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

“Nell! Fly! Leave him!” McManus had his hand out to them for inspection and they decided he wasn’t a threat. They disappeared off again to whatever they were doing.


He sighed. It was a long way up. The car was very close to the ground.


Laurie looked up at McManus again, at his own hand on his stick, his other on the door frame, and then up again. McManus looked back.


Laurie dropped his gaze and swore softly. “Bloody hell. All right then. Would you mind giving me a hand?”


McManus stifled a laugh. “Of course. How is best?”


His eyes were dancing a little, but his gaze was solemn. He wasn’t laughingatLaurie per se. But he was laughing at Laurie’s frustration, in a way that Laurie didn’t actually mind. The whole situation was so bloody ridiculous. He hated asking for help and he recognised that was stupid and irrational and that he neededhelp. But it didn’t make it any easier. Thatwas what McManus was laughing at.


Chapter 15