Page 42 of Escape to the Country

‘I’ve taken myself off the codeine,’ he told her, lifting the bicycle into the boot of the car before turning to face her. ‘It was making me sleep all day. Hence missing the walk yesterday, which I think I did apologise for.’

Had he? She had been so cross, she couldn’t remember.

Still feeling a little defensive, she asked, ‘Are you all right to drive with your foot?

‘I am now that I’ve stopped taking the heavy painkillers,’ he told her, slamming the boot shut. ‘Also it’s an automatic.’

As the rain continued to pour down around them, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. A second later, a large grey blur dashed across the road and went straight underneath the car.

They looked at each other in shock.

‘What the hell was that?’ asked Tom.

They both bent down, peering underneath the car to discover a large, hairy, grey and white dog shivering, his big brown eyes wide with terror.

‘Poor thing,’ said Tom, reaching out his hand.

The rain had plastered his T-shirt to his torso and Eleanor was disgruntled to find herself staring at his toned stomach.

To distract herself, she looked around. ‘I wonder where it came from.’

They tried to coax the dog out, but in the end Tom had to lie down on the wet road to reach hold of it by the scruff of its neck.

‘Come on, big fella,’ said Tom in a soft tone as the dog was slowly pulled out from under the car.

‘There’s no collar,’ said Eleanor. ‘I wonder if he slipped his lead whilst on a walk.’

But on closer inspection, the dog looked filthy, unbrushed, and possibly underfed as well. Definitely unloved.

‘It looks more likely to be a stray,’ she said.

‘I agree,’ said Tom.

He crouched down and held the trembling dog against him as the rain continued to splatter down.

Eleanor thought that was quite brave considering he didn’t know if the dog would snap or bark at him. But the stray did neither, just dug in even deeper into Tom’s arms.

Tom looked up at Eleanor. ‘What do you think we should do with it?’

‘We’d better take him to my mum,’ said Eleanor. ‘She deals with all the waifs and strays around here.’

She was reluctant to add any more animals to the growing menagerie at home, but the dog was clearly in trouble and so there wasn’t really any other choice.

‘Okay. Well, let’s do that then,’ Tom agreed.

It was only when he reopened the boot that they remembered the mangled bicycle.

The dog was still shaking as it leaned up against him. ‘He’s obviously pretty freaked out,’ said Tom. ‘Do you think you should sit on the back seat next to him?’

Eleanor grimaced. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘It’s not like my jeans can get any worse at this stage.’

‘And I’m sure Sam can always get the car valet cleaned tomorrow,’ said Tom.

She got in the back seat of the car and the dog leapt in beside her. At another rumble of thunder, it snuggled in close to her. The dog smelt pretty bad and was soaking wet, but she still put her arm around it and gave it a reassuring stroke.

‘You poor thing,’ she told him softly. ‘You’re safe with us now, okay?’

‘So what’s the deal with your mum?’ asked Tom, after she had given him directions. ‘Is she a vet?’

Eleanor shook her head. ‘No. Just an animal lover.’

He looked at her in the mirror for a second before concentrating on the road.

She wondered what he was thinking. And how she could possibly bring up the subject of her lack of job before he spilled her secret to her mum.

Because once that secret was revealed, chances were all the others would come rushing out to follow it as well.