A.L. Lester

It's 1972. Fifteen years earlier, teenage Laurie Henshaw came to live at Webber's Farm with his elderly uncle and settled in to the farming life. Now thirty-two, Laurie has a stroke in the middle of working on the farm. As he recovers, he has to come to terms with the fact that some of his new limitations are permanent and he's never going to be as active as he used to be. Will he be able to accept the helping hands his friends extend to him?<br><br>With twenty successful years in the city behind him, Phil McManus is hiding in the country after his boyfriend set him up to take the fall for an insider trading deal at his London stockbroking firm. There's not enough evidence to prosecute anyone, but not enough to clear him, either. He can't bear the idea of continuing his old stagnating life in the city or going back to his job now everyone knows he's gay.<br><br>Thrown together in a small country village, can Phil and Laurie forge a new life that suits the two of them and the makeshift family who gathers round them? Or are they too tied up in their own shortcomings to recognise what they have?

Taking Stock

There were murmured assents and farewells.


“I’ll keep you posted,” Peter said at the door to the corridor. “I’m not allowed to talk to you in detail about the audit. But I’ll come round tonight. We can have a drink.”


Phil shook his head. “I’d rather you didn’t, if that’s all right with you. I need a few days to wallow in it, I think. Next weekend, maybe? And perhaps it’ll all be done by then.”


Peter nodded. “I’ll phone. Enjoy the time off.” His smile was part grimace, as was Phil’s returning one.


It wasn’t as easy as that, of course. He puttered uneasily round the flat for the rest of the day, unable to settle, alternating between fury and despair. And a kind of grief for himself. He’d begun to put his heart in Richard’s hands and Richard clearly a) didn’t return that and b) wasn’t the person Phil had thought he was.


Chapter 4