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

Whatever it was, it was none of his business, anyway.


It had been nice, though, for someone to look at him afresh and really seehim. Him, Laurie, not poor old Laurie who’d had a stroke and nearly died in the top field. Poor old Laurie who sometimes needed help putting his shoes on and couldn’t help with the lambing this year because he’d fall flat on his arse if one of them knocked in to him. Laurie who couldn’t cook his own dinner or get himself in to the bath without a lot of help, Laurie who sometimes still drooled out of the left side of his mouth when he got tired, Laurie who’s hand was cramped and starting to turn in to a claw by the end of the day if he didn’t keep it moving.


Chapter 17