Come Rain, Come Shine by Anne Doughty

Author:Anne Doughty [Anne Doughty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2012-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

Eleven

When Andrew arrived home from work on the last Friday in September and saw the table by the window in Headquarters laid for supper, complete with a small arrangement of roses, he thought for a moment he’d been so preoccupied with his own affairs, he’d missed some important event. Then he reminded himself that Clare didn’t play games like that. If there was a birthday or an anniversary coming, she’d simply ask him what he thought they might do, if anything. She was quite likely to say, Look love, I know it’s our anniversary, but how about we celebrate on the first available Friday? We’re fully booked and we’ll get no peace even to have a proper meal.

‘I thought we were going to the pictures,’ he said, as he came to put his arms round her.

‘So did I,’ she said, laughing wryly. ‘Do you really want to see the most horrifying monster ever to threaten the earth?’

‘Can’t say I do,’ he replied, looking yet more puzzled. ‘I thought it was a Jack Lemon comedy.’

‘So did I, but that was last week and I only got to last week’s newspaper yesterday.’

He laughed and peeled off his jacket, hung it over the back of his fireside chair and stretched out his long legs on the hearthrug.

‘So what are we celebrating?’ he asked, feeling suddenly quite glad they weren’t going out after all.

‘Oh, I’ve managed to think of the odd good thing,’ she said promptly. ‘Ask me later and you can decide if they’re worth celebrating,’ she said with a broad grin. ‘But right now we need to have our meal, so we can be finished and tidied up before John comes to take charge of Headquarters, even if all he does is read the newspapers. If you want to go and change, I’ll come down and bring up the tray,’ she added, as he stood up. ‘I have managed to cook our dinner for this evening, but I haven’t been out of the house all day, lovely as it’s been. I thought we might do an inspection of the Drumsollen estate before the light goes. It could have been taken over by Triffids for all I’ve seen of it this week.’

The evening was fine and still warm for this late in the year as they set off round the back of the house to the small remnant of what had once been the home paddock. Andrew’s mother had kept her horse there, together with a small, shaggy pony, which he remembered because he’d thought him very large at the time.

Early in the year, Clare had been studying the flower catalogues, hoping to create a border of perennials alongside their driveway at the foot of the hill, when she’d discovered Andrew eyeing the pages of a wildflower catalogue with equal enthusiasm.

‘I didn’t think you could buy wildflower seed,’ she said, surprised, as she picked up the one he had just put down. ‘Some of these I’ve never even seen.’

‘Those grow on chalk or

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