He tried to drive
daintily through the potholed unmade road but failed miserably, but despite the
hard going he eventually emerged into what looked like a poorly maintained
Industrial Estate but was actually a ram shackled farm.
With an equally ram
shackled farmyard littered with clutter including the rusty metal bits of
tractors and the like.
As he drove into the
yard he gave a wave to an old-man driving past in his car to go out the way he
came in, the old man was Neville Drake and he was the former owner of Drakes
Farm.
Anthony Menezes pulled
into a second yard with outbuildings on three sides, all of which had seen
better days.
He got out of his car
and walked across the yard and turned the corner to the farmhouse and that was
the first time that he saw the new owner, Jessica Quail, who he found to be
haughty and aloof.
That was twelve months
earlier, now as he drove along, the unmade road was pothole free and tarmac’d
and the formerly ram shackled farm was now a very neat and tidy one.
Which was in stark
contrast to how it had looked when he was there the first time, all the clutter
that had littered the yard was gone, the mud that caked the cobbles had been
washed away and the flaked and peeling paintwork had been completely replaced
with gleaming white gloss, guttering had been repaired or replaced and had he
not been a regular visitor to the farm he might have thought it was a different
farm.
The reason for this
transformation was the tall skinny Jessica Quail who was crossing the yard to
greet him as he got out of the car.
She was just 32, with
straw coloured hair, which was short and unruly.
As she strode toward
him she was wearing a baggy tee shirt and overalls, and she looked like a
proper tomboy.
“Hello Mr Menezes” she
said with a smile and no hint of the haughty aloofness of their first meeting.
But then that was
because during the twelve months that had elapsed they had been working at the
farm together they had fallen in love.
“Hi Jess, are you
busy?” he asked
“I’m never too busy
for you” she said flirtily and embraced him
“Good because I want
to ask you something” he said
“Ok you can ask me
something on one condition” Jess said
“What condition?”
“That you ask me to
marry you” she said and giggled
“What?”
“You have to ask me to
marry you” she said
“What makes you think
I’m going to ask you to marry me?” he asked
“Because you’ve been
carrying the ring around in your jacket pocket for over a week” Jess said
“What makes you think
it’s for you?” Anthony asked
“It had better be” she
snapped and turned to face him
“Ok I admit it, the
ring is for you” he confessed
“And so I should
think” she said and after a pause she added
“Well?”
“Well what?” he
retorted
“You still have to ask
me” she pointed out
“Oh yes” he said and
laughed and then asked “Will you marry me?”
“I’ll think about it”
Jessica said and turned on her heels and headed towards the house
“What do you mean
you’ll think about it?” he asked and trotted after her and then she stopped
dead and turned around to face him
“Ok I’ve thought about it,” she said and launched herself at him “Of course I’ll marry you”
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