Page 86 of Moonlight Kisses at Willow Tree Hall

34

Jack slid his mobile phone back into the pocket of his jeans and sighed softly. It had been a brief, typically awkward conversation with his mother to assure her that he was fine and had no residual effects from the fire.

You should be glad that somebody worries about you, he found himself thinking. Family. Friends. All the things that he had never had and never wanted.

Never needed, he reminded himself. It had just been himself growing up and that had served him very well.

‘Hey,’ said Will, coming across the patio towards him. ‘You couldn’t give me a hand, could you?’

His hands were full of bunting and other party-type paraphernalia.

‘What’s all this for?’ asked Jack.

‘The stable block,’ Will told him as they began to walk across the back of the great house and towards a nearby path. ‘It’s time for the September fair next weekend. I don’t know where the time goes. We’ve only just had the last monthly one.’

‘It’s every month?’ asked Jack, walking alongside him.

‘Yeah. Can’t believe how quickly it’s taken off, to be honest. It started off as just a one-off event, but it’s grown into a monthly thing. Have you seen the stable block?’

Jack shook his head. ‘Not yet.’

He glanced over at the huge back lawn, which had become a wildflower meadow thanks to the complete lack of care and the mix of sunshine and rain – although the flowers were now losing their bright colours and beginning to fade as autumn was just around the corner.

‘I’m quite pleased about it, to tell you the truth,’ said Will, as they walked. ‘Now that I’m Estate Manager, there’s a kind of responsibility for it all. We started off with just Eleanor’s business – that’s one of Annie’s friends – in one of the dozen workshops, and now they’re almost all full.’

As they rounded a large tree, the group of buildings came properly into view.

The stable block was an L-shaped block built in the same honey-coloured brick as the main Hall. There were about ten individual stables, each with green shutters and a window. They all appeared to be occupied by various businesses.

The nearest two stables had a sign across that read ‘Eleanor’s Apothecary’.

‘My wife uses the one next door for her furniture upcycling business,’ said Will.

‘What’s that over there?’ asked Jack, nodding at a separate building.

‘The old dairy house,’ Will told him. ‘You can see that it hasn’t been touched, unlike the

stable block, which Tom worked on.’

‘Tom the multi-platinum, award-winning famous singer?’

Will grinned. ‘Yup. One and the same. Turns out he was a pretty decent carpenter as well.’

Always interested in old buildings, Jack walked towards the dairy house. Whilst the windows looked rotten, the brick itself was the lovely sand-coloured brick that was so attractive.

‘Do you mind if I have a look inside?’ asked Jack.

‘Go ahead,’ said Will. ‘But be careful. I’m not sure how stable the whole structure is.’

Will was actually underestimating the state of the place, thought Jack, as he peered inside. It was a good, solid building with thick walls. There was a smaller room at the back, but the main room was a great size.

‘Maybe you could use this as a workshop as well?’ he said, blinking at the bright sunshine as he went back outside.

‘I suppose,’ said Will. ‘But I’m not sure who’s got the kind of money to rent it out, let alone the current state of the place.’

‘Which of my many buildings are being utilised now?’ said Arthur, stepping into the courtyard with Bert alongside him.

‘Jack was looking at the old dairy,’ Will told him.