Page 33 of The Farmer Has a Wife

She lifted her chin. “Of course, the fête is lovely. It always is.”

“Mmm-hmmm,” Danni grinned, as if she could see straight through Eleanor’s lie. “Hey, do you mind?” She reached for Eleanor’s lemonade.

Without comment, Eleanor let her take the cup and then watched as Danni drank from it thirstily. When Danni tried to hand it back, she thought for an instant about putting her lips where Danni’s had been, and her stomach tightened. “Finish it,” was all she said.

“Please yourself,” said Danni. She drained the cup.

“I’ll go and get us all some more, if you like?” Indi offered generously.

But Danni was looking up at the darkening sky, clouds beginning to loom on the horizon. “Dunno if that’s a good idea.” Even as she spoke, a gust of wind blew a pile of napkins off a nearby stall. She turned to Eleanor. “Did you bring the MG?”

Eleanor shook her head. “It’s at the garage. I just dropped it off and walked over.”

“Garage?” Danni asked, all innocence. “What happened? Did you hit a tractor?”

Eleanor ignored her and looked up at the sky again. The weather really was starting to turn. “I was planning on walking back up to the farm.”

“Wouldn’t if I were you,” said Danni. “I’ve got the Land Rover. I’ll take you back. And we should probably get going. It looks like the heavens are about to open.”

Eleanor nodded, and they said goodbye to Indi, who was already pulling out a rain poncho. “You two don’t go to enough music festivals,” she said. “You’ve gotta be prepared.”

“Yes, prepared to go home,” Danni said. “And we’re going now, before we get soaked.”

As they walked over uneven tufts of grass, neither Danni nor Eleanor mentioned the tension that was lingering between them, the way they’d both stared at each other throughout the day.

But they both felt it.

Even if they weren’t quite ready to admit it yet.

Chapter Fifteen

Danni knew from the moment that Eleanor sniffed and adjusted the temperature control knob of the Land Rover like it was a priceless artifact, that this drive home was going to be an ordeal.

Something was stuck in Eleanor’s craw, and she had no idea what it was. For once, she couldn’t think of a single thing that she might have done to put Eleanor in this mood. Other than exist.

She gripped the steering wheel of the battered Land Rover and did her best to ignore the woman beside her, who was sitting in the passenger seat like she was bracing for impact. Eleanor had been weird all afternoon, but then, Danni thought, maybe she’d been weird all afternoon too.

There was this… tension in the air. And it had nothing to do with the coming thunderstorm. A tension that, no matter what Indi might think, had nothing to do with Danni being jealous.

Danni wasnotjealous.

Not of some fancy woman making eyes at Eleanor. Not of Eleanor’s posh life. Not of anything at all.

Still, she was relieved when the rain started tapping against the windscreen, giving her something else to focus on. Until, of course, her windscreen wipers decided that now would be an excellent time to give up the ghost.

Eleanor made a sound that suggested she had thoughts onthis matter.

“Don’t say it,” Danni warned, rolling down the window and leaning forward to give the wiper a helpful nudge on its way.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Eleanor replied, which was clearly a lie. She had absolutely been about to say something.

The Land Rover gave an ominous splutter.

Danni scowled. “Don’t you dare, you—”

The dull roar of the engine became a cough and then a spasm of coughing, and then, with one last little polite cough as though the car had tried its best but really just couldn’t go on, the Land Rover rolled to a slow and tragic stop. Danni just managed to turn the steering wheel to get it up on the verge before it died for good.

There was a beat of silence.

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