ‘And I wasn’t laughing at you. I was kind of hoping you’d start laughing too.’ When she didn’t answer, he asked gently, ‘Do you work?’

      She found his kindness touching and yet she didn’t want to break down in front of a total stranger.

      ‘I’m a journalist.’

      ‘Wow.’ His eyes widened with what would appear to be genuine admiration. ‘Are you going to work for someone locally?’

      ‘No, I’m freelancing for The Post.’ Anna laughed. ‘A London newspaper. My boss, Barry, wants to get the lowdown on moving to the countryside.’

      Horatio smiled. ‘That sounds like you might have to stick it out then, but…’ He paused. ‘Maybe not here.’

      ‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think so. I think we should leave the village altogether. If it’s not here, I have to go. I can’t afford to rent around here.’

      ‘I haven’t known you for more than five minutes, but I’d quite like to get to know you, if you did stay in the area.’

      ‘Anyone would think you’re determined we’re not going to stay in this cottage!’

      He looked embarrassed and concentrated his gaze on the floor. ‘No, it’s just that…’

      She smiled. ‘Listen, you’re probably right, I should head back to London.’

      She gave him a small smile and glanced up at him through a blur of tears and, fearing she might cry, looked away again. ‘Listen, thank you for today.’ She paused. ‘We’d better get an early night. Head back tomorrow. Stay with my friend.’

      ‘Where are you going?’

      ‘My friend Diane’s.’

      Anna pushed the minor detail of her friend not even knowing of her plan to the back of her mind. Diane would never turn them away.

      ‘Where does she live?’

      ‘London.’

      He nodded slowly.

      ‘I made a mistake coming here.’

      A shadow appeared to pass across his features. ‘Anna, I don’t know how to tell you this… What I’ve been trying to say, but badly is…’

      She СКАЧАТЬ