Her mum came into the kitchen halfway through the procedure and smiled. ‘Well, this takes me back.’ She sat down heavily at the kitchen table. ‘I don’t remember you doing this since…’ her voice trailed off.
Eleanor glanced over her shoulder as she stood at the oven. ‘We’re allowed to say his name.’
‘I know,’ said her mum, with a small gulp. ‘Since your father left.’
‘I can’t remember that far back.’
It was a lie. Eleanor could remember every part of week after he had walked out on them. The local newspaper arriving through the letterbox. The photos of her dad and that actress that lived up the road. The tears. The many tears.
Most of all, she remembered cooking dinner that night and many evenings afterwards. Taking care of her mum until she was strong enough to take care of herself once more. Running from school to the supermarket and back again each day, trying to keep the household afloat. She hadn’t had much time for dabbling with her lotions and potions from that time onwards. Nor once she had moved to London either, apart from when she needed to whip up a batch for her eczema.
‘So what’s brought you back in time to do this?’ asked her mum.
Eleanor filled up some empty jam jars with the potion. ‘Megan’s burnt her nose.’
‘Oh dear,’ said her mum. ‘The joy of being a redhead. Well, I’m sure it’ll calm down overnight.’
‘It never has done before. Hopefully this will speed it on its way,’ said Eleanor, putting the jars in the fridge.
After dinner, she dropped a jam jar around to Megan, who was grateful for any help.
When Eleanor got home, she scooped out a large dollop of her own cream and smeared it across her neck.
The following morning, Eleanor received an ecstatic early phone call from Megan, telling her that her nose was now a wonderful golden brown colour instead of bright red. The carrot cream had worked its magic. Who’d have thought carrots could have such healing properties, thought Eleanor. She peered at her neck in the mirror. Between the carrot and her own plain cream, the eczema on her neck was almost non-existent. She was surprised because the stress and worry that someone would recognise her from the photo at Glastonbury still nagged at her. But the sense of satisfaction outweighed the worries, for once.
Chapter 29
After spending the last night in his yurt at Glastonbury, Tom had headed back to his flat in London. He had a doctor’s appointment booked so it coincided nicely with his plans.
He had lived alone for so long that he would have thought he would have been grateful to get back to his normal solitude. Except he found he didn’t like being in the peace and quiet of the flat. It was too quiet. And he couldn’t seem to settle, as if the peace was more of a burden to him. He even missed the communal dinners with the Harris family.
With not enough people around, he could feel his mood sinking lower and lower. He began to realise that perhaps the isolation of the flat had stopped him writing. Some days he hadn’t spoken to anyone. Was that why he hadn’t been able to overcome his writer’s block? Was that why he had felt so low?
In the end, he was grateful to attend the doctor’s appointment and then head back to Willow Tree Hall after only one night in the flat. He had missed the family and their happy shared spirit.
The doctor had been very positive about his injury. The foot was healing nicely, although he had been advised that he needed a couple more weeks rest yet.
So that was the excuse for heading back to the countryside, if only temporarily. But despite that, he grabbed a couple of boxes that he might need. His carpentry tools. More clothes. And other items that he might need if time continued to drift by and he still found himself at Willow Tree Hall.
So he was feeling quite relaxed as Sam drove them back from London. His friend had told him that it wasn’t a problem for him to stay as long as he liked and even seemed pleased that Tom enjoyed the family’s company so much.
Although he hadn’t intended to stay on, the thought of summer in the country was tempting. The setting was relaxing and after the madness of Glastonbury, the peace appealed to him as well. He could even feel the stirrings of new lyrics and melodies beginning in his head.
As they drew nearer to Cranley, he tried and failed to stop himself looking out of the window for Eleanor.
That kiss. That unexpected kiss. It had just been one of those things, but whereas their lips bumping into each other was an accident, the chemistry had been palpable. He hadn’t been expecting the heat between them. He had kissed many women before, but this was different. He had spent most of the night in the yurt wide awake, wanting to kiss her again.
But, as usual, somebody somewhere had been watching them and now the photo was everywhere, according to Sam.
He just wanted to hide away again until the clamour broke down.
He could try out a few songs. Hopefully he could begin to write again.
And see Eleanor.
All he needed was peace and quiet. But as they began to drive through the village, Sam’s phone rang out in the car. Using his hands-free, Sam picked up the call.
‘Hi,’ said Annie, sounding a little breathless. ‘I thought you might need a bit of a warning. Apparently there’s lots of teenage girls at the beginning of the driveway looking for Tom.’
‘You’re kidding,’ said Sam, glancing across at Tom and grimacing. ‘How did they know he was staying with us?’
‘No idea,’ said Annie. ‘But I thought I’d better give you a heads-up.’
‘We’ll be home in five minutes,’ said Sam. ‘See you soon.’ He hung up and looked at Tom. ‘Sounds like the word’s got out, I’m afraid. What do you want to do?’
Tom made a face. He wasn’t in the mood to face anyone yet so they pulled up just outside the village and, once they’d piled all of his luggage onto the back seats, he crawled into the boot for the last few miles.
Even in the darkness of the boot, he could hear the gaggle of teenage girls hovering around the entrance.
‘Here we go,’ said Sam, loud enough for Tom to hear him.
Tom felt the car pull to a stop.
‘Is it true?’ asked a girlish voice, breathless in excitement. ‘Is Tommy King really here? In our village?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ he heard Sam say. ‘Sorry to disappoint you all. It’s just us boring normal people. No superstars here.’
The car then slowly began to move once more. Tom had to cling onto his bag as they bounced over the potholes in the driveway. Finally, he was grateful for the car to stop and the engine to be switched off. The boot lid automatically rose and he found Sam grinning down at him.
‘Oh, to be rich and famous, eh?’ said Sam, helping Tom out of the boot.
‘Yeah,’ drawled Tom, allowing himself a full body stretch. ‘It’s all about the glamour.’
Annie headed out across the driveway and round to the side of the house where they had parked. ‘You two okay?’
‘We’re fine,’ Sam told her, drawing her close for a kiss. ‘I don’t think we’ll be in danger from any marauding fans any time soon.’
But Sam’s certainty was short-lived when they headed into the drawing room. Arthur was at the window, peering out at the grounds through a pair of binoculars.
‘Got time for a bit of twitching, have you, Grandad?’ asked Sam, with a grin.
Arthur turned around and smiled at them. ‘Hello again, Tom. Welcome home. Yes, my boy. I’ve seen quite a rare species of bird. The lesser-spotted Girl Guide.’
Tom went to the window and could just about see a few faces peering out of the bushes and trees at the far end of the vast lawn. With the sash window wide open in the warmth of the day, they could hear the clamour from inside the house.
‘Tommy! I love you!’ screamed one girl.
‘Marry me!’ shouted another.
‘Kiss me!’
Annie turned to Sam in horror. ‘What shall we do?’
‘I’ll go and have a word with them,�
�� said Sam, putting on a determined face.
As he soon as he had left, Rose arrived. ‘What’s new, pussycats?’ she asked.
Annie turned to face her. ‘Rose, you didn’t tell anyone about Tom staying here, did you?’
Rose thought hard and then comprehension dawned. ‘Well, that ghastly Muriel was going on about how her niece is in Big Brother or something like that. Made a big thing of it. So I might have name-dropped. Tom doesn’t mind, do you, darling?’ She gave him a cheeky wink.
‘Of course not,’ lied Tom, not wanting to upset her.
Annie rolled her eyes. ‘Rose, we’ve got fans everywhere in the grounds.’
‘Have we really?’ Her eyes gleamed. ‘What fun!’
Sam came back a short time later.
‘So?’ asked Annie, raising her eyebrows at him in question.
‘I told them they were trespassing and they’d better hop it,’ said Sam. ‘They’re probably only as far as the main gates, but at least they won’t be a nuisance.’
‘How lovely to be young and in love,’ cooed Rose. ‘I remember flinging my knickers when Tom Jones was onstage one time. He gave them back to me later on that evening,’ she added with a gurgle of wicked laughter.
Tom found himself smiling. You really couldn’t be mad at Rose for very long.
At that moment, a grey blur rushed into the drawing room and leapt at him. Dylan ecstatically licked his face over and over until, finally, Tom had to push him away.
‘Calm down, you mad dog,’ he said, looking down at his earth covered feet. ‘So that’s where you’ve been? Digging up the vegetable patch again? You’re going to be in so much trouble with Bert.’
But he couldn’t resist hugging the dog tight against his chest briefly.
‘I found a new toy for you at Glastonbury,’ he told Dylan, who wagged his tail as soon as he saw the giraffe dog toy.
‘We can add it to the collection that Grandad has started,’ said Sam in a pointed tone.
Arthur waved away any concerns with his hand. ‘The poor doggy was pining for Tom. I had to do something.’
With a ghost of a wink at Tom, Arthur left the room.
‘He’s really missed you,’ said Annie, coming across to stroke Dylan’s head. ‘In fact, we had to bring Eleanor over to stay because he kept howling the place down every night. He stayed upstairs with her every night apart from the last one when he slept in Arthur’s room.’
‘Did he?’ Tom ruffled Dylan’s fur. ‘You silly thing. I’ll always come back. But I hope you behaved yourself with Eleanor and didn’t keep her awake.’
‘I think she secretly enjoyed having him with her,’ said Annie softly. ‘Not that she would admit to such a thing.’
‘Well, she’s probably a bit overrun with all the other animals, to be honest,’ said Sam.
Tom gave Dylan another hug, wondering how long before he would see Eleanor again. And whether he would be able to stop himself wanting to kiss her once more.
Chapter 30
Eleanor found that by the end of the week, she hadn’t managed to bump into Tom. Mainly because she had been deliberately avoiding going to Willow Tree Hall in case she actually had to speak to him.
Then she received a call from Annie. ‘We thought you’d gone back up to London as we’ve barely seen you since Glastonbury,’ she said, pretending to be cross.
Eleanor blushed. ‘No, I’m still here. I’m just a bit embarrassed about the photo with Tom, to be honest.’
‘I thought so,’ said Annie. ‘I was only kidding. Look, how about we come over to your place later. It’d be good to get away from the house anyway as we can’t move for rabid fans hiding in the undergrowth.’
Eleanor frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Rose has blabbed to someone about Tom staying with us and now we’re overrun with fans.’
Eleanor could feel the panic beginning to swell inside her. Someone was bound to recognise her at some point.
She was still pacing up and down when Annie and Megan arrived.
‘Don’t fret. Look at me instead,’ said Megan, pointing at her pale nose. ‘Your cream is amazing. I didn’t even peel.’
Eleanor smiled, feeling proud of herself before realising that she hadn’t felt that way about any aspect of her working life for a long time.
‘It’s lovely that you’ve been able to spend a bit of time making your cream again,’ said Annie, sitting down. ‘Did you enjoy making it?’
Eleanor found herself nodding. ‘It was really good fun.’
‘Glad somebody’s happy,’ muttered Megan.
‘Is everything okay?’ asked Annie gently.
‘It is now I’ve got wine,’ said Megan, before taking another gulp. ‘I’ve just got a really big Glastonbury hangover. It was such fun to do something different. How about a movie or something? Have you got Magic Mike for us to lust over?’
Eleanor flicked through her Mum’s DVD collection. ‘No but we’ve got Mamma Mia.’
‘Oh, I love that,’ said Annie.
As Eleanor set up the movie, her mum came in to join them. ‘Megan, you look so much better than when I saw you the other day.’
‘All thanks to your daughter’s magic carrot cream,’ Megan told her. ‘Have you got any more? I used it all up, but I’m bound to get burnt again this summer.’
‘It’s right here,’ said Eleanor, handing her a jam jar full of the newly made up cream.
‘Oh! That feels so nice and cool,’ said Megan as she smeared it a little bit on her hand before sniffing it. ‘Have you got any other flavours?’
Eleanor shook her head. ‘Only plain and carrot cream, I’m afraid.’
‘You should experiment a little,’ said her mum. ‘There’s so many wild flowers out at the minute.’
‘You know what you should do,’ said Megan, warming to the idea. ‘You should make up some different types and we’ll try them out for you. Like a spa evening!’
‘Oh yes!’ said Annie, nodding. ‘You should come too, June.’
Eleanor’s Mum smiled. ‘You don’t want an old fogey like me being there.’
‘Of course we do,’ said Annie.
‘And you’re not old,’ added Megan.
‘A spa evening,’ said Eleanor, deep in thought. She supposed that she could make up a few creams for them all. Plus she had loads of leftover luxury items from various VIP goody bags that she had managed to get hold of. The contents of which she had virtually never touched.
‘Sounds great,’ said Annie, nodding her approval. ‘I’m having trouble sleeping, stressing about all the fete and lack of wedding dress.’
‘Haven’t you seen anything online or in all those wedding magazines that you keep buying?’ asked Megan.
Annie shook her head. ‘Nope. I mean, there’s lots of lovely dresses but they just don’t seem right. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being too choosy.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Eleanor. ‘It’s your wedding dress. You need to be choosy. Next time we go shopping, I’m sure we’ll find one.’
She made a silent note to find something to soothe Annie’s nerves.
‘We’ll invite Rose as well,’ said Megan. ‘Then we can have a girly evening.’
‘I’d better get tidying this place if Rose is coming to visit,’ said her mum with a grimace.
Eleanor was staring down at her hands. The cream had helped her neck, but the eczema on her hands was still not fully cleared up. ‘I was thinking about trying to make up a bar of carrot soap to see if it would help my fingers as well,’ she said.
‘Why don’t you then, love?’ said her mum. ‘The kitchen’s messy enough so it doesn’t matter what you do in there.’
Eleanor frowned. ‘You can’t make proper soap without caustic soda. And I can’t use that here. Not with all the animals.’
‘You can do it at my place,’ said Megan, with a shrug. ‘Neal keeps promising to redo our garden but he never does. It looks like a nuclear war zone anyway.’
Eleanor shook her head. ‘Thanks, but I daren’t. Not with the kids. It’s pretty scary stuff and can really burn your skin if you’re not careful. It needs to be away from people, just in case.’
‘I know,’ said Annie. ‘What about the old stable block in the grounds of the hall? I think there’s even running water over there. Nobody will disturb you.’
‘You can have your very own beauty factory,’ said Megan.
Annie suddenly looked excited. ‘That’s it! Then you can make lots of stuff for the fete! Oh, it’ll be wonderful. You’ll probably make some money and that’s another stall that I can add to the list. Local girl and all that.’
Eleanor wasn’t so sure. She looked up at her mum, who was nodding her approval. ‘I think that’s a lovely idea,’ said June.
Annie wasn’t taking no for an answer. ‘What else are you going to do with yourself this summer? Oh, say yes! Please! For me! I’m desperate.’
They were all looking at her, Annie with such pleading eyes, that Eleanor found herself nodding her head in agreement.
‘Okay,’ she said. If only to keep the peace with her friends. ‘Just as a temporary thing.’
Her mum was smiling as she left the room.
‘Have you thought about what you’re going to do next for work?’ asked Annie.
Eleanor shook her head. ‘No idea. I still feel like such a failure.’
‘Why would you feel like that?’ said Megan, rolling her eyes. ‘You lived in London, for god’s sake. I’ve never even got out of this village. At least you’ve seen stuff. Life!’ She was waving her hand around furiously as she spoke. ‘You’ve been to glamorous parties and all of that.’
‘Megan,’ said Annie softly. ‘You’re happily married with three kids. Do you not think that’s a life too?’
‘I dunno,’ said Megan with a sigh. ‘I think I’m just mourning my twenties because I had kids and didn’t have any fun.’
Annie made a face. ‘You know why I had to leave home. My twenties weren’t a barrel of laughs.’
‘And I ran away from all that awful stuff with my dad to spend my twenties running from party to party, not enjoying any of them,’ said Eleanor. ‘Oh, and missing my friends.’
Escape to the Country Page 19
