A Way Back Home: Full of warmth, laughter, tears and a wedding! (The Willow Tree Hall Series)

by Alison Sherlock

  Sam spat his coffee out across the table whilst Will just stared at his elderly aunt, dumbfounded. Arthur merely cleared his throat before taking another sip of his tea.

  Annie and Skye walked down the stairs into the kitchen.

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked Annie.

  ‘Don’t ask,’ said Sam, wiping coffee from his chin. He sighed heavily as Annie walked up to him and sat on his lap, snuggling into his arms.

  Will watched as they both closed their eyes, lost in each other for a moment. When they drew apart, both their faces were drawn with worry. He felt completely useless that he couldn’t relieve them of their troubles.

  ‘Is everyone in the village okay?’ asked Skye.

  Rose nodded. ‘Yes, thank goodness. Everyone’s reported in with no injuries.’

  ‘Did you get hold of your sister?’ asked Will, suddenly thinking of Skye’s own family.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Skye, nodding. ‘They were hardly hit up there.’

  ‘Right,’ said Sam, looking across at Will. ‘We’d better go round the village and see what’s still standing.’

  ‘Do you want me to come with you?’ asked Annie.

  Sam shook his head and gave her a quick kiss. ‘You stay here in the warm,’ he told her. ‘Have you heard from the girls yet?’

  ‘Megan says their road is fine. Eleanor was just heading out to see what had happened on the main street. You’ll probably bump into her out there.’

  Will looked at Skye. ‘What are your plans?’ he asked.

  She shrugged. ‘Whatever I can do to help,’ she replied.

  ‘You could always start moving your stuff into the lodge,’ he told her. ‘Leave anything heavy for me to lift later though.’

  To his surprise, Skye shook her head. ‘I thought I’d told you that there was no need,’ she told him.

  ‘Yes, and I told you that I wasn’t taking no for an answer,’ he replied.

  He felt the family’s gaze as they all stared at him as one. He looked right back at them. ‘What? I’ve persuaded Skye to move into the lodge for the remainder of her stay here. Just in case another tree comes down on top of the trailer this time.’

  ‘Of course,’ spluttered Sam. ‘We understand.’

  The rest of the family were exchanging looks of surprise.

  ‘I thought there was only a single bed in there last time I looked,’ said Rose, a smile playing at the corner of her lips.

  ‘There is,’ said Will, in a pointed tone. ‘I’ll be sleeping on the sofa.’

  Annie was smiling for the first time that morning. ‘That’s very generous of you,’ she said.

  Will scowled at her. ‘It’s her lodge too, remember?’

  Annie’s smile grew wider. ‘Of course.’

  But Skye wasn’t smiling. ‘My car,’ she whispered, as if suddenly realising something. ‘How am I going to leave now? I haven’t got anything to tow the trailer.’

  ‘I’m sure the insurance company can organise a hire car,’ said Sam. ‘Although that may take a few days with everything that’s happened around this part of the country.’

  ‘There’s no rush to leave, is there?’ asked Annie.

  Skye was looking awkward under the scrutiny of the family watching her ‘It might be for a few more days, that’s all. I hope that’s okay with everyone?’

  ‘Of course it is,’ said Arthur, nodding as if to reassure her. ‘You’re welcome to remain here as long as you want.’

  Rose’s eyes were glittering in amusement. ‘And it’s so important that you’re safe and warm whilst you’re staying with us. In fact, you’ll really save on the heating bills if you share that single bed.’

  Will rolled his eyes. ‘Let’s go,’ he said to Sam and quickly left the room. But not before he caught the blush spreading across Skye’s cheeks.

  He smiled at her in pity. Offering Skye the lodge had been the right, the courteous thing to do. He knew deep down that he should have done it all those days ago. But the feeling still unsettled him. It wasn’t that sharing the lodge with Skye worried him. It was that he had a feeling that he might enjoy it. And that frightened him more than anything.

  As they headed across the driveway towards Sam’s Range Rover, Will glanced over at the Aston Martin and made a sudden decision. The family needed money and he needed to start helping where he could.

  ‘So, apart from the water pipe damage, what’s the priority?’ asked Will, as they got into the car.

  Sam sighed as he turned the key in the ignition. ‘I guess the recording studio, but I’m not sure whether I’ll have enough to get it fixed.’

  ‘Leave that with me,’ said Will.

  Sam looked shocked. ‘What do you mean?’

  Will took a deep breath. ‘I’m selling the Aston Martin,’ he told him. ‘So I can pay to get the recording studio back up and running. It’s like you said, that’s the main income around here apart from the tenants.’

  ‘Okay, well, thanks,’ said Sam, looking pleased. ‘That would be great.’

  ‘I’ll make some calls later,’ Will told him.

  He would take a loss on the car, of course, because of the damage. But it should be enough to help out. He couldn’t leave everything for Sam to cope with. It wasn’t fair to let his brother carry the burden of the aftermath of the storm even though he was the future Earl of Cranley. There was too much to deal with at the moment.

  They set off down the driveway, looking at the damage all around them. Thankfully the willow tree had somehow survived, apart from a couple of smaller branches that were now on the ground, along with most of the leaves which had turned the fields into a carpet of yellow, amber and russet.

  They turned into the lane and headed towards the village. The wobbly spire of St Barnabas still rose high above the surrounding cottages.

  ‘Looks like the church is still standing, so you can’t get out of the wedding,’ said Will.

  Sam nodded. ‘That’s good. And I think you’re the only one scared of matrimony around here.’

  They drove on, checking all the lanes of cottages as they went, but remarkably the homes had survived. Unlike a lot of the garden fences, but they were easily replaceable in time.

  Not so easy to repair would be the small village hall onto which a large oak tree had fallen. It was completely destroyed. They got out of the car and stared at it in disbelief.

  ‘Looks like the autumn market may be delayed by a week or two,’ said Sam, trying to make a joke. But his tone of voice held no humour and Will could see it was yet another blow to his brother.

  Will decided he could do even more to help but he needed to gather all his belongings in once place first.

  ‘Talking of delays,’ he said. ‘I’ll be away for a night later this week. Probably Wednesday.’

  Sam grunted a reply, his eyes suddenly turning hard. He obviously thought that his brother was on the run again.

  For once, Will felt the need to correct him. ‘It’s not like that,’ he said. ‘I need to collect my Range Rover from the Alps. I can’t help you much if I haven’t even got my own car.’

  Sam looked taken aback. ‘Oh, okay. Well, that would be helpful.’ He frowned. ‘Won’t you be tempted to stay when you get there?’

  ‘There’s nothing for me there,’ said Will in a firm tone. ‘I’ve got a lodge to renovate, a recording studio to mend and my family need me.’

  Skye needed him too, he added to himself. And for once, he didn’t want to be anywhere else but Willow Tree Hall.

  Sam appeared to choke up a little, his eyes blinking away unexpected tears. ‘You know, that might be the most sensible thing you’ve said in years,’ he finally spluttered.

  ‘I find being sensible to be highly overrated most of the time,’ said Will, trying to make a joke out of it.

  It was going to take some serious planning, he knew. But he needed to start taking control of everything, including his finances.

  The redundancy package he had received would help towards the renovat
ion of the lodge. Any money received from the sale of the Aston Martin would help towards fixing up the recording studio.

  Regarding the more serious matter of the water leak, he figured that he would just have to make up the rest as he went along.

  For now, the priority was the hall, the lodge and his family.

  As it should have been a long time before now, he knew. It was time to start making amends.

  27

  Skye was still somewhat amazed by Will’s offer for her to move into the lodge, even if it was only for a few days.

  After the mess of the storm, she was still trying to take it all in. Although she was upset about her car, it would certainly be a welcome change to be in a place with proper walls. At least she knew the lodge had to be warmer at night than the trailer.

  She needed to decide what her plans were going forward once everyone had recovered from the storm. She knew they wouldn’t mind her staying on for a while until she got the car sorted but with the renovations going on and the wedding to plan for she didn’t want to be a burden.

  Thankfully one decision had already been made for her. She received a text from Jamie, explaining that he would need to cancel their drink booked for that evening as quite a few of his patients had had various bumps and scrapes during the storm and required attention. He ended the text by saying that he hoped they could still meet up before she left. Skye sent a reply saying that she hoped so too, although she realised that she wasn’t quite so sad about the cancelled date as she perhaps should have been.

  After lunch, she went back to the lodge. Will had already moved his stuff out of the single bedroom into a corner of the lounge. Now that the bedroom was empty, she thought once more about how it could be decorated. She decided that it should be a light and airy room. Somewhere to go to relax. She imagined accents of pale blue amongst soft yellow walls. Perhaps touches of silver here and there.

  Whilst she re-designed the room in head, she carried her clothes and toiletries upstairs. In addition, she took in her notebook and bedding. Despite Will’s promise of warm walls, she was pretty certain that without any central heating, the lodge would still feel cold. She left the kitchen items behind in the trailer, as well as the boxes of materials and spare decorative items that weren’t required.

  Once the trailer was more or less empty of any day-to-day items, Skye took a long hard look at the kitchen in the lodge. Then she rolled up her sleeves and began to give it a proper clean. She wasn’t sure Will had given either the bathroom or the kitchen any more than a cursory wipe. But once both rooms had been bleached and scrubbed, she felt a bit happier about using them.

  The only problem was that there were a few other items still in the back of the car. A suitcase with more wintry clothes in it. And, more vital in her eyes, a couple of scrapbooks full of ideas, some of which she knew could help with the lodge.

  She went out to the car, feeling determined. But once she stood in front of it, her courage failed her. The trunk of the tree that had landed on the roof was enormous and had bent everything out of shape. Including the front doors and boot lid.

  She was just carefully easing open one of the windows which was almost hanging off when there was a shout from nearby which made her jump.

  ‘Hey!’ said Will, coming through the trees. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘I just wanted to get some of my stuff,’ she said, realising how pathetic she sounded.

  Will swore under his breath. ‘Do you know how dangerous that is? The tree could still move and crush you? What do you need?’

  ‘I can do this,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah, but I’m not going to let you, so shove over,’ he said, elbowing her aside. ‘The family will kill me if anything happens to you.’

  ‘What about if something happens to you? What happens if you get crushed?’ she asked.

  ‘You can throw a party in my honour after you’ve finished celebrating,’ he told her, peering inside the boot. ‘Right. What are we looking for?’

  ‘A couple of scrapbooks. I think they’re on the back seat.’

  ‘This is crazy,’ he muttered, pulling off the rest of the window frame so that it came away from the car. Then he leant inside and stretched himself across to grab hold of her scrapbooks.

  Skye sighed with relief. ‘That’s great,’ she told him.

  ‘I’m not sure I can reach anything else and it looks really unstable,’ he said, slowly pulling himself back out.

  ‘No, that’s fine,’ said Skye. ‘My books were the main thing, to be honest. I’ve already moved my clothes and other stuff into the bedroom.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m sorry about the state of it. My big plan had been to get started on the bedroom but other things have had to take priority.’

  ‘I understand,’ she told him, glancing at the Airstream. ‘When did you fix it?’

  Will looked over to where the trailer was now stable and no longer slanting down in one corner. ‘This morning. It was just the stabilising leg that had snapped in half. It was pretty rusty so I replaced it. Nothing major.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she told him as they turned to head indoors. ‘How did you get on in the village?’

  ‘All the houses are okay,’ he said, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Unbelievable really.’

  ‘That is good news.’

  Will made a face. ‘There were a few casualties. The tiny village hall has been completely wiped out by a large tree. I don’t think it’s used that often, to be honest.’ He frowned. ‘There was something about a market. Apparently there was due to be one next week for autumn but that obviously won’t happen now. Maybe they can work something out for the Christmas market.’

  ‘Poor people,’ said Skye, shaking her head as she followed him into the lounge. ‘It does make you count your blessings, doesn’t it? I mean, at least I’m used to living without fancy furniture. My last bed was also my sofa,’ she said, thinking of the trailer.

  Will nodded at the sofa. ‘Me too, from tonight.’

  Skye bit her lip. ‘Look, if you want to stay upstairs instead of me…’ she began.

  But Will held up his hand. ‘I’ve already won this argument, remember?’

  ‘I hope you don’t mind but I’ve given the kitchen and bathroom a good clean.’

  He laughed. ‘Why would I mind that?’ His smile faded. ‘Apart from the water leak, there is one other problem with the estate. The roof of the recording studio has been caved in by a tree.’

  ‘Oh no!’ said Skye. ‘I think Annie said they were booked up for the next few weeks.’

  Will grimaced. ‘Nobody’s going to be recording their next Grammy award winning album in there for a while.’

  ‘Sounds like more expense,’ said Skye, feeling sorry for Annie and Sam.

  ‘Yes, it is.’ Will paused. ‘So I’m going to help them pay for it by selling the Aston Martin.’

  Skye looked at him. ‘No! I thought you loved that car!’

  ‘I wanted one and I’ve owned one,’ he told her. ‘I’ve had my James Bond thrills in it. Now it’s time to get sensible.’

  She couldn’t stop herself smiling. ‘You? Sensible?’

  ‘Yeah, I know.’ He blew out a sigh. ‘How about I fix us a cuppa whilst you build a fire.’

  Skye stared at the empty grate. ‘The thing is…’ her voice trailed off in embarrassment.

  He looked at her. ‘Yes?’

  ‘The only fire I’ve ever had was on an iPhone app.’ She blushed.

  Will shook his head. ‘That may be the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.’ But his eyes were twinkling with humour. ‘Okay. Let me show you. If you can’t build a fire, you’ll never survive in the countryside.’

  ‘I nearly didn’t last night,’ she said.

  He frowned. ‘Don’t remind me.’

  He showed her how to build the logs and the kindling. Then he held out the matches for her to light it. Soon the crackle and warmth of the burning logs began to fill the air.

  ‘Not bad,’ he sai
d, nodding his approval. ‘Do you think you’ll manage in here on your own tomorrow? I’m going away for the night.’

  Skye was shocked. He was leaving? She wondered whether he was going away because he didn’t want to sleep on the sofa. Worse still was the thought that perhaps he really didn’t want to share the lodge with her after all.

  ‘Going anywhere nice?’ she said, after a pause.

  ‘The Alps,’ he told her. ‘I’m flying out there to pick up my car. It’s a Range Rover and will be far more useful around here than the Aston. I should be back some time on Thursday.’

  ‘Right,’ she said, nodding furiously, somewhat embarrassed at having doubted him.

  ‘By the way, the fireplace in the bedroom hasn’t been checked yet, so don’t light it,’ he told her. ‘Hopefully you won’t be too cold up there.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter; I’ll be fine,’ she told him. ‘I’m sorry that you’ve got so much extra to cope with after the storm.’

  ‘You know what, I don’t mind,’ he said, with a shrug. ‘I think it’s time I helped out where I can with the family. But it might mean that the new kitchen in here will have to wait.’

  ‘That’s okay,’ said Skye, not wanting to add to his already heavy burden. ‘I can cope with a microwave and a kettle.’

  ‘That’s the next thing I need to talk to you about. The lodge.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I have a small amount of money to do the basics like the bathroom and plastering. What did you have in mind for the decoration, and please bear in mind that we’re almost broke.’

  She smiled. ‘You know, not everything stylish needs to cost money. Just a pot of paint and a bit of elbow grease can sometimes be just as good. Take that chest of drawers over there.’

  Will looked over to the heavily scratched pine unit and grimaced. ‘Don’t worry. That’s going straight on the fire at some point.’

  But Skye shook her head. ‘It doesn’t need to. I’ve had a quick look at it. It’s in pretty good condition apart from the outside. All it needs is sanding down and staining, perhaps a bit darker. I’ve even got some new drawer knobs that could make it look totally different.’