Page 54 of The Beekeeper's Cottage
‘Yes, that would have been Dominic. I’m surprised he didn’t offer to help you.’
Amos looked up. ‘Are you?’ he said.
His words took her aback. Although it wasn’t said with any particular undercurrent, Amos wasn’t usually given to making sharp comments. He was right though of course; now that she thought about it, she wasn’t surprised in the least.
She smiled. ‘I brought you a cuppa,’ she said, holding out the mug. ‘Shall I put it down for you?’
He nodded and she rested it on the gravel. With the car now jacked to sufficient height, Amos picked up the wrench and attempted to loosen the wheel nuts.
‘Jesus…’ The word hissed out from between his teeth, as he leaned all his weight onto the wrench. ‘Whoever last did these up must have been a direct descendant of Thor.’
He tried a different nut, rocking his full weight onto the wrench to get it to turn, gritting his teeth and straining with the effort. Expelling air in a loud rush he stood up, panting for a few minutes before trying again. It was hard to watch him, obviously hurting from the effort.
Grace was about to stop him in case he did himself an injury, when she heard steps on the gravel. Turning around, she was amazed to see Zac walking towards them. His jacket was already off and he was busy rolling up his sleeves. He came to stand beside them.
‘Hello again,’ he said, looking at Amos. ‘I saw what was going on from the bedroom window, can I help at all?’
Amos flicked her a glance, really not sure what the protocol was. Grace wasn’t sure either, but Zac was offering to lend a hand, no one had forced him to.
‘I’m obviously feeling particularly puny today, but I can’t get the wheel nuts off,’ said Amos. ‘Either that or some Neanderthal tightened them before me.’
Zac pulled a face. ‘I can have a go, if you like, but if you can’t shift them, I’m not sure I’ll be able to.’
Whatever the circumstances, it was a very generous thing to say. Amos smiled and handed him the wrench.
‘I’ve probably loosened them for you,’ he said with a grin, rolling his eyes at Grace.
But Zac grunted and groaned in just the same way that Amos had done and couldn’t shift them either.
‘Oh, thank God,’ said Zac. ‘That could have been embarrassing. Shall we give it a go together? I can’t see how we’re going to shift them otherwise and I think plans will be ruined if we can’t change the tyre.’ He caught Grace’s eye and smiled. She was liking him more and more by the minute.
With one man either side of the wrench and a good deal of groaning and, in Zac’s case, swearing, they finally managed to release the nuts so that Amos was able to ease off the flat tyre.
Amos offered Zac his hand. ‘Blimey, that was hard work, and I really appreciate your help. I was going nowhere fast on my own. I can probably take it from here though, if you need to get back.’
But Zac shook his head. ‘No, come on, let’s get finished up. I rather think you’re being kept from your work too, and your drink is getting cold.’ He rolled the spare tyre across while Amos stood up to take a slug of his coffee.
‘How are we doing?’ It was Paul’s voice from the front door. ‘Are we nearly ready, do you think?’ He began to march across the gravel.
Grace saw Amos look down as she too realised that Zac, crouched by the side of the car, was below Paul’s line of sight and that therefore Paul was talking to Amos. It was, she realised, the first time the two men had met. She moved further to Amos’s side.
‘Paul, this is Amos who’s helping out at the farm next door. It was very kind of him to come to our rescue.’
‘Yes, yes, of course,’ Paul replied, moving nearer. And then he stopped. ‘Amos?’ he queried. ‘I know that name from somewhere…’ He broke off, frowning. ‘Yes, I know… You’re the gardener chap, aren’t you? The one who gave my estate agent the runaround.’ He looked directly at Grace for a second, eyes narrowing and then back again. ‘Only I don’t remember employing you.’
Grace took a step forward, feeling utterly helpless. Zac had chosen to carry on working instead of revealing himself, replacing the tyre and slipping back on the nuts ready for tightening. If she wasn’t careful this could all go very badly indeed.
‘Actually, Paul, Amos doesn’t work here, he’s been helping out at the farm next door for the summer, and has given me a hand with some of the bigger gardening jobs, that’s all.’ She gave a light laugh. ‘And all out of the kindness of his heart… and maybe the odd cup of tea.’
She wanted to give Paul the opportunity to offer some praise and to thank Amos for his generosity, but instead she could see from the expression on his face that he had taken it entirely the wrong way. Oh dear lord, whatever was he going to say now?
‘Hmm, how very obliging of you.’
Grace’s heart sank; he sounded like a pompous idiot.
‘That’s not it though,’ Paul continued. ‘That’s not where I know you from. What’s your last name?’ It sounded more like an order than a casual enquiry.
Amos squared up. ‘I don’t think we’ve met, so just Amos will be fine. Like Grace said, I’ve been working at the farm so it was lucky I was around this morning to help out.’
