Escape to the country!
Anna Compton thought that moving to the countryside, leaving London and her past firmly behind her was the perfect solution. Goodbye life of thirty-something, crazed single mum of two, hello country glamour queen, domestic goddess and yummy-mummy extraordinaire.
But her new life at Primrose Cottage isn’t quite what she expected! Very soon she’s chasing pork pies down hills, disguising her shop-bought cakes at the school bake sale – and trying to resist oh-so-handsome Horatio Spencerville, who just so happens to be the Lord of the Manor…
Could moving to the country be the biggest mistake she’s ever made?
A delightfully uplifting romantic comedy to get you in the mood for summer! Perfect for fans of Christie Barlow, Holly Martin and Tilly Tennant.
The Little Cottage in the Country
Lottie Phillips
ONE PLACE. MANY STORIES
Contents
Cover
Blurb
Title Page
Author Bio
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Endpages
Copyright
LOTTIE PHILLIPS
worked as a teacher before turning her hand to fiction. She was brought up in Africa and the Middle East and then - as an adult - travelled extensively before moving to London and finally settling in the Cotswolds with her partner and toddler. When she’s not writing, you will find her scouring interior design magazines and shops, striving toward the distant dream of being a domestic goddess or having a glass of wine with country music turned up loud. As a child, she always had her nose in a book and, in particular, Nancy Drew. The Little Cottage in the Country is her first romantic comedy but she also writes psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Louise Stone. Readers can find Lottie Phillips, otherwise known as Charlie Phillips, on Twitter @writercharlie or at www.writercharlie.com
An enormous thank you to Charlotte Mursell, my editor, for her support and wonderful enthusiasm every step of the way.
To the entire team at HQ who are all incredible.
Em, Ros and Louise: my gorgeous school friends whose strength and uncontrollable laughter is what this book is all about.
My parents for being beautiful people and for just ‘getting’ it.
Jon and Finn: you are my world. Thank you for giving my life meaning.
Ed: this book is dedicated to you because you are the best brother a sister could ask for.
To Ed, with lots of love
Two Weeks Earlier…
Anna took a deep, cleansing breath as she knocked. The name on the door read ‘Barry Smith, Editor-in-Chief’. The faint trace of Tipp-Ex, where Sheryl had crossed out Smith and written White at last year’s Christmas party, still remained.
‘Come in,’ boomed the voice.
Anna opened the door, gripping the handle tightly as she tried to control her nerves.
Barry looked up briefly from his computer, a sheen of sweat glistening across his bulbous, bald head. ‘This had better be good, Compton. I’m trying to make a meal out of the crap you lot give me, and you know what? I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I don’t know why I put up with it. I could fire the lot of you and start again.’ He pinched the top of his nose and rubbed his eyes using his free hand, his spectacles jiggling up and down. ‘Come in, Compton. Sit, for God’s sake.’
Anna moved forward, closed the door behind her and smoothed her skirt. As she did, she caught sight of the remnants of her son’s porridge near her behind. She grew hot under the collar and then realised she must also have got caught downwind of her daughter’s milk tsunami. The smell of gone-off cheese started to permeate her nostrils and she tried to remained focused.
‘Barry,’ Anna started, taking a seat as requested, ‘I’m leaving The Post.’
She had been hoping he might show even a vague sense of regret but, instead, he grinned.
‘Leaving?’
Anna cleared her throat. ‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘Going anywhere good?’
Anna clenched and unclenched her fists, kneading her skirt. ‘Barry, I just said I’m leaving.’
Barry let out a bark of a laugh. ‘What do you want me to do? Cry?’
‘No,’ Anna started. ‘Oh, do you know what, you can stuff your job. I was going to ask for a reference, but frankly…’ As Anna spoke, her head was buzzing with regret (she needed a reference, she had children, she was going to the great unknown). ‘I don’t need a sodding reference from you. I mean, who’ll have heard of the The Post in Trumpsey Blazey?’
Barry chuckled. ‘Ah, so you’re making a break for the countryside, old gal.’ He paused. ‘I presume you’ve got a job, or have you…?’ He grinned. ‘No, Anna Compton cannot have found a new man – a millionaire?!’
Anna stood. ‘I don’t need to take this rubbish from you. I’ve found a beautiful home, the children are going to a wonderfully rated primary school and I…’ She stammered. ‘Will find another job with a reputable country paper.’
‘You mean the Hare and Hound Gazette?’ He laughed, his belly shaking unpleasantly as he did so. ‘I know Tim, the big man behind that little number, and you won’t get work with him.’
Anna stuck out her chin. ‘Why ever not?’ She bristled with anger.
‘He only employs men.’ Barry looked back at his screen, then said seriously and with no sense of irony, ‘He’s quite the chauvinist.’ Barry returned his gaze to Anna and then to his screen, then back to Anna. Anna grew immediately worried. She could almost see his brain steaming and puffing with the energy of an idea.
‘Well, I’ll be off,’ Anna said, turning on her heel before she got involved in whatever strange idea he was concocting. ‘Good luck with the paper.’
As she pulled the door open, Barry spoke again. ‘Compton, I’ve just had an idea.’
She turned slowly.
‘You know what this paper needs? It needs fresh air, it needs something different, something fun, something rural, something idyllic.’ He stood now, his podgy hands flying through the air. ‘It needs to see a woman making the most of Blighty!’
‘Barry?’ Anna almost didn’t dare ask.
‘You clearly don’t have a job, and you have children to think about, Anna.’ He smiled, as though he really was the saviour. ‘I’m offering you the chance to write a weekly column for the paper.’ He drew his hand across the air in front of him. “Anna’s Little Cottage in the Country”, that’s what we’ll call it!’ He moved inelegantly from around the desk and shuffled his excess weight towards Anna, who grimaced at the sight of her (ex) boss moving in on her, like a puffer fish. ‘What do you say, Compton? Give us the lowdown on what it’s like in the Wild West of Wiltshire?’
‘Um, that’s very, um…’ she started, her mind whirring. ‘Well, Barry, the thing is…’
‘You ne
ed money? You want to keep your foot in the door as a successful journalist?’
‘Successful journalist?’ She reeled under the weight of such a compliment; one he had never, ever come close to giving before.
‘Well, a…. you know… an OK one,’ he clarified. Then, wagging his finger in front of her face, ‘But you could become a wonder. You could personally help this paper survive with your take on rural life.’
‘Really?’ She wasn’t convinced.
He looked at her intently. ‘Yes, it’ll be brilliant. Well…’ He paused. ‘You need to make it brilliant. Join in, make friends, get a loooovverrr…’ He purred this last word in such a way, Anna had to turn away from the sudden gust of stale coffee emanating from his mouth.
‘Barry, the thing is, I want a fresh start.’ She was resolute.
‘Yes, but the thing is, Compton, you can have a fresh start, but you have to think of your children. You need money.’
She turned towards the door again, took one step out.
‘When do you leave?’
‘Two weeks,’ she said, her back to him.
‘Excellent! Give me something juicy in two and a half.’ He grinned. ‘Actually, I might talk to Diane, see if she can’t take some shots.’ His mind was whirring and his upper lip glistened as he smacked his lips together. ‘People will love to follow your story… I can see it now. City girl living the dream.’
With that, he started to close the door and she shuffled forward before he could catch her ankles with it.
‘Good luck, Compton. Over and out,’ he wheezed from the sudden exertion. ‘I’ll get Sheryl to ping you over the details.’
The door slammed behind her, totally befuddled by what had actually just happened. But then, she realised, he had a point. Anna shrugged. She supposed she did need money, and at least she wouldn’t have to see Barry every day. She imagined herself happily typing her column in the pretty cottage garden, the birds tweeting and the twins making daisy chains under the dappled light of the apple tree.
‘And so the next chapter begins,’ she thought as she made her way to her desk to pack away her notebooks, pens, laptop and snowglobe.
Arriving in Trumpsey Blazey
Anna grinned as she sped towards the countryside, leaving London and her past firmly behind. She felt as if she was, in fact, stepping where no thirty-two-year-old divorcee with two young kids had ever been before (she allowed herself this slight exaggeration). She was unstoppable. She knew she was on the verge of something spectacular. She was totally in control and her heart lifted at the sign: Welcome to Wiltshire. Yes, she had made it. Goodbye Big Smoke, hello Country Glamour Queen, Domestic Goddess and Yummy Mummy Extraordinare.
She beamed as she pressed ‘Play’ on the stereo system – OK, she admitted, not quite stereo system: more like tape deck – of her 1989 Nissan Micra and started to sing (wail) along to the first track on her homemade mix tape.
‘Born to be wiiiiiiilldddd….’ She looked in the rear-view mirror and her smile quickly faded. ‘Freddie, don’t put a Smartie up Antonia’s nose.’ She glanced quickly at the road and turned in her seat, batting the air behind with her free hand in an attempt to stop her five-year-old son sticking a chocolate up his twin sister’s nostril. ‘Freddie, have you stuck the chocolate up her nose?’ She looked at him.
Her son grinned back at her, his angelic face flashing a mischievous grin, and she forced herself to focus once again on the road. Oh bum, she thought, why now? Why today? She needed to pull over and somehow lever a Smartie from her daughter’s nose without causing long-term damage. She imagined a repeat of the Blu-Tack-in-ear incident and, remembering the doctor’s words, winced.
‘Antonia will be OK, but this is not a rerun of ER, Ms Compton. It’s best if you leave it to the professionals.’
‘Mummy.’ She glanced in the mirror at Freddie’s chocolate-smeared face. ‘Look.’ He pointed.
She turned quickly in her seat. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘A horse.’
She flicked her eyes back to the road and let out a scream. ‘Oh bugger!’
Slamming on the brakes, the car came to an abrupt halt as she narrowly avoided driving the Nissan Micra up the rear end of the animal. The rider turned and scowled, backing his horse up in an over-the-top dressage-like fashion and moving alongside her now-open window.
‘You know, you could kill someone like that, yah?’ He looked down at her, his eyes narrowing. ‘That was awfully dangerous.’
Anna watched his mouth, trying to make out exactly what he was saying. It appeared he was speaking from the back of his throat and not actually using his lips. ‘Pardon?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘I mean, you need to be more careful. There’s a hunt on, yah?’
‘A hunt?’ she repeated.
‘Yah, you know, horses, dogs, a fox.’ He scowled again.
‘Oh, a hunt. Right.’ While the man in the strange black riding hat and red jacket ranted, she took the opportunity of having come to a standstill to turn and look at Freddie again. ‘Freddie, where’s the chocolate?’
He smiled and held up his hand to reveal a green palm with rapidly melting chocolate stuck to it. Anna smiled with relief. ‘Good boy. Just eat it.’
‘What the…?’ She jumped at the touch of something wet and slimy running up and down her forearm and swivelled in her seat, coming face to face with the horse happily nuzzling her steering wheel.
‘You’ve made a friend,’ the man on top of the horse said and smiled.
When he smiled, he didn’t look quite so officious. She thought how he actually looked like a normal human being and less like a Stubbs painting brought to life.
‘The name’s Spencerville…’ He paused. ‘Horatio.’ He held out his gloved hand and she shook it.
Anna snorted.
‘What’s so funny?’ He raised an eyebrow.
‘Nothing.’ She laughed. ‘Well, it’s just funny to hear someone introduce themselves using their surname first.’
Clearly affronted, he hit the flank of his horse with his crop and started to trot. ‘Well, there’s nothing funny about driving at speed. Just be careful, yah? You could injure someone, yah?’ He rode off down the road. Oddly, Anna couldn’t see any other riders.
She revved her engine in annoyance. ‘How dare he bloody tell me how to drive. Horatio…’ she muttered. ‘Who’s even called bloody Horatio? Riding around like a Rear Admiral.’
‘Mummy,’ Antonia’s voice came from the back.
‘Yes?’ she said, taking the turn towards Trumpsey Blazey.
‘Why was that man dressed silly?’
Anna smiled.
‘He looked like a plonk-ah,’ Freddie said.
‘Freddie, I’ve told you not to use that word.’
‘S’OK, Mummy, I don’t think you’re a plonk-ah.’
‘How kind.’ She slowed the car as they approached Trumpsey Blazey: their new home. Tears filled her eyes at the sight of the Cotswold stone bridge crossing the infant Thames and the chocolate-box thatched cottages either side. This was all theirs to enjoy.
The news had come out of the blue. Anna had been battling with the children over the merits of eating peas, in the kitchen, when she had received the letter from her dear aunt’s solicitor: she was to inherit her Auntie Flo’s country home. Auntie Florence was stepsister to her mother, Linda. There had been very few details, but the idea of moving from their tiny, mildew-covered, two-bed flat in London to the fresh country air was beyond exciting. It was her chance to give her children a better way of life. After all, she had failed at marriage with their father, Simon. She was, she hated to admit, lonely too. So very lonely, and when she thought about her aunt and remembered how very active her social life had been, she thought that, yes, she too could have that! This might be the way of making everything better. After all, she thought, in the midst of dreaming up freshly baked pies from her Aga, she had just received the dreaded news that her children would not be afforded the privi
lege of places at the best state school, but the one ten miles away that was deemed ‘dire’. She had phoned Simon (the ex) to explain the situation. She had thought this would be an appropriate time for him to step up, show himself to be the man and father he should always have been.
‘Simon, it’s Anna.’ She had breathed deeply into the receiver. ‘The twins haven’t been accepted at Royal Oak.’
‘What?’ he screeched and, for once, she knew they were on the same page. ‘They’re not going to…’
‘Yes. Sully Oak.’
‘Oh, Anna, blimey.’
She knew then, in that shared moment of grief, that they had failed their children. What she wasn’t expecting was the next curveball.
‘Can’t you get more work? Surely, someone needs an article on…’ She could hear his brain whirring, grasping at straws. ‘On the micro-climate of Hammersmith.’
‘Thanks, Simon.’ She held back a sob. ‘Thanks for making me feel even more shit.’
‘Well, you know, if I had the money…’ He was a cameraman for the Beeb.
Anna was about to argue, knowing full well he’d just sold his house and shacked up with some bird from the PR department, but she held back. She reminded herself that she had what she wanted: her children. Nothing mattered but them and he had threatened, not that long ago, to take her to court for access to his children. Anna wouldn’t give him any room for manoeuvre.
She had hung up.
After receiving the news from her aunt’s solicitor, she had a good cry in the privacy of the loo (where she often escaped, glass of wine or Bailey’s in hand, for a moment’s peace).
She had adored her aunt. Flo had been a dear friend as well as surrogate sunt. The immense sadness that threatened to overwhelm her was tinged with a sense of hope. They could escape London and the poor state school. Within minutes, she was online checking out the Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ merits of Trumpsey Blazey Primary and reading about all the various clubs and village traditions they could be part of. There was even some giant pie-rolling competition. She chuckled at the thought of how much fun it all sounded.
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