Page 8 of A Fresh Start at Bramble Cottage
“Yes. He has the farm just up the lane from me. He pulled the car out of the ditch for me.”
“Oh,Tom. Why didn’t you say he’s a friend of yours? I’ll be there in about half an hour.”
“Thank you.” She raised her eyebrows in surprise as she closed the call. Apparently she had said the magic word — ‘Tom’. Well, she wasn’t going to complain — at least she was getting her car fixed.
* * *
True to his word, Barry arrived forty minutes later, reversing a red tow truck down the lane. Vicky grabbed her car keys and hurried out to meet him.
“Morning, my luvver. Let’s have a look at this car of yours, then.”
“Thank you for coming.”
“No problem — anything for a friend of Tom’s.”
“Er... yes.” She rolled her eyes as Barry bent to examine the front wheel.
“You’ve given that a good knock. Ran into a ditch, you say? How’d that happen?”
“I skidded trying to avoid the cows.”
He laughed. “What were you doing on that bit of lane? It’s just an old farm track.”
“I was following my satnav.”
He laughed. “Oh, your satnav.” He appeared to share Tom’s opinion on that. “You’d have done better to have stuck on the main road a bit further and turned down Church Road instead.”
“Yes — so Tom told me.”
“Ah well, let’s get this thing loaded up, then.”
“Will it take you long to fix it?”
He sucked his teeth. “Hmm... That’s going to depend on how much damage there is. Could be just a matter of aligning the wheel, but if you’ve done in the steering or the suspension... Might be tomorrow, so long as we’ve got the parts.”
“That’s great — thank you very much.”
She stood for a moment watching as her little car was hooked up to the tow truck and trundled off up the lane. Then she turned and strolled back into the cottage. She could make a start on listing the work that needed to be done — or she could take a walk down to the beach. Get a feel for the location.
She remembered it from when she was little, but those memories might not be reliable. As Jeremy’s mother had pointed out, access to a good beach would be a big selling point for someone looking for a holiday home.
Swinging her bag onto her shoulder, she checked that she had her door keys and set off.
At the corner where the lane reached the road down to the village — the road she should have taken instead of the earlier turning and that stupid rutted lane — she paused and looked back at the cottage, nestled in the fold of the hill, sheltered by a small copse of leafy beech and ancient oak trees.
Yes, it would make a perfect holiday home.
She felt her heart grow heavier as she gazed at it. It was stupid, but she didn’t want to part with it. Unfortunately she had no choice — there was going to be a hefty bill for the inheritance tax, which she would have to pay within six months or it would start to accrue a very unhealthy rate of interest.
And anyway, how could she spend more than a few weeks of the year down here? Even if she could persuade Jeremy to take his quota of annual leave, it would be even more difficult to persuade him to come to Devon instead of jetting off to somewhere with fascinating architecture and lots of high culture.
In truth, she didn’t just want the cottage as a holiday home — she wanted to live here. But that was even more stupid. There was the small matter of money to live on. A job. The nearest estate agent was probably in Exeter or Plymouth — even if she wanted to continue with that career. Which she wasn’t sure she did.
With an impatient sigh she shook her head. Dreams were all very well, but they rarely came true in the real world. Reluctantly she turned away and walked on down the hill.
It was a pleasant ten-minute stroll past a row of cottages with neat gardens. Past the church, past a few shops — a small convenience store, a hairdresser, and a shop that sold second-hand furniture and household items. That one might be useful when she began clearing out Molly’s cottage.
On the other side of the road were several large Victorian houses, most of them converted to bed-and-breakfast establishments, with names like ‘Sunny Dene’ and ‘Bay View’.
