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

“I’m not a stand-in for our mother! I’m not! And you can’t make me be! Auntie Marge said so! She said you couldn’t make me! That I didn’t have to! And that if I was eighteen, I could do what I wanted! And I’m not coming home with you! I’ve got a place here now! I’ve got a job! I’ve got a place to stay and I’m not coming back!”


She round-housed him on the side of his head with the frying pan she grabbed from where it was drying on top of the Rayburn.


There was a silent moment where everything paused. Even time held its breath, waiting to see what would happen.


Then Laurie managed to untangle his stupid, useless limbs and pulled himself up against the teetering umbrella stand to his feet, to lean against the wall.


Cat stared at her father, still frozen, aghast as he swayed on his feet and then crumpled to the floor like a puppet with all its string suddenly cut.


That was the point that Phil walked in through the back door.


He stopped dead, joining them in their frozen surprise.


Chapter 40