After spending the last night in his yurt at Glastonbury, Tom had headed back to his flat in London. He had a doctor’s appointment booked so it coincided nicely with his plans.
He had lived alone for so long that he would have thought he would have been grateful to get back to his normal solitude. Except he found he didn’t like being in the peace and quiet of the flat. It was too quiet. And he couldn’t seem to settle, as if the peace was more of a burden to him. He even missed the communal dinners with the Harris family.
With not enough people around, he could feel his mood sinking lower and lower. He began to realise that perhaps the isolation of the flat had stopped him writing. Some days he hadn’t spoken to anyone. Was that why he hadn’t been able to overcome his writer’s block? Was that why he had felt so low?
In the end, he was grateful to attend the doctor’s appointment and then head back to Willow Tree Hall after only one night in the flat. He had missed the family and their happy shared spirit.
The doctor had been very positive about his injury. The foot was healing nicely, although he had been advised that he needed a couple more weeks rest yet.
So that was the excuse for heading back to the countryside, if only temporarily. But despite that, he grabbed a couple of boxes that he might need. His carpentry tools. More clothes. And other items that he might need if time continued to drift by and he still found himself at Willow Tree Hall.
So he was feeling quite relaxed as Sam drove them back from London. His friend had told him that it wasn’t a problem for him to stay as long as he liked and even seemed pleased that Tom enjoyed the family’s company so much.
Although he hadn’t intended to stay on, the thought of summer in the country was tempting. The setting was relaxing and after the madness of Glastonbury, the peace appealed to him as well. He could even feel the stirrings of new lyrics and melodies beginning in his head.
As they drew nearer to Cranley, he tried and failed to stop himself looking out of the window for Eleanor.
That kiss. That unexpected kiss. It had just been one of those things, but whereas their lips bumping into each other was an accident, the chemistry had been palpable. He hadn’t been expecting the heat between them. He had kissed many women before, but this was different. He had spent most of the night in the yurt wide awake, wanting to kiss her again.
But, as usual, somebody somewhere had been watching them and now the photo was everywhere, according to Sam.
He just wanted to hide away again until the clamour broke down.
He could try out a few songs. Hopefully he could begin to write again.
And see Eleanor.
All he needed was peace and quiet. But as they began to drive through the village, Sam’s phone rang out in the car. Using his hands-free, Sam picked up the call.
‘Hi,’ said Annie, sounding a little breathless. ‘I thought you might need a bit of a warning. Apparently there’s lots of teenage girls at the beginning of the driveway looking for Tom.’
‘You’re kidding,’ said Sam, glancing across at Tom and grimacing. ‘How did they know he was staying with us?’
‘No idea,’ said Annie. ‘But I thought I’d better give you a heads-up.’
‘We’ll be home in five minutes,’ said Sam. ‘See you soon.’ He hung up and looked at Tom. ‘Sounds like the word’s got out, I’m afraid. What do you want to do?’
Tom made a face. He wasn’t in the mood to face anyone yet so they pulled up just outside the village and, once they’d piled all of his luggage onto the back seats, he crawled into the boot for the last few miles.
Even in the darkness of the boot, he could hear the gaggle of teenage girls hovering around the entrance.
‘Here we go,’ said Sam, loud enough for Tom to hear him.
Tom felt the car pull to a stop.
‘Is it true?’ asked a girlish voice, breathless in excitement. ‘Is Tommy King really here? In our village?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ he heard Sam say. ‘Sorry to disappoint you all. It’s just us boring normal people. No superstars here.’
The car then slowly began to move once more. Tom had to cling onto his bag as they bounced over the potholes in the driveway. Finally, he was grateful for the car to stop and the engine to be switched off. The boot lid automatically rose and he found Sam grinning down at him.
‘Oh, to be rich and famous, eh?’ said Sam, helping Tom out of the boot.
‘Yeah,’ drawled Tom, allowing himself a full body stretch. ‘It’s all about the glamour.’
Annie headed out across the driveway and round to the side of the house where they had parked. ‘You two okay?’
‘We’re fine,’ Sam told her, drawing her close for a kiss. ‘I don’t think we’ll be in danger from any marauding fans any time soon.’
But Sam’s certainty was short-lived when they headed into the drawing room. Arthur was at the window, peering out at the grounds through a pair of binoculars.
‘Got time for a bit of twitching, have you, Grandad?’ asked Sam, with a grin.
Arthur turned around and smiled at them. ‘Hello again, Tom. Welcome home. Yes, my boy. I’ve seen quite a rare species of bird. The lesser-spotted Girl Guide.’
Tom went to the window and could just about see a few faces peering out of the bushes and trees at the far end of the vast lawn. With the sash window wide open in the warmth of the day, they could hear the clamour from inside the house.
‘Tommy! I love you!’ screamed one girl.
‘Marry me!’ shouted another.
‘Kiss me!’
Annie turned to Sam in horror. ‘What shall we do?’
‘I’ll go and have a word with them,’ said Sam, putting on a determined face.
As he soon as he had left, Rose arrived. ‘What’s new, pussycats?’ she asked.
Annie turned to face her. ‘Rose, you didn’t tell anyone about Tom staying here, did you?’
Rose thought hard and then comprehension dawned. ‘Well, that ghastly Muriel was going on about how her niece is in Big Brother or something like that. Made a big thing of it. So I might have name-dropped. Tom doesn’t mind, do you, darling?’ She gave him a cheeky wink.
‘Of course not,’ lied Tom, not wanting to upset her.
Annie rolled her eyes. ‘Rose, we’ve got fans everywhere in the grounds.’
‘Have we really?’ Her eyes gleamed. ‘What fun!’
Sam came back a short time later.
‘So?’ asked Annie, raising her eyebrows at him in question.
‘I told them they were trespassing and they’d better hop it,’ said Sam. ‘They’re probably only as far as the main gates, but at least they won’t be a nuisance.’
‘How lovely to be young and in love,’ cooed Rose. ‘I remember flinging my knickers when Tom Jones was onstage one time. He gave them back to me later on that evening,’ she added with a gurgle of wicked laughter.
Tom found himself smiling. You really couldn’t be mad at Rose for very long.
At that moment, a grey blur rushed into the drawing room and leapt at him. Dylan ecstatically licked his face over and over until, finally, Tom had to push him away.
‘Calm down, you mad dog,’ he said, looking down at his earth covered feet. ‘So that’s where you’ve been? Digging up the vegetable patch again? You’re going to be in so much trouble with Bert.’
But he couldn’t resist hugging the dog tight against his chest briefly.
‘I found a new toy for you at Glastonbury,’ he told Dylan, who wagged his tail as soon as he saw the giraffe dog toy.
‘We can add it to the collection that Grandad has started,’ said Sam in a pointed tone.
Arthur waved away any concerns with his hand. ‘The poor doggy was pining for Tom. I had to do something.’
With a ghost of a wink at Tom, Arthur left the room.
‘He’s really missed you,’ said Annie, coming across to stroke Dylan’s head. ‘In fact, we had to bring Eleanor over to stay because he kept howling the place down every night. He stayed upstairs with her every night apart from the last one when he slept in Arthur’s room.’
‘Did he?’ Tom ruffled Dylan’s fur. ‘You silly thing. I’ll always come back. But I hope you behaved yourself with Eleanor and didn’t keep her awake.’
‘I think she secretly enjoyed having him with her,’ said Annie softly. ‘Not that she would admit to such a thing.’
‘Well, she’s probably a bit overrun with all the other animals, to be honest,’ said Sam.
Tom gave Dylan another hug, wondering how long before he would see Eleanor again. And whether he would be able to stop himself wanting to kiss her once more.