Chapter 42

Christmas Day was spent at Nigel and Geraldine's again. Catriona and her family were not there. It was Jerry's parents' year. Ellie was behind the bar at lunchtime at The Angel and the whole family went with her having done presents beforehand. Geraldine and Sally went home immediately after the Queen's Speech to do last minute things for Christmas Dinner. The men waited for Ellie and helped to tidy up. So did Reg which was a surprise to everyone.

Three days later Nick and Sally flew to the Maldives where they spent a blissful ten days. By the time they returned they were, if that were possible, even more deeply in love.

The following spring Sally rather shyly asked Nick whether they were going to start trying to have a baby in June or July.

"It's really a question of whether I ought to be considering coming off the pill," she said.

"Whenever you're ready, Puss. If you are going to we ought to start looking for a bigger house and it could take a while to find what we want."

"I love it here, Nick."

"So do I but once we convert the spare room into a nursery we'd never be able to have anyone to stay."

"I know, my one. I know. It's just that this has been our home since the beginning of our love together. Can we try to find somewhere close?"

"Of course we can but that'll probably take even longer."

"Why don't we stick to local for six months and then if we've had no luck start to look further afield?"

"As long as you don't start getting broody."

"Children will be a bonus, my Nick. The important thing is you and me and our happiness."

Sally took it upon herself to contact estate agents. Nothing came up within the immediate area for three months. The housing market was slack. People considering selling were facing a loss on what they had originally spent. They looked at three or four houses to get their eye in. None was close enough and they were not much taken with any of them.

"What do you want to do, Puss?"

"Go on looking."

"OK."

The friendship between Ellie and Reg was developing. Every time she was on duty Reg would put in an appearance and when she was not busy she would gravitate to his end of the bar. He had started to call her 'lass' which she rather liked.

He invited her to go with him to the Masham Sheep Fair. Fortunately it was on a Thursday so did not conflict with any of her jobs. She asked him if there was any particular reason for him going.

"Aye. I lost some tupped yearlings last winter and need to replace them so as I can get the balance right again for next year."

Ellie looked lost. "Tupped?" she asked.

"Pregnant."

"Ah. How many are you looking to get?"

"Forty or fifty depending on the price."

"Did you lose that many?"

"No but I need to aim off for more losses next winter."

On the way there he told her much more about sheep farming and she was fascinated by that and the market.

Reg bought forty lambs and made arrangements to have them delivered once they had been weaned. He then took her to lunch.

"How much longer are you going to be able to do this?" she asked him on the way home.

"I hadn't really given it any thought, lass. I'm fifty-five now so ten or fifteen years."

"What then?"

"Sell up, I suppose, but keep the house."

"A bit remote if you're not fit and well still."

Reg shrugged. "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

She invited him in for tea. He stayed for supper. She asked after his son and he was rather more forthcoming this time, telling her about his prison sentence and that he was now out and had moved in with friends in Newcastle.

"Have you seen him since he came out?"

"No."

"Don't you want to?"

"I'm not that fussed, lass. If he wants to see me he knows where I am. He hasn't even phoned to let me know his address or phone number."

"Oh, Reg, that's bad."

"Aye."

She reached across the table and patted his hand sympathetically and he smiled slightly ruefully at her. She took her hand back and a thought struck her. When had she last shown affection to a man other than Nick and Nigel? She looked down.

"What's up, lass?"

She shook her head and then looked up. "Nothing," she smiled a little forcedly.

He studied her face silently for a moment. There was something but he would wait until she wanted to tell him.

He left soon afterwards. "Thanks for coming with me, lass," he said with a warm smile, "and for supper. It's good to eat with someone else for a change."

"I enjoyed it all," she smiled back at him. "I wasn't sure I was going to be much interested in sheep but I've learnt a lot and it really was interesting. Would you like to come and have supper again next Thursday?"

"I would that, lass."

"Great! Come about six." She took his hands and kissed his cheek. "And thanks again for today."

Looking slightly embarrassed Reg left.

"I like him," thought Ellie. "He's quiet and gentle. He doesn't say much but I don't think he misses much either. He must be lonely but that seems to be the way he wants it."

Reg drove up the hill to his farm and suddenly realised that he was happy for the first time in what seemed an age. He enjoyed being with Ellie. She did not talk one's head off for one thing and all the questions she'd asked about the sheep were sensible ones not just an excuse to keep the conversation going. She was pretty too.

The postman did not deliver until after Nick and Sally had left for work. So it was one evening in early August that Sally picked up a letter from one of the estate agents and tossed it resignedly on the dresser in the kitchen. Only later when they were having a pre-dinner drink in the garden did she open it. She looked at the photograph on the first page and then began to read avidly.

"Nick!" she exclaimed excitedly. "We may have found it. Look at the photo. Five bed, three recep. It's the one on the edge of the village as we go into work that we've always liked the look of."

Nick took the advertisement and read it through. He noted that it was set in three acres part of which was an orchard and that the asking price was less than he had been prepared to pay.

"Yippee!" he cried and then, "Oof!" as Sally landed on his lap. Her arms went round his neck and she plastered his face with kisses.

"Steady on, Tiger," he laughed. "We haven't got it yet."

"I'll ring them first thing in the morning and arrange for us to go and look at it. Do you know the people who own it?"

"Not really. They're an elderly couple by the name of Bathurst. Other than that I've no idea."

He did a bit of probing around. They were in their eighties. He had had a heart attack a few years back and she suffered from arthritis. People were surprised that they hadn't moved out some while ago.

Nick fed this back to Sally.

"It's much too big for them. They've been living on the ground floor for the last three or four years and the garden's gone completely to pot but they love the place and have been putting off selling it. It'll probably need a lot of work inside and out."

"Probably why the asking price is as low as it is."

"More than likely."

Sally managed to arrange an appointment for five o'clock the following Tuesday. The Bathursts were charming but were indeed frail. Nick and Sally fell for the place but even to their untrained eyes it was in a poor state. The whole place needed re-decorating inside and out. Doors no longer fitted properly and there was an ominous sag in the roof. Nick kept his eye out for woodworm but spotted none. There was a damp patch on one wall of the dining room that indicated that the damp course had failed. It had just the rooms they needed. It had a large family kitchen. The dining room was spacious and the drawing room huge with a large stone framed open fireplace. There was an ample sitting room or study. The bedrooms were all a good size. There were two bathrooms, one of them en suite but neither had a shower. The baths were huge enamel ones with claw legs and brass taps. Sally loved them.

Neither Nick nor Sally wished to upset the Bathursts by criticising their beloved house in front of them or by bartering. They merely thanked them for letting them look round and said how much liked the house. They asked the agent back to their own house.