A Home On Bramble Hill: A feel-good, romantic comedy to make you smile. Holly Martin

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      He let his head fall into his hands and nodded. ‘Two weeks in St Lucia. I think she’d like to try for a baby.’

      ‘Oh Casey. What are you going to do?’

      ‘Hope that I catch her with that pool boy before she walks down the aisle.’

      *

      Finn was busy tweaking things in his front garden, tying up the trailing clematis when the police car pulled up outside.

      He had spent a good few hours tidying the two gardens of his clients earlier and had come back to work on his own. Joy had just left about ten minutes before to walk Darcy, dressed in that sexy jacket and cap again. She had flashed him a small smile as she walked past. He didn’t give one back; in fact he was pretty sure he glared. He cursed himself for getting involved, for feeling sorry enough for her to try to do something about the dog shit on her doorstep before she found out.

      He straightened from pulling a stray weed out from near the roots of the clematis as he watched the police man and woman walk up Joy’s garden path.

      ‘She’s out,’ he said, wondering why he couldn’t stop himself from getting involved. ‘She’s just left.’

      They turned to face him and gave him that look that most people gave him when they met him for the first time. The look of “My God, he’s huge.” He was used to it now. At six foot ten he always got that look. He was broad as well, and he understood that some people found him intimidating.

      The policeman found his voice first. ‘Do you know which way she went; we really need to talk to her?’

      Instinctively and not really knowing why, except having this intrinsic need to protect her, he found himself pointing in the opposite direction to the one she had just taken. ‘She normally walks through the village to The Pride and follows the little path up to the old beacon.’ God, now he was lying to the police as well.

      The policeman nodded. ‘We would appreciate it if you didn’t tell her you saw us. We’d like to speak to her first. We wouldn’t want her to worry.’

      ‘No, of course not.’ Finn nodded, feeling his stomach clench with that exact same worry.

      The police got back in their car and drove off in the direction that Finn had pointed. Finn threw down his tools, whistled for Billy and quickly followed in Joy’s footsteps.

       Chapter Five

      Joy had made for the tallest peak in the range of hills. The one that looked like a face. Old Woman White, her dad used to call it or White Lady Hill to everyone else. It was a good long walk, but Darcy had enjoyed it. Joy knew, as she approached the side that held the hooked nose, she would have excellent views of the valley below. There would be the River Quail, which was nothing more than a tiny stream in this part of the country, it would curl lazily through Hollyhock Woods, down Blueberry Hill and most importantly straight past Blueberry Farm. It was the farm she was more interested in seeing than anything else. She hadn’t been brave enough to go and visit it yet. But when she did she would give the man that owned it a piece of her mind. For now she would settle for looking at it. Maybe she would sit for a while and remember.

      Her dad had said that she should never look back, that dwelling on the past was a mistake. He said that time was well spent planning for the future, but more importantly it should be spent living for now, enjoying the moment, because you could never go back and change things, so there was no point wishing you could. She wondered if he would be disappointed that she had come to the farm that day, if he would be shaking his head over her plans.

      As the farm came into view, she realised she had been holding her breath. She stood looking at it for a moment, then sat down to indulge in the past.

      *

      Finn had easily spotted her about a thousand yards ahead, her red hair flying like a scarlet banner behind her. He had followed her, slowly closing the gap between them, as she had walked with purpose across the range. As he drew closer she finally stopped and sat down, staring out on the view below. He approached, but now he was here he didn’t know whether to talk to her about the police or not. Surely it was best for both of them if he just kept walking. He really didn’t need to be there for her, or to know the reason for that sad, faraway look on her face. He would just keep on walking.

      ‘You see that farm down there Darcy, that’s my farm.’ Joy pointed down towards Blueberry Farm. Intrigued at the lie more than anything else, he moved to stand near her side.

      She looked up, clearly embarrassed at being caught talking to her dog, and annoyed to see Finn was the one to disturb her, she moved to get up.

      ‘No don’t go on my account, I was just enjoying the view. Surely we can be civil enough to enjoy the same view at the same time.’

      She nodded reluctantly and he sat next to her. They sat in awkward silence for a while, probably while she wondered if he had some sort of split personality disorder. He’d been scrubbing her doorstep this morning, then he refused to smile at her when she had smiled at him, and now he was sitting down next to her as if they were best friends. He was confused by it himself.

      ‘I… couldn’t help overhearing you telling Darcy that Blueberry Farm was yours. I know the person that actually owns it and you look nothing like him.’

      He watched her jaw clench but she didn’t say anything.

      ‘It’s an odd thing to lie to your dog.’

      Her eyes flashed. ‘It was my farm. I was born there, lived there till I was eighteen. I still consider it my home, even though it belongs to some arsehole now.’

      ‘Oh.’ Oh crap, thought the arsehole. The woman that had been trying to buy him out – the woman that had made repeated calls, sent many letters and emails asking him to sell his farm to her, the woman he had largely ignored for the last few months – was sitting next to him. ‘Why did you leave if you still consider it to be home?’

      ‘I…’ She stared back down at the farm, pulling her knees up to her chest. ‘I didn’t have much choice.’ She bit her lip, clearly considering whether to tell him or not, and every part of his brain was screaming at him to get away before she unburdened herself with her story. By the look on her face it wasn’t going to be a happy one. He was trying to ignore the need to put his arm round her and comfort her right now and he hadn’t even heard the story yet. If she started crying, that would be it, he’d be lost for good.

      ‘My parents died, they were killed in a car accident when I was nine.’

      And there it was, he was lost, beyond the point of no return.

      ‘My brother raised me after they died, but there was seemingly very little money. Alex didn’t know a lot about farming, I was always the one that followed Mum and Dad around, asking loads of questions about the dairy cows. Alex was always building stuff, robots, animatronics. He did a course on it at college and was set to go to university to study special effects in film.

      When they died, he had no clue how to carry on what they had started and though he had a part time job it wasn’t enough to pay the bills. I know, in the first few months after they died, he started working more hours, though he was always there to take me to school and СКАЧАТЬ