Page 8 of Escape to the Country

That caused her mum to cry again. ‘No, no,’ she said. ‘I don’t want you getting in trouble at work. You’re so important to them. You mustn’t rock the boat.’

‘It’ll be fine,’ said Eleanor, with a grimace known only to herself. ‘It’s bank holiday week so it’s really quiet at work. Don’t worry.’

‘Well, it’ll be lovely to see you after all these months.’

There was no sarcasm in her mother’s voice, but Eleanor still bit her lip in guilt. She had meant to go home at Easter but there had been that VIP party and she had had to stay in London to write up her story. So she hadn’t been back to Cranley since Christmas, and even that visit had been cut short because there had been rumours of a reality star checking out of rehab and she had needed to be there to get the scoop.

‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ Eleanor told her.

‘Okay,’ said her Mum. ‘I love you, Ellie.’

‘Me too,’ she replied, as always her voice stalling over those particular words. Some hurts could never be overcome.

She hung up and explained to Lucas what had happened.

‘So, I guess you’ll be needing to take care of your mum for a while then. Look, this is awkward,’ he carried on, suddenly not making eye contact. ‘My timing is obviously a bit off what with everything that’s happened, but I was actually kind of hoping you’d be moving out soon anyway.’

Eleanor took an intake of deep breath. ‘Move out?’

‘It was only supposed to be temporary, wasn’t it? You know, because you couldn’t stay in your flat. But it’s been, what, thirteen weeks?’

He’d been counting?

Lucas finally looked up at her, giving her a small smile. ‘Hey, you know me. I’m just a bit of a neat freak and you’re not, are you? You’ve got all your girly stuff everywhere. And you know I don’t do flowers.’ He glanced at the vase full of cut roses on the coffee table. ‘Besides, I’m just not ready for all that commitment, living-together stuff yet. You feel the same, I know you do. So maybe we’ll just take a little break from each other and see how we feel.’

The silence stretched out until she could finally splutter, ‘I see.’

Except she didn’t. Why hadn’t he mentioned this before? Or, she wondered, perhaps she just hadn’t picked up on his heavy hints.

‘But hey,’ said Lucas, frowning at her aghast face. ‘No rush. Take your time. There’s no need to start packing this very minute, okay?’

Packing? He wanted her out that soon?

‘I know! If you’re going down to your mum’s tomorrow, maybe you can leave your stuff with her for the time being? Look, I’m going out with the lads. It’s someone’s birthday. We’ll talk more later and sort something out, yeah?’

She nodded, putting on her bravest smile. As if she didn’t care that he was rejecting her. That everyone in London had rejected her during the past twenty-four hours.

Once he had left, she wandered into the bedroom and sank down onto the thick duvet.

She opened up the drawer of the bedside cabinet that Lucas had generously allowed her to use. She brought out the small keepsake box she had picked up a few years ago. Inside were a few trinkets, nothing special. But there, at the very bottom of the box, was a framed photograph of three teenage girls. She smiled, as she always did at this faded photo of her oldest and best friends.

Yes, Annie was now engaged to a future earl and living in an enormous stately home. And Megan had married her high school sweetheart and had three children. But here they were, captured in time all those years ago, trying to be cool, as all teenagers are desperate to be. Annie’s blonde hair was scraped back into a ponytail. Megan’s red hair had been cut ferociously short and was incredibly curly. Eleanor’s own long dark hair had been braided. But their wide grins all matched.

Their matching khaki cargo pants and black T-shirts made her smile. How many times had they sung that All Saints album into their hairbrushes?

Eleanor put the photo back and closed the lid of the box, sighing heavily at the thought of the little village that she had been so desperate to escape in her teenage years. Instead of hating it as she had done back then, right at that moment she yearned to see the village, have a long gossip with her friends and a huge hug from her mum. Megan was still living there and Annie had returned to Cranley the previous year after a long absence abroad.

She missed her friends terribly. They still phoned and messaged all the time, but she had only managed to see them for a couple of hours at Christmas before she had to head back to London. Once back in the city, there was always so little time to talk and catch up when she was dashing around from party to party in the middle of the night. It was a sacrifice she had thought was worth it. Until yesterday.

She made up her mind to make proper use of her time back in Cranley whilst she was there. She was going to catch up on all of her friends’ news. To rediscover each other and get close again. To help her mum whilst she was there and, literally, get her back on her feet.

Then, when she was ready, Eleanor hoped she could head back to the city feeling stronger and more in control than ever before.

She just wasn’t sure how on earth any of that was going to happen.