Read Online A Country Affair by Rebecca Shaw - Free Book Online Page A

off.”
    “I’ll go in and start the shower; leave your clothes out here and I’ll sort them out, and please dry yourself off a bit with this dog towel before you come in.”
    “Dog towel! Oh, thanks! Good on you, mate!”
    “Otherwise, we’ll have filthy water everywhere. Go on, do as I say.”
    Showered and warmed and dressed in Mungo’s gardening trousers and shirt, Scott sat in the accounts office drinking the scorching-hot coffee Kate had made for him, muttering threats about Applegate Farm. “I shall report him. I said I wouldn’t, but I shall.”
    “For what?”
    “For selling milk on the quiet when Milkmarque won’t collect from his farm. For keeping animals in disgraceful conditions, though I have to admit they do seem happy and are not actually in any danger. He knows every one of them by name.”
    “How did you come to be like this?”
    Scott’s eyes gleamed with amusement over the rim of his mug. “I fell into the slurry pit.”
    “You didn’t! How could anyone do that? Weren’t you looking where you were going?”
    “Parsons’s pit isn’t fenced.”
    “But what about the cows, don’t they fall in it?”
    “Oh no! They know where it is and walk around it. Trouble is the yard is so thick with mud and mess you don’t see where the mud finishes and the pit starts. Thank God they were there to pull me out.”
    Kate knew she shouldn’t laugh because Scott was so dejected, but she couldn’t help it and it began to bubble up inside her. He caught her eye and they both laughed.
    Kate pulled herself together and said, “Look, there’s the rest of the calls still to do. You’ve got to go.”
    He stood up. “You’re getting as bad as Joy, you are, and you’ve only been here a week. To cheer a miserable Aussie up, will you come out with him tonight?” Seeing the doubt in her face he added, “For a drink?”
    Gravely Kate studied him and answered, “All right. I will. Just for a drink.”
    “But of course, sweet one, as you say, just for a drink. Fox and Grapes about eight?”
     
    M IA, Gerry and Kate were finishing their evening meal when the front door opened and they heard Adam’s “It’s only me.”
    There he was in the kitchen in his tenpins bowling outfit.
    Gerry covered Kate’s and Mia’s surprised silence by saying, “Come in, Adam. There’s still some tea in the pot. Like some?”
    Mia got up to get the extra cup and Kate looked up at him. “Yes?”
    Adam didn’t quite look her in the eye but answered, “Thought I’d just pop around.”
    “I didn’t think you would be coming for me tonight, after Sunday.”
    “Here, son.” Gerry pulled out the chair next to Kate. “Sit here.”
    Mia passed him his cup of tea and pushed the sugar bowl across to him.
    Gerry made pleasant remarks about the weather, trying to lighten the atmosphere, and wondered why things didn’t seem right.
    Adam ignored him and said to Kate, “I waited outside on Sunday but you didn’t come out.”
    “I know I didn’t.”
    Gerry and Mia tried to disguise their surprise. Gerry asked feebly, “Why didn’t you?” but got no reply.
    “Well?”
    “I told you not to come. I said I wouldn’t go out to lunch.”
    “But we always do.”
    Seeing that Adam was disinclined to look at her, Kate twisted around in her chair and glared at him. “You are a chump, Adam. Who in their right mind would sit outside a house for a whole hour and then drive away?”
    “But I never knock on Sundays.”
    “Exactly. But just once perhaps you could break the habit of a lifetime and knock. Where are you expecting to go tonight?”
    Adam looked down at his beige sweatshirt and trousers, which in the catalogue had been described—stylishly, he thought—as taupe, and his immaculate white socks and bowling shoes. He plucked at his sweatshirt and said, “Isn’t it obvious?”
    “Perfectly. Unfortunately, I’ve made other arrangements for tonight.”
    He couldn’t have looked more surprised if she’d said she was