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

“That’s not really early, Phil. That’s normal getting up time!” Laurie’s voice was dry, but Phil could see that he was smiling under his arm.


“Yes, all right. When were you thinking?”


It was an easy trip. Any worries Phil had about what they’d talk about trapped in the car together for four hours each way dissipated by the time they stopped for breakfast at a greasy spoon on the A303.


“I’ve never seen Stonehenge,” Laurie confided over the biggest sausage sandwich Phil had ever seen. “Do you think we’ll have time to stop on the way back?”


“We should do,” Phil said. “I want to pick up a suitcase of clothes and some books, that’s pretty much all. We could get a sandwich and leave straight away and get back in plenty of time. And if we’re too tired we can just come another day?”


Chapter 34