Page 1 of The House at Hope Corner
Prologue
‘Are we completely mad?’ asked Flora, snuggling down into the sleeping bag. ‘Or only partially?’
‘Well that depends,’ answered Ned, picking his way across the dimly lit roof garden with a mug in each hand. ‘On how mad we were to start with, and how much this may have tipped us over the edge.’
Flora giggled. ‘Then I declare us to be a lost cause,’ she said. ‘Come on, get the drinks over here, I’m freezing.’
Ned grinned, stumbling as he tripped over his foot. He took two tumbling steps before his legs caught up with the rest of him, but somehow still managed to keep hold of the mugs and their contents.
‘We ought to be drinking champagne really.’
‘Why,’ asked Flora, ‘when hot chocolate tastes about a million times better? Especially when it’s got a drop of brandy in it.’
She waited until Ned had nearly reached her before snaking a hand out from beneath the covers to take the drinks. A blast of cold air filled the gap and she gasped as he began to climb in next to her. Even with her fleecy pyjamas, jumper and woolly hat on she was only just warm enough, but she didn’t care, because right now she couldn’t think of a nicer place to be.
Ned wriggled up against her before taking his mug.
‘We should raise a toast,’ he said.
‘What to?’
‘How about living happily ever after?’ he replied. ‘Us getting married, you selling your shop and your flat. It’s a brand new start, isn’t it? For both of us.’ His face grew sombre for a moment. ‘And are you happy, Flora? Honestly?’
‘I am,’ she replied without a moment’s hesitation. ‘I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.’
He beamed at her. ‘Which is fortunate really because I find myself quite convincingly and utterly in love with you. It shouldn’t even be possible given the short amount of time I’ve known you. But it’s true, and I cannot wait to take you home and marry you.’
‘But why me?’ queried Flora. She had asked the question a dozen times since he had proposed, but she never tired of hearing the answer. ‘Why not a farmer’s daughter with a face full of freckles like yours…? Someone who knows one end of a cow from another and has big sturdy hips to bear you lots of children?’
‘You know why,’ teased Ned. ‘Because all the farmer’s daughters I know think I’m soppy. And, whereasIthink lying on my back on a freezing cold December night to watch a meteor shower is a great idea, they don’t.’
‘But itisa great idea.’
‘See?’ Ned laughed. ‘But now I want to know why you would even consider the offer, what with my two left feet and hands the size of dinner plates? Marrying me is a big step. It will take you away from everything you know, out of the city and into the middle of nowhere, which at this time of year is basically full of mud.’
Flora gazed up at Ned’s face as she sipped her hot chocolate. She thought of her flat below them and her shop below that, full of flowers, even in the middle of winter. She thought of all the reasons why she shouldn’t be doing this, how it was throwing common sense out of the window and taking the biggest leap of faith in her life, but despite it all, nothing in her life had ever felt this right. And, after all, it really couldn’t have come at a better time. She had to make this work, for her sister’s sake if nothing else. She would never forgive herself for what she had done, but perhaps this might be a way to atone for some of it, at least.
‘Because you knew that inviting me to look at the stars was far more magical than being wined and dined in some fancy restaurant. No one else has ever got that about me…’ She frowned slightly. ‘Or maybe they did, but they never had it within themselves…’
She swallowed the last of her chocolate, putting down the mug so that she could snuggle deeper under the covers and closer to Ned. She was about to add something else when a sudden spark lit the sky.
‘Oh, look…!’ She sighed. ‘Isn’t that beautiful?’
Ned pulled her close. ‘Promise me we can always do this, even when we’re old and grey?’
‘Especially when we’re old and grey,’ replied Flora. ‘Are the stars really beautiful where you live?’
Ned nodded. ‘The sky seems to go on forever when you look down the valley. And there’s no light pollution. It’s utterly black. Some nights I swear you can see the swirls of the Milky Way itself.’
Flora pulled herself up into a more upright position so that she could look at Ned’s face. ‘Tell me again why it’s called Hope Corner Farm,’ she said.
‘No one really knows for sure,’ he answered. ‘But the story has it that the first farmer who settled there came from Worcester, driven out by some feudal disagreement over land, so he took off, with literally just the clothes on his back and a handful of cattle which he drove along the roads. He was headed further north but, starving, thirsty and exhausted, and with his cattle on the point of collapse, he realised he could go no further and stopped there to let them drink from the stream. As night fell, he made a rough shelter and, when morning came, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He awoke to find that his cattle had all crossed the stream and were grazing out in a pasture of the greenest grass he’d ever seen. Taking it as a good omen, he decided to stay and the rest, as they say, is history. Somewhere along the line, because the farmer always said that this was where his fate changed and he found hope, the bend in the road where he turned off became known as Hope Corner. The farm took its name from that point forward.’
Flora sighed happily. ‘And it will be all right, Ned, won’t it? Your mum and dadwilllike me?’
‘Of course it will, they’re going toloveyou…’
Chapter One
