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

“When I said I wouldn’t go back, Matthew gave me a place here.” He looked straight at Cat. “And you have a place here, Cat. You do have a place. But it’s for you to say and for me to say.” He looked straight at Phil. “Not you, Phil. You’re not my family.”


Phil wasn’t expecting the thump that landed with in the middle of his chest. The visceral pain of it caused him to inhale sharply. “Laurie,” he said.


Laurie shook his head. “No. You’re not, Phil. You, Cat, Sally, all of you, you’re not my family. There is no-one. Mum and Dad didn’t want me. I haven’t seen them for longer than Cat’s been alive. Matty and Rob are dead. There isn’t anyone else.”


Chapter 42