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

“So it’s over? I’m in the clear?”


Portnoy nodded. “You’re in the clear,” he said. “I wanted to come and tell you myself. And apologise.”


Phil shook his head. “Nothing to apologise for,” he said, automatically.


“Oh, I think there is, don’t you?” Portnoy said, with some firmness. “I should have trusted you, Phil. I’m sorry I didn’t. I let that little shit railroad me. I should have been firmer with the Board when they started pushing.”


“No, you couldn’t have been. You had to investigate. And it sounds like he was clever. As clever as I was stupid.”


“Well.” Portnoy coughed. “Love is blind and all that. I suppose.” He cleared his throat in a self-conscious fashion and picked up the teapot again. “More tea?”


Phil pushed his cup nearer. “Please,” he said. For something to do, mostly. “What about Peter? Is he implicated?”


Chapter 38