LITMIR.BIZ

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down wearily. ‘Where’s Mum?’

      ‘She isn’t feeling well this morning, so she’s having a lie down.’

      His brown eyes, so like their mother’s, looked worried. In fact he was very like their mother to look at, stocky and short like her, with her brown hair and eyes. Megan took after their father, her long fair hair almost silver, her eyes green splashes of colour in her thin pale face.

      ‘It isn’t anything serious, is it?’ He took the mug of tea she held out to him.

      ‘Just a cold.’ Megan put a slice of toast on the tray with her mother’s tea. ‘But I don’t think she should neglect it. I’ll just take this in to her and then I’ll cook your breakfast.’

      ‘Don’t rush on my account,’ he said morosely. ‘I can’t do much, the damned tractor’s broken down again.’

      Megan took the tray through to her mother, coming back to put Brian’s bacon and eggs on to cook. ‘Any idea what’s wrong with it?’ she referred to the tractor.

      ‘No. You know mechanics aren’t my line. I rang The Towers and asked Jeff to come over and have a look at it.’

      ‘Jeff?’

      ‘The new manager.’

      Megan frowned. ‘I didn’t know they had one. What happened to Ralph Coates?’

      ‘Jerome Towers sacked him. But Jeff’s a nice bloke, and he knows a lot about mechanics.’

      ‘I suppose he has to,’ she grimaced, sitting opposite him as he tucked hungrily into his breakfast. ‘Jerome Towers only knows how to sit behind a desk all day and make money.’

      ‘What have you got against the man?’ he chuckled. ‘I know he made an offer for the farm, but that’s no reason to hate his guts. Jeff says he’s a really great bloke, very fair.’

      ‘Well, Jeff would say that.’ She sipped her coffee, which was all the breakfast she ever had. The thought of eating the type of breakfast Brian was enjoying made her feel heartily sick. She had never been able to face food this early in the morning. ‘He’s his employer. And I would hardly call the offer he made for this farm fair.’

      ‘But it was, Megan, very fair. He was offering well over its real value.’

      ‘Why?’

      He frowned. ‘What do you mean, why?’

      ‘Why was he offering more?’ she asked suspiciously. ‘Does he know something we don’t?’

      ‘Like what?’ Brian laughed.

      ‘Well … like maybe someone else is buying this land up for development, and he wants to buy it cheap and sell for an astronomical price. Or maybe he—–’

      Brian shook his head, still smiling. ‘You watch too much television, young lady. Mr Towers wants to buy this farm and land because it’s right in the middle of his estate. Dad bought this land off the old Squire when he was selling off plots to give him money to run the rest of the estate. Mr Towers has managed to buy most of the other smallholdings back, and he would like this one to complete it.’

      ‘We aren’t selling!’ Megan said stubbornly. ‘Just because he has pots of money he thinks he can buy anything. Well, this is our home, and we’re staying put.’

      ‘Are you sure you want to after that trouble at the hospital? Rumours are bound to start when people realise you’re back, and it won’t take long for the truth to filter back from Redford.’

      Colour flooded her cheeks. ‘It wasn’t my fault, and you know it!’

      ‘Of course I know it. But other people are going to believe the evidence, Megan. It didn’t just happen once, it happened twice, and as far as a lot of people are concerned, especially in this close-knit community, that’s just once too many.’

      ‘I’ve already explained to you, Brian, the time on the ward he just pulled me into his room and wouldn’t let me out—and he actually broke into my room at the nursing home.’

      ‘There wasn’t any forced entry.’

      ‘I was down in the kitchen making myself a cup of coffee, and when I got back—well, he was there waiting for me.’ Megan blushed at the memory of it.

      ‘You could have screamed for help,’ Brian pointed out reasonably.

      ‘I was just about to. But he’d always seemed so nice until then, always polite and friendly, and I thought I could reason with him.’

      ‘Even after the attack he made on you on the ward?’ her brother derided.

      ‘I managed to get free that time, and he hadn’t made a move like that since.’

      ‘I don’t suppose he needed to, not when one of the doctors had seen you lying on the bed with him, the front of your uniform unbuttoned.’

      ‘He was in a fever and had the strength of ten men. Dr Freeman and Sister Miles believed me when I explained what had happened,’ Megan defended.

      ‘Until he was found in your bedroom at midnight. Didn’t either of you realise the night staff would miss him from his room? A hospital isn’t like a hotel, you know, not even if you are a private patient. You can’t just go in and out as you please.’

      ‘I do know, Brian,’ she said indignantly. ‘And I told you, he wasn’t there at my invitation.’

      ‘Oh, I believe you. But I doubt many other people will around here. You’ll be the scandal of the neighbourhood.’

      ‘As long as you and Mum believe me I don’t care about anyone else.’

      ‘You will. Village life can be very uncomfortable if you’re the subject of the gossip,’ he warned seriously.

      ‘They may not find out about it, there’s always that chance. I don’t intend telling anyone, and he’ll go back to London. He wouldn’t even have been in Redford if he hadn’t been visiting someone in the area when he was taken ill.’

      ‘Appendicitis, wasn’t it?’

      ‘Mm,’ she grimaced. ‘But he was a private patient. And sometimes he acted like it.’

      ‘I thought you said he was friendly and nice.’

      ‘He was, most of the time, but that didn’t stop him being aware of the fact that he was paying for his treatment.’

      Brian stood up. ‘Well, I hope for your sake that none of this filters back. And don’t forget Jeff will be over later to look at the tractor.’

      ‘Before ten, I hope.’ She cleared the table. ‘I have to take over for Mum at The Towers,’ she explained. ‘I wouldn’t want Jeff to come to the house while I’m out and disturb Mum.’

      ‘I don’t suppose he’ll be too late, he has his own work to do. The tractor’s out in the yard, I managed to get it back this far. Tell Jeff it keeps cutting out, something to do with the flow of petrol, I think. I’ll be up in the top field if he needs me.’

      ‘What about the keys?’ she called out as he reached the door.

      ‘In the lock.’ He smiled. ‘I doubt anyone would want to steal it.’

      Megan mentally agreed with him as she stood at the sink washing the dishes. The tractor could be clearly seen from the kitchen window, and like the rest of the farm was badly in need of attention. Its red paint was badly rusted, showing its age. Megan had noticed yesterday that the farmhouse was badly in need of a coat of paint, the white paint having gone grey and was flaking in places.

      It was curiously relaxing feeding the chickens. They were such uncomplicated creatures, pecking away at their feed all day, occasionally at each other, seemingly in fun, laying a few eggs if they felt like it, and then sleeping in their nice warm roost at night. What a life! And what Megan wouldn’t

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