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

He took a moment and sat at the table, head resting in his hands. He was so tired. All the time. He found himself weeping at the most ridiculous things. He allowed himself a moment of emotion. Disgust for his inability to fend properly for himself. Distaste at the instructions he’d left hospital with, the long list of things with which he was supposed to ask for help. Bathing, putting his shoes on, cutting his nails. Wiping his arse even, on bad days. He was never going to ask anyone for help with any of those things ever again.


By far the worst thing was driving. He wasn’t able to drive a car anymore. On the road, definitely. Even around the farm. Practically speaking, it was impossible anyway. He couldn’t make his left leg work enough to manage the clutch or his left arm work enough to manage the gears, particularly in the tractor. He’d tried. He couldn’t even get up and in by himself without help.


Chapter 9