Page 34 of The Farmer Has a Wife

Eleanor looked placidly out of the windscreen. “Would you like me to say something now?”

Danni thumped her forehead against the steering wheel. “No,” she muttered.

Eleanor sighed and unbuckled her seatbelt, folding her arms. “Well. This is… a turn of events.”

Swearing, Danni shoved the door open and stomped out into the rain to lift the bonnet. She peered inside, using all of her mechanical knowledge, which was, if she was honest, limited to shaking or kicking things and hoping for the best. The engine, despite being glared at, did not miraculously fix itself.

She could feel Eleanor’s judgment staring at her through the windscreen.

“Don’t say it,” she said, slamming the bonnet shut and getting back into the car.

“You need a new car,” said Eleanor primly.

“Wow. What a revolutionary thought. That has actually never crossed my mind before,” Danni said, leaning her head back against the seat and wondering just what she was going to do now.

Eleanor sniffed. “Perhaps if you took better care of your things—” she began.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” interrupted Danni. “Do I not send my car to the garage often enough for you? Maybe that’s because it costs a fortune every time it goes for a tuneup. Thought of that, have you? I’m guessing not, since you can afford to replace your car the moment it so much as sneezes.”

Eleanor tilted her chin up, her shoulders stiff. “My car has been in my possession since I was seventeen, I’ll have you know.” She rolled her shoulders. “I shall walk home.”

And before Danni could argue, Eleanor opened the door and stepped out into the rain. Just at that moment, there was a loud grumble of thunder, and the rain began to bounce off the road. Not that that bothered Eleanor. She began to march in the direction of the farm.

Danni gawked at her for half a second, then threw up her hands. “Are you serious?”

But Eleanor didn’t answer. Because Eleanor was already half-way down the road. Danni swore eloquently under her breath, kicked the door open, got out, slammed it shut again, and ran through the rain after Eleanor.

After a steady four minutes of walking, Danni was starting to genuinely worry that Eleanor was going to drown in her own stubbornness. The storm had gone from drizzle to torrential rain in the blink of an eye, and Eleanor was dressed only in the thin cotton sundress that Danni had admired what felt like a lifetime ago. She was soaked through, the dress clinging to every curve of her body.

Danni, sensibly dressed in jeans and a flannel, with the wax jacket she’d grabbed from the car, was still miserable, but at least she wasn’t trailing fabric and shivering like some sort of sodden ghost.

“You know, if you weren’t so bloody proud, we wouldn’t be doing this,” she shouted to Eleanor over the rain.

Eleanor lifted her chin. “I beg your pardon? If I weren’t proud?”

“Yes! You! You literally just stormed out in a storm.”

Eleanor tutted, stepping over a rather large puddle with allthe poise of a woman who’d spent her life dodging peasants. “Perhaps if your car wasn’t an actual death trap,” she began.

Danni waved a hand. “Oh, here we go.”

“I’m just saying,” Eleanor went on. “A little maintenance wouldn’t hurt.”

“A little maintenance costs money, Your Ladyship.”

Eleanor gave her a look that very clearly translated into ‘I’m trying not to strangle you.’ “A little money spent now saves a larger sum of money in the future.”

For an instant, Danni thought about trying to explain the realities of the situation to her, that as much as she understood the sentiment, when it came to a choice between car maintenance and sheep nuts, the animals needed to be fed. Then she spotted a familiar gray stone building in the distance.

“Come on, there’s a bus shelter over there. Run. You’re going to catch pneumonia,” she called, breaking into a jog.

Eleanor hesitated for only a second, reluctant to accept what was clearly a good idea, before a particularly strong gust of wind and loud clap of thunder urged her onward. Danni watched her smugly as she ducked into the small shelter.

It wasn’t a large space. But the stones were tightly packed, it was windproof, and it only smelled a little bit of sheep. Eleanor, soaked through to the bone, wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

Danni sighed. “Oh, for God’s sake.” She peeled her jacket off and all but threw it at Eleanor. “Put that on before I have to deal with tending to your sick bed as well as everything else I have to do.”

Eleanor, stiff with pride, hesitated before grudgingly putting it on.

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