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

He drew a final breath. “And if you want it, you’ve got me,” he said, diffidently, not daring to look up.


Then Laurie didmeet his gaze. Even looking at the floor, Phil caught the sharp movement and slowly raised his own eyes to meet it.


“Have I though?” Laurie said. “Aren’t you going back to your highfalutin London job, once your unpleasantness is resolved?”


Phil shook his head. “That’s what I came to talk to you about,” he said. “My old boss, Portnoy, came to see me this morning. I’m cleared, they have evidence Richard was shagging people in sensitive positions and insider trading on the pillow talk. He’s flitted. I’m completely in the clear.” He was surprised at how calm his voice was.


It started to shake a bit though, when he made himself say, “I don’t know, now, if I want to go back. It doesn’t seem as pressing as it did before. I wondered if, maybe…if I stayed…whether there might be a place for me here?”


Chapter 43