Eleanor finally staggered through the front door of The Forge an hour later after the long walk home.
‘Hi.’ Her mum turned around from the kitchen table and was aghast to see her daughter’s upset face. ‘What is it? What’s happened?’
‘Oh Mum! I’ve made a mess of everything!’ Eleanor burst into tears again. Would she ever be able to stop crying?
‘Come and sit down,’ said her mum, leading her over to the table. ‘What’s the matter? Is this to do with your ex-boyfriend?’
‘It’s all of it, Mum.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I lost my job. Restructuring or something.’
‘Oh.’ Her mum looked concerned. ‘Well, I’m sure there are plenty of other positions out there for a wonderful journalist like yourself. You’ll see, they’ll be chomping at the bit to have you work for their newspapers.’
Eleanor shook her head. ‘But I’m not a wonderful journalist, Mum. I never told you the truth.’
Now her mum was looking shocked. ‘So what is the truth?’ she asked slowly.
Eleanor took a deep breath. ‘I work, I mean I used to work, for this awful gossip magazine. You know, one of those cheap, tacky ones that are just filled with rubbish about celebrities. I took the job to further my career but that was eight years ago and now I’ve ended up with nothing.’
Her mum took a deep breath. ‘Eight years?’
Eleanor nodded. ‘I know. I was too embarrassed to tell you. You were so proud of me and I knew you wouldn’t be if you knew the truth. And then time went on and on and it just became too big a lie.’
Her Mum frowned. ‘So it was a gossip magazine? Like the ones…’ Her voice trailed off.
Eleanor gulped away more tears ‘The ones that wrote about dad all those years ago. I’m so sorry. It was the only job I could get at the time. But the last thing I ever wanted to do was upset you. So I kept on lying.’
Her mum reached out to stroke her face. ‘Darling, I love you. I’ll always be proud of you, regardless of what job you have.’ She took a beat. ‘I suppose the gardening leave was all a lie as well?’
‘Yes.’
Her mum gave her a soft smile. ‘I did wonder, what with you having the last month off and all.’
Eleanor was shocked. It turned out she hadn’t really fooled her mum after all. And that her mother’s reaction to her job hadn’t been as bad as she had feared all those years.
She shook her head. ‘It wasn’t wonderful at all though. My fabulous, glamorous life in London? I didn’t really know anyone. I just bought lots of clothes to make me feel better, but even they didn’t really make a difference. I actually felt alone quite a bit of the time. Do you know what I mean?’
Her mum nodded. ‘I think I do. Of course, I’ve been lucky enough to have friends like Ben here in the village and I’ve got the animals.’
‘I don’t think I really had any real friends in London,’ said Eleanor, with a sigh. ‘I did go out all the time but it was always for work. I was lonely, even with Lucas. I don’t even know how I ended up with him. He liked the exclusive tickets I had access to. But there were no feelings there.’ She stared across the kitchen as if realising the truth for the very first time. ‘We never laughed.’
‘Well, that is sad,’ said her mum, reaching out to squeeze her hand.
‘But the worst of it is that I told Annie and Megan the truth,’ said Eleanor.
‘Well, that’s a good thing,’ said her mum, looking pleased. ‘They’re your true friends so it’s important to be honest with them.’
The tears began to fall once more. ‘No, it’s not. They think I’m here to do a story on Tommy King and that I’ve betrayed them.’
‘Tommy who?’
‘You know Tom who brought the stray dog? Well, he’s actually a famous singer. Really famous.’
‘Is he really?’ Her mum looked surprised. ‘Well, I’d have never known. He was ever so nice.’
‘Yes, I think he truly is,’ groaned Eleanor. ‘And that makes it all the worse.’
‘Look, they’re your best friends. They’ll understand once they’ve calmed down.’
But Eleanor wasn’t sure. ‘I don’t know,’ she whispered. ‘You should have seen their faces, Mum. They were really cross.’
‘They’ll come round,’ said her mum gently. ‘You might just need to give them a little time.’
Eleanor nodded, thinking privately that it might take a very long time indeed for her friends to forgive her.
*
Tom found himself looking forward to walking Dylan around Willow Tree Hall each day. It was beginning to feel like home to him.
Except he didn’t have a village to call home. Or anywhere really. He’d run away more times than he could count from every foster home.
Now he felt free and rudderless, drifting towards who knew what. It was both unsettling and exciting at the same time.
Determined to just focus on the present for now, he needed to finalise his set for Glastonbury. So he went in search of Sam and found him in his study.
On the desk was an iPad, blaring out music.
‘What do you think?’ asked Sam, nodding at the speakers. ‘It’s Hazy Memory’s latest album.’
‘It sounds great,’ lied Tom. It was a symphony of loud guitar riffs and general wailing, none of which were any good.
Sam’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. ‘Honestly?’
Tom cleared his throat. ‘It’s not really my style.’
‘I’m not sure it’s anyone’s style of music these days,’ said Sam with a sigh. ‘I don’t know where the band goes from here, to be honest.’
Dylan, who had followed Tom into the study, began to howl in time to the music. Tom and Sam both burst into laughter.
‘Nice to see Dylan agreeing with us,’ said Tom, sitting down on a box nearby. ‘Are the band coming to Glastonbury with us?’
Sam shook his head. ‘No. Been there, done that many decades ago. I’m not sure they’re cool enough these days. But they’re talking about coming here next month for a while. God help us all. I must remember to warn Annie.’ He looked up at Tom. ‘Will you still be here?’
‘I’m not sure yet,’ he replied.
The truth was that he really wanted to stay but how peaceful would it be once a rock band descended on them all? Maybe then he would move back to his flat. After all, Cranley wasn’t his home any more than Willow Tree Hall was.
‘Well, the more the merrier,’ said Sam with a shrug. ‘You know the room is yours as long as you want.’
‘Thanks.’ Tom hadn’t had a room in anyone’s home since he stayed with his gran many years ago. ‘Have you got a spare minute to go over my set?’
‘Sure,’ said Sam. ‘Let’s head on over to the studio and run through everything. I’ll grab a Diet Coke for us both on the way.’
Tom wandered outside on his own and found Annie curled up on the wooden seat. The sun was beating down, despite the horizon being dotted with heavy rain clouds. To his surprise, she was reading Hot Gossip! Magazine.
‘What are you reading that trash for?’ he asked, somewhat bemused.
But he blanched as Annie looked up at him. Her eyes were red and she had obviously been crying.
‘Is everything okay?’ he asked her.
She nodded. ‘It’s fine,’ she told him. ‘Just having a bad day. This really is a load of rubbish, isn’t it?’
He took the magazine from her and flicked through the pages. ‘Yeah. But a lot of people like to read about this kind of stuff. I guess they want to know that anybody famous can live a more exciting life than they can. For some people it’s an escape from their own struggles.’
Annie nodded thoughtfully. ‘What do you think of the people that write these articles?’
Tom was a bit surprised at her question. ‘Well, I guess everyone’s gotta make a living somehow,’ he told her, with a shrug.
‘I guess,’ muttered Annie, her forehead creasing into a frown.
Sam came outside, holding two cans of Diet Coke. ‘Hey,’ he said, also realising that Annie looked upset. ‘You okay?’
She nodded.
‘Is this to do with that silly row with Eleanor which you won’t tell me about?’ He crouched down in front of her. ‘Go and see her. Thrash out whatever it is that you’ve argued about and move on. She’s one of your oldest friends. I’m sure you can work through it.’
He gave her a gentle kiss on the lips and Tom decided to wander away, leaving them in their embrace.
As he walked, he was still trying to work out what Eleanor and her friends could have possibly disagreed about.