The Little Orchard on the Lane: An absolutely perfect and uplifting romantic comedy

by Tilly Tennant

  ‘I wish!’ Posy said with a wry smile. ‘I’m not planning on being unemployed for long if I can help it… although I am going to enjoy the change of scenery in Somerset for as long as I can get away with.’

  ‘Tell me again who it is you’re going to stay with?’

  ‘My uncles.’

  ‘It’s weird that they live together like that.’

  ‘Not really. It’s the family home, handed down to them, and it’s also where the business runs from. And they don’t live together as such – Giles and Sandra have the big house and Asa has a little building to himself on the grounds.’

  ‘It’s like an ancestral seat? Does that make you a posho?’

  Posy laughed. ‘Oh yeah. So posh! No… not posh at all. I mean, their house is pretty big but it’s hardly a stately home.’

  She finished her lolly too and dropped the stick into the same bin that Jackson had used. He smiled down at her and shyly reached for her hand.

  ‘Want to go in now?’

  ‘Sounds good to me.’

  * * *

  Before going to the visiting exhibit, they took a tour of the permanent installations too. Posy had seen a lot of it on previous trips, but she wanted to make the most of the visit and her time with Jackson. And it was nice to wander the portraits, landscapes and sculptures and just gaze at them as an interested admirer, rather than working to fathom meaning as she would have done as a student.

  It was even nicer to listen to Jackson poke gentle fun at each one and not have her artistic sensibilities offended, as they would have been a few years before too. She’d taken it all very seriously back in the days when she’d been studying art, whereas Marella had always got the balance right. Marella always knew when something they were looking at was utterly ridiculous but she would often find something meaningful to say about it when questioned by a tutor. Blagging was what she called it, but Posy had to be impressed. Marella usually said it was down to her northern roots, which meant she always had her bullshit radar switched to high. She had a constant conflict raging inside her –appreciation of art and culture battling the practical sense handed down from her parents, who would have looked at almost any modern art installation and announced it to be twaddle.

  Jackson halted at a blank canvas.

  ‘Is there supposed to be something on here?’ he asked.

  ‘It represents the fullness of a void,’ Posy said, looking intently at it.

  ‘You can tell that by looking at it?’

  ‘No.’ She pointed to an information card next to the artwork. ‘It says so right there.’

  ‘I think someone saw the gallery owner coming,’ Jackson said. ‘Looks like money for old rope to me.’

  ‘It’s not even that,’ Posy said patiently. ‘But when you’ve studied as much as I have nothing that’s meant to possess artistic merit surprises you anymore.’

  They moved on.

  ‘What’s going on here then?’ Jackson asked. He’d stopped at another white canvas, this one scored across the middle with a knife. ‘Did someone have an accident and hoped nobody would notice until they’d picked the pay cheque up?’

  Posy smiled. ‘Possibly.’

  ‘I don’t mind admitting these ones make no sense to me.’

  ‘But I like that you’re trying.’

  ‘How many more floors of this do we have to go?’

  ‘It’s pretty big in here…’

  Posy paused. Jackson was still looking at the canvas but she could tell he wasn’t impressed. She’d been able to tell that he hadn’t been impressed with much he’d seen so far, but he’d been doing his best.

  ‘You know what?’ she continued. ‘I’ve seen a lot of this before. How about we head straight up to the visiting exhibition and then we get that pizza and film after all?’

  He turned to her. ‘You really don’t mind?’

  ‘No. It was sweet of you to bring me here but I can tell you’re not really feeling it, and it doesn’t seem fair to subject you to hours and hours of it.’

  ‘You’d be here for hours?’

  She smiled. ‘Easily. In the old days, give me a rainy day with nothing to do and I’d spend it here. And it’s not like I can’t come any time I like. Let’s cut this bit short, head to the top floor, check out what we came to see and then go from there.’

  ‘You know what,’ he said with a grin.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I think you might be bona fide girlfriend material.’

  Posy raised her eyebrows and then grinned in return. ‘I think I’m supposed to take that as a compliment, right?’

  Chapter Fourteen

  ‘You certainly picked a fine time to get yourself a new boyfriend,’ Asa said as he negotiated the winding roads towards Astercombe and Oleander House, eyes fixed firmly on the route ahead, hands solid on the steering wheel. ‘Will you miss him terribly?’

  ‘I’ve only just started to see him so I shouldn’t think so,’ Posy said. ‘It’s nothing serious.’

  ‘But you like him? You must because when I asked what you’d been up to on our way out of the train station that was the first thing out of your mouth.’

  ‘I like him; he’s nice. At least he seems it, but as I keep telling you, it’s probably too early to tell.’

  ‘Now I feel guilty for dragging you away from London. You won’t see him for ages.’

  ‘I can go back for the odd day and if things got really desperate Jackson could come here. It’s not that far away and I’m sure we can manage anyway. We’re hardly getting married or anything – it was just one party and one follow-up date, that’s all.’

  Posy looked out of the window onto a sun-drenched landscape, golden fields, green meadows, towering trees and flower-filled hedgerows flashing by. It was good to be back in Somerset, even though she did secretly think she was going to miss Jackson a little. Asa was right – it was a hell of a time to get a new boyfriend.

  But, she reasoned, she wasn’t going to be in Somerset forever and what she’d said to Asa was absolutely right – it wasn’t like she was going into outer space. A couple of hours on the train would see them easily able to meet up if they wanted to. If he really liked her – and she thought he might – then he’d make the effort. She was certainly happy to.

  ‘Well, I can’t pretend I’m not jealous.’

  Posy turned to him. ‘Still no luck on Tinder?’

  ‘Oh, I’ve deleted the blasted app. It’s full of posers and weirdos.’

  Posy laughed. ‘It’s not.’

  ‘Says the woman who goes to a party dressed as an outer-space teddy bear and still pulls.’

  ‘Since you put it like that, it does seem very unlikely. I can see why you might find it annoying. I can assure you, romance was the last thing on my mind. I only went so Marella could go.’

  ‘And was it worth her while?’

  ‘She had a good time but she didn’t pull, if that’s what you mean.’

  ‘And she had the bikini on – that must have been galling for her.’

  ‘She was very gracious about it,’ Posy said, laughing again. ‘I think she’ll get over it eventually.’

  ‘And now you’re a free woman too.’

  ‘Free?’

  ‘You have no job to tie you down.’

  ‘Oh… so you mean unemployed…? Not so glamorous when you put it like that.’

  ‘Well, no. I only meant you don’t have to worry while you’re here. Treat it like a huge holiday.’

  ‘I’ll have to leave as soon as I’m done,’ Posy warned.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘And I’ll still have to job-hunt, so it’s not going to be exactly like a holiday.’

  ‘Yes, of course. But you have nothing to rush back for.’

  ‘Apart from my actual real life?’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ Asa said, and if Posy didn’t know him better she’d have thought it sounded a bit sour. But then, she didn’t know him – not really. She felt as if she did, but, when all was
said and done, she’d been acquainted with him less than two months and during that time had seen him in the flesh on only three occasions. They’d chatted endlessly over Skype but that wasn’t the same, and mostly it was about house designs. Perhaps she didn’t know the real Asa at all.

  ‘So,’ he began, ‘do you have a photo of this Jackson character?’

  ‘No. But he does have an Instagram account and there are some on there.’

  ‘You’ll have to show me when we get back to the house and I’ll tell you if your uncle Asa approves or not.’

  ‘That’s still weird,’ Posy said with a small smile, turning her gaze to the windows again. In a distant field cows were lying in the grass. Maybe they were soaking up the sun – Posy herself was certainly looking forward to doing that later.

  ‘Having an uncle?’ he asked.

  She turned to him and nodded.

  ‘Imagine me suddenly getting a niece then. I somehow feel terribly responsible for this person I hardly know.’

  ‘You don’t have to feel like that.’

  ‘Isn’t that what uncles do?’

  ‘I don’t know what they do; I’ve never had one. Mum is an only child and so is Dad. But I’m sure they don’t usually swap notes with their nieces about hot men.’

  ‘Does that mean I’m leading you astray?’

  Posy laughed. ‘You might not be the best influence.’

  ‘Good,’ he said. ‘For a minute there I thought I might be getting old and boring.’

  ‘I’m sure you could never be that.’

  ‘I can be old – I can’t help that.’

  ‘Never boring then.’

  ‘Coming from you I’ll take that as high praise.’

  ‘I mean it – I can’t imagine you being boring for one second.’

  ‘Perhaps not me, but perhaps my life at Oleander could be. And perhaps that might make me boring to some people…’ Asa said, the comment loaded with subtext that suddenly charged the air of the car.

  Posy suppressed a frown. She might not have known him well but she was beginning to see a trend. Whenever she got close to something like personal information he went all cryptic on her and drifted into an unfathomable mood that she didn’t know how to react to. One minute it was laughter and jokes, the next pained looks into the middle distance.

  ‘Well, here we are…’ he exclaimed, so completely nonchalant again that Posy had to wonder whether the mood change she thought she’d seen had really happened at all. ‘Home sweet home.’

  Posy saw the gates of Oleander ahead, the house sitting proud and beautiful behind them, and she felt a little kick of excitement. She wasn’t just visiting this time – for a few weeks at least, this was home.

  As Asa pulled onto the gravel of the driveway and brought the car to a stop, Posy got out to see Giles striding back from the orchard. He gave them a cheery wave. Despite Asa’s reassurances that they really didn’t mind her staying, Posy had been anxious about how Giles and Sandra might feel about it. But seeing his broad smile now made her realise she needn’t have worried. He was as welcoming as ever.

  ‘Good trip?’ he asked Posy as he approached the car.

  ‘As good as it can be on the train,’ Posy said. ‘It was late, of course, and then there was a delay for a cow or something on the line…’

  Giles laughed. ‘That sounds about right. You’re here now at least. What’s your plan of action? Time to come and say hello to Sandra before Asa starts cracking the whip? He has warned you what a pedantic little slave driver he is, I take it?’

  ‘Funny,’ Asa shot back, and Posy smiled.

  ‘I’m sure I’ve had worse clients. I’d love to come and see Sandra.’

  ‘She’s grafting some young trees in the orchard,’ Giles replied. ‘Come down with me if you like – we can go and fetch her together while Asa takes your cases to his place.’

  Asa looked as if he might argue with this plan but then seemed to think better of it. Giles gave him a stern look and Posy could just imagine what the dynamic would have been like between the brothers when they were children.

  ‘I’d say it’s the least you can do,’ Giles added.

  ‘I’ll see you back at the big house,’ Asa replied, going round to the boot of his car to pop it open.

  ‘Come on,’ Giles said to Posy. ‘This way; Sandra will be so pleased to see you…’

  * * *

  Posy opened her eyes as the light through a crack in the curtains heralded the first morning of her stay at Oleander House. Asa’s study had been converted into a spare bedroom for the duration of her stay. He’d said he didn’t even know why he had a study anyway, because he didn’t study. It was a strange thing to install in your house if you didn’t need one, but Posy had let it pass. It was just another of those unanswered questions that Asa kept posing.

  She’d probably have to decamp to the main house when it came to the redecorating stage of Asa’s refit, and Giles and Sandra had said they were only too happy to accommodate that. They’d also offered her Philomena’s old place to live in if she wanted some privacy. It was empty and doing nothing and it wouldn’t hurt to breathe a bit of life into the place, but that felt too weird to Posy, not to mention how dowdy and uninviting it was. If she had to stay there for any length of time, it might just have her pining for home again very quickly.

  Her first coherent thought as she took in the unfamiliar surroundings was that she was in Somerset. It almost felt like the first day of a new life. It wasn’t, she had to keep reminding herself, but it felt like it, or at least, it felt like something bigger than it realistically was.

  From the way the sun was coming in it seemed to be early, but something had woken her. Perhaps it was the excitement. But then she heard a noise and realised that was probably it – the sound of a van door slamming and voices outside. Putting on a dressing gown she went to the window, but it was in the wrong position to see anything so she went through to Asa’s silent living space and peered through the blinds there.

  ‘That’s the trouble with living in what is effectively a working farm.’

  Posy turned to see Asa standing at his bedroom door, eyes gummed with sleep, hair sticking up.

  ‘Everything starts so bloody early,’ he continued.

  ‘Workers?’ Posy asked, looking out of the window again. She could see the van now.

  ‘When I say workers… I mean worker, singular. Our brewery manager – Saul.’

  ‘I thought Giles did that.’

  ‘It’s too much for him to do alone. We’ll also be getting a few more seasonal workers as the chores build up towards harvest. I know the orchard isn’t huge, but the apples really need to be pressed straight away so we like to have all hands on deck so we don’t lose any of the crop. Saul’s amazing – what he doesn’t know about cider isn’t worth knowing, but he does like his early starts.’

  ‘Weirdo.’

  Asa grinned. ‘Finally, someone on my wavelength. Giles thinks we all ought to be up that early, but being up won’t make the apples grow any faster so what’s the point?’

  ‘I’d say that makes sense,’ Posy agreed with a smile. ‘I’m guessing Giles doesn’t agree.’

  ‘Nope.’ He stretched and yawned. ‘I might as well stay up now; I won’t be able to get back to sleep and there’s no point in lying around in bed.’

  ‘Me neither. I’m too excited to go back to bed now.’

  Asa raised disbelieving eyebrows.

  Posy laughed. ‘I know! I just feel like a kid on a new adventure all of a sudden.’

  ‘I’m glad somebody’s excited to be here. So… do you want coffee? I have a potent Columbian blend I got at the farm shop. It’s like a rocket up your bum – guaranteed to wake you.’

  ‘Sounds good.’

  Asa shuffled off to the kitchen as Posy let the blinds snap shut again and followed him.

  ‘What time do you usually start work then?’ she asked.

  ‘Not this early.’ Asa reached into the cupboard for
two mugs. ‘I don’t have a set time as such; my work is more on the social media, PR for the orchard side of things, so I can suit myself largely. But Giles likes to get his hands dirty so he tends to be up with the lark, messing around in the orchard or in the cider house.’

  ‘So were you the one who put the website together?’

  ‘I was.’

  ‘It looks brilliant. I spent ages looking at it before we came the first time.’

  ‘Thank you. I’m not exactly a whiz – self-taught mostly – but I don’t think I do too badly and it serves our needs well enough.’

  ‘Do you ever do tours of the production facilities – like for visitors and stuff?’

  ‘We’ve thought about it a lot over the years but we don’t at the moment.’

  ‘Why didn’t you start? Lots of places like yours do, don’t they?’

  ‘Mother dearest didn’t want strangers here. She was funny like that – liked everything to be very private. She wasn’t even fond of visits from our own friends and family. I had such a fight on my hands when I wanted—’ He looked in the fridge and sighed. ‘Out of milk. Looks like a trek to the big house to see if I can steal some from under Sandra’s nose. I knew I should have gone to get some last night but I totally forgot.’

  ‘Want me to go?’

  ‘No, it’s fine. I’ll do it.’

  ‘Well then, maybe I could go and get some supplies later? I will be staying here, after all, and I ought to help with the grocery costs.’

  ‘I couldn’t—’

  ‘I want to. I’d feel guilty expecting you to feed me all the time. I want to contribute so please don’t argue because I won’t listen.’

  ‘In that case it would be most welcome. I could come with you.’

  ‘No, you’ll be sneakily trying to pay.’

  ‘Where are you going to go? Into Astercombe? I’ll warn you, there’s no supermarket there. Any big shop we do we have to do online and get it delivered; failing that it’s a twenty-mile trip to the hypermarket. Astercombe is alright if you want the farm shop or the little local, but that’s about it.’

  ‘That’s OK – I can get a few things from there and maybe we can drive out for a supermarket another day. I’d like a good nosey round anyway.’