Page 4 of A French Inheritance
When everything in his life had started falling apart in the last year, Adam and Lucy had welcomed him to the farm, insisting that their home was his for as long as he wanted. Without them on his side, he knew he would have continued in the downward spiral that Robyn had thrust him into. He owed them both big time.
Glancing out of his cottage window, he saw Adam and Lucy, with Django, their Australian sheepdog, sitting between them, talking to the scaffolder removing the scaffolding from the old stable block, now renovated to contain two more self-contained gîtes. Elliot knew how much Adam had been looking forward to that milestone being reached.
His big brother and his wife had certainly pulled out all the stops with this building project. In the last five years, three of the smaller individual outbuildings had been rebuilt and turned into artisan workshops. Two of them were now occupied – a potter in one and a leather worker in the other. Adam was hopeful that the third one would soon be rented out to a local artist. Two cottages, including the one Elliot now lived in, had been renovated, with Lucy doing the interior design and furnishings of them both. The other cottage, which Lucy had run as a gîte for the first time last summer, had proved to be very popular and Elliot knew she was hoping for the same success this year. There was still a lot of building work to be done – the three or four cottages scattered on land further away from the farmhouse – as well as lots of land, including the small vineyard, that needed attention, but the rush to get the business off the ground had eased somewhat.
ThepépinièreAdam had been keen to establish was up and running in the field alongside the driveway with its easy access. Plants, shrubs and olive trees, with terracotta pots and garden statues also on display, were already bringing customers to the farm.
Elliot glanced down at Luna, his Weimaraner dog, who was patiently curled up in her basket, watching him for any indication that a walk might be on the cards. Now five years old, she’d needed a new home a year or two ago and Adam and Lucy had offered to take her in. Whilst Luna had been no trouble in that short time and seemed happy, she became a different dog when Elliot arrived. She was besotted with him for some reason and became his shadow and within days it was clear she regarded him as her master. Which Elliot was more than happy to accept, as were Adam and Lucy.
‘Shall we go and tell them the good news?’ he said now, opening the door. Luna was instantly at his side and together they made their way towards the stable block.
The last of the scaffolding had been loaded and Adam shook the hands of both the driver and the scaffolder before the lorry drove out of the farmyard.
‘You look happy,’ Lucy said. ‘Not that you don’t normally these days, but…’ She gave Elliot an apologetic look.
‘I am extra happy today,’ Elliot said. ‘I’ve finally got the legal go-ahead to practise in France.Mon Francaise c’est très bien.’
‘Oh, that is great news,’ Adam said. ‘Well done. We shall look to you now as our in-house language expert to help us translate all our many pages of French bureaucracy that arrive.’
‘Supper tonight with us to celebrate?’ Lucy said.
‘Love to.’
‘Right now I’ve got to go and open up Owls Nest Cottage. Jeannie rang to say she and her daughter are coming over to sort it out now that Giselle is no longer with us. I guess that means the cottage will be going on the market. Shame. I miss Giselle. Even though she was just minutes away via the field track, and two kilometres by road, she was our nearest neighbour.’ Lucy looked at Elliot, ‘You never met Giselle, did you?’
Elliot shook his head. ‘No. She’d left before I arrived. I don’t think it was personal.’
Lucy laughed. ‘Lovely lady. Her daughter-in-law Jeannie seems lovely too. I’ll catch up with you two later.’
Elliot turned to Adam. ‘Luna and I are going for a walk. Any chance of you and Django joining us?’
‘I was going to take the quad bike and go down to see Bruno in the vineyard. Do me good to walk instead.’
Together, the brothers began to make their way up through the farmyard, passing the farmhouse, now boasting a new front door and refreshed paintwork. Adam opened the large five-barred gate that shut the imaginatively named Top Field off from the back of the farmyard. Once in the gently sloping field, they followed the hedge along for several metres before reaching another large gate which opened into the eight-hectare field with its rows of vines.
‘That’s a lot of vines. Is it going as planned in the overall scheme of things?’ Elliot asked, looking at the vines stretching right across the field to the bordering hedge.
‘It’s the most uncontrollable part of the whole project,’ Adam sighed as he too looked across at the vines. ‘It’s going to take a lot of work between now and September if we’re going to have a chance of making even a litre of wine. The original vines had been sorely neglected before we bought the place and the harvest for the last four years has been pitiful. The late summer storms last year didn’t help either.’
‘If you do get a harvest, how will you deal with it? I’ve never seen any signs of winemaking equipment on the farm.’
‘Sold off years ago. Wouldn’t be up to modern winemaking standards anyway,’ Adam said. ‘Initially, we’re using the local co-op to deal with the harvest and actually producing the wine for us. I’m holding back on establishing our own winery on the farm in case the vines never recover sufficiently as winemaking equipment is horrendously expensive. I’m hopeful the new vines – Grenache Noir and Cinsault – we planted and grafted the year after we moved in will bear fruit this year. On a good note, we do have a large cave under the house that will be perfect for storing any wine that we do make.’
‘Is Bruno hopeful for a good harvest this year?’ Elliot knew that Adam had to rely on his vigneron’s expertise.
‘Won’t commit one way or the other,’ Adam said. ‘“Wine growing is in the lap of the gods” is one of his favourite sayings.’
‘Let’s hope God is on your side this summer then,’ Elliot said. ‘I’m going to walk down to the lake. See you at supper later, if not before.’
Strolling after Luna as she raced through the adjoining field of spring grass towards the boundary hedge, Elliot smiled happily to himself. Today’s letter meant he could finally start to get his life back on track after all the unexpected changes life had forced on him in the last twelve months. The Robyn disaster, giving up his job in the UK, moving to France and renting one of the renovated cottages on Adam and Lucy’s farm, were all things he’d never anticipated happening in his life.
As always, Luna stopped by the final boundary hedge and sniffed the air before returning to sit at Elliot’s side as he stopped to take in his surroundings. Standing looking out over the French countryside bathed in sunshine under a perfect blue sky, he reflected that not all the changes had been bad. Moving to France and having Luna adopt him were two of the best. He was happier than he had been in almost a decade, especially now that he had his chosen future in front of him again.
He’d phone Julian at the veterinary clinic when he got back to the cottage, tell him the good news and hopefully start work next week.
Elliot bent down to stroke Luna’s head before straightening up. ‘Come on, Luna, let’s get back. I’ve got an important phone call to make.’
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