RIDE THE TIDE

Chapter 21-Uncovered:

Lynne returned to her room, removed her clothes and put on the plush terry robe she found in the bath. She lay across the bed, thinking about Davey.  It would have been so easy to just fall into it tonight but she was afraid. She needed to follow her plan. Total commitment was what she wanted from Davey, not just a one night fling. She had to make him want her forever as she wanted him. She wanted him to love her and there were only three days to make it happen.

Her door knob turned and made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck.  Thank goodness it was locked. A key was inserted and it opened.

“I asked you not to leave.” Davey closed the door.

Lynne sat up on the bed her crystal blue eyes wide and frightened. She had not rehearsed this scene.

“You can’t just come in here and turn me inside out and leave. You can’t intoxicate me and walk away."

“Davey, I…”

“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing with me, but I don’t lose and I play for keeps.

If you’re just out for a bit of fun I need to know it now before it’s too late.”

Davey was still leaning against the door. Lynne tried to get herself together. She tried but she crumbled and tears began overflowing. All her plans. She had bet everything but it was over.

“I had a five step plan, you see, to make you fall in love with me. I’m sorry, I’ll pack my things and go. I’m so sorry.”

Davey had never heard of such a thing...a plan, a five step plan. “How far did you get with your plan?”

“I…oh, Davey, step two.” She dropped her head, embarrassed now. If he would just go she could pack and leave, go back to Putney.

Davey considered this for a minute. “I’m not sure I would have made it to step three,” he said very softly. “I felt like I’d been sucked off the face of the earth tonight and left out there in space. You did that to me and you know it, you planned it. How can you have that power, how can you do this to me?”

“I saw you at the wake. I watched you all night and tried to take in everything about you. When I went home I couldn’t get you out of my mind, Davey. I wanted to see you again and then I just...wanted you. So I worked up a plan hopin I could make you love me. I’m sorry. It didn’t work, did it? I never meant to hurt you. I would never do that.” She wiped her tears on the bathrobe sleeve and sat up straight. She deserved what ever was coming and she would take it and go. She had told him the truth. That’s all she could say.

“How were you at the wake?”

“Nancy, I went to college with Nancy and she invited me.”

“Jamey’s Nancy? But he didn’t know who you were.”

“I’d never met Jamey.”

Davey left the door and sat down on the end of the bed. This was quite a story. In his line of work he was hit on as often as he hit back. It was all in fun. Had she come all the way from London to seduce him or to make him fall in love? He’d never been in love before but he had been seduced. What he felt in the bar tonight was different, though. Was this what love felt like? He wasn’t sure he could survive it.

“You still didn’t answer my question. How can you have the power to do this to me?”

Lynne raised her head, meeting his eyes. “I don’t know, Davey. I think what I feel comes from my heart and right now it’s hurting.”

Davey was lost in her eyes as the same feeling of intoxication came over him. He didn’t know when he pulled her beneath him and tasted her lips.

Tom and Penny walked back to the bar and ordered a drink. He told Jamey he didn’t think Davey would be back tonight.

“The Londoner, eh?” said Jamey with a wide smile.

“Something like that. You’ll have to tell me if I'm supposed to do anything tonight. Davey says I’m to take over.”

 That night The Londoner and Davey tale went all around the bar. He had been trying to find her for two days and she was right upstairs, car parked out back.  It would be the topic of conversation in Knaresborough for some time.

On the late night ride home Penny asked, "How do you know Davey's fallen in love?" 

Tom shrugged. "I recognize the symptoms." He smiled over at her. 

Penny was still curious as to why the Londoner was in Pateley Bridge that day. Something wasn’t quite right. She could feel it.

It was unseasonably warm on Saturday morning and Akkers had the kitchen door open. Anna was down with her chickens and Tom and Penny were enjoying a late breakfast.  Tom was having a day off and wanted to play with Penny. 

"Think you can ride a Harley?" he asked.

"I've ridden with Terry," she replied. "He's always had a bike."

Tom wanted to take her all over the farm. “Ye’ll kill yer selves on that contraption. Whyn’t take the horses? Ah, ye be tetched in the head.”

Akkers did pack them a picnic for his saddlebag. Tom added a bottle of wine and a couple of cups and they were off.  It had been a long time since Penny had been on the back of a bike and she held on tightly to Tom’s waist. They started off on the path she and Anna had ridden and then left it and went cross country. He took her up to Tipple Hill and parked the bike, wanting to show her the view from the top of the rocks. Once they reached the top Tom put his arm around Penny and told her to look straight ahead. "As far as you can see to the moor is Home Farm," he breathed. 

If she looked down she could see a lake and a stand of trees. In front of the trees was an old stone and half timbered house that wasn’t visible from where they stood. That was Davey’s inheritance. She could see the brown cattle and Tom told her they had 200 head. He turned her to the left so she could see the patchwork hillsides and the herd of sheep. "Peter and Janey’s land is between the patchworks and the lake. You can't see the house but there's the tree farm."

He turned her around and there was the farm house, stables, garage, and the winding road that led to the highway.  You could see the pig pens and the chicken house and beyond that the vegetable garden and an orchard. To the right he pointed out the line of trees and the stacked stone fencing that was the boundary of their land.

Penny couldn’t believe it, that all this was Tom’s. 

"It will be 'ours' after Christmas," he reminded.

Tom helped Penny down from the rocks and they rode down the hill, heading toward the boundary line. "It's been a while since I've ridden the boundary," he explained. They rode to the end and stopped.  Penny couldn’t get over it. It was all so beautiful and the wildflowers still blooming in the dales made it like a fairyland. Tom cut back across the dales and around a hill bringing them to another lake that she hadn't been able to see from the top of the rocks.  It wasn’t as big as the one on Davey’s plot but was a hidden gem, very pastoral, with cattle grazing on the other side.

"I'll show you Davey’s plot after we have our picnic."

 Penny unpacked the saddle bag while Tom opened the wine. "A feast in the middle of God’s country," she grinned, taking a glass from his hand.  Akkers had packed Cornish pasties, sausage rolls, cheese, apples and Eccles cakes.

She lay down in the grass watching the sky. Who would have ever thought the tide would have brought her here? She smiled at Tom and he lay beside her. Thoughts of Nowhere Meadows were running through his mind.

“Oh, Tom, the cattle are watching!”

“Pay them no mind.”

Later they packed up the remains of their picnic and rode around the lake and hillside to have

a look at Davey’s inheritance. It had been a while since Tom had been there. The house was in bad repair and the cattle had been inside. Penny walked through the downstairs rooms, careful where she put her feet.

“It must have been beautiful once. The rooms are nice-sized. Oh, dear, an antique kitchen.” Penny was looking it over like a real estate salesperson.

Tom walked outside and looked across the lake. It would have been a beautiful place again, he thought. Penny came out and put her arms around him. “Updating the entire structure would cost a fortune. Best to tear down and rebuild.”

“That’s Davey’s problem now. Let’s go.” They rode down the overgrown drive to a country road that took them back to the main highway. Tom turned toward Pateley Bridge. planning on taking her to The Victoria. "First pub I ever walked into and first I was ever thrown out of," he grinned.

It was dusk when they returned to the farmhouse. Akkers was getting ready to go home but had a bit of gossip to relate before she left. “Ye Mum’s had a call from our Davey. Aye, and he’s coming to Sunday lunch and bringing a woman, he is. Name o’ Lynne Manning. Aye, our Davey.” Akkers eyebrows were lost in her hair.

Tom had to smile. Davey had never, to his knowledge, brought a woman to the farm before. Penny narrowed her eyes. This was moving awfully fast.

Saturday lunchtime at The Black Bull was another success. Davey felt light on his feet and his winning smile affected everyone around him today. When he woke this morning she was there, not a wisp of smoke any longer. It was all he could do to leave her bed and get ready for work.

Piano music drifted softly through the pub and she smiled at Davey when she could catch his eye.  He was an intense lover and she felt sore and bruised this morning. A long soak in the bath and outfit number three and she was back on schedule.  All was not lost.

Akkers usually had Sundays off but not today. Our Davey was bringing a woman and she didn’t want to miss a thing.  She pulled the joint out of the oven and set her Yorkshire puddings to bake.  The tatties were cooked, the carrots and sprouts ready.

Davey’s old Triumph pulled in the yard and he hopped out and ran around to open the door. Akkers was peeping out around the kitchen door and saw a tall skinny girl with big sunglasses, posh clothes and high-heeled boots. Oh, she thought, what’s this then? Akkers was introduced

to Lynne as they passed through the kitchen to the living room to meet Anna. She was from the smoke and Akkers began shaking her head. Oh, dearie me.

Janey and Peter arrived with the children and they all sat down to dinner in the dining room because the old farm table would not seat them all. Akkers had laid out a buffet on the sideboard so everyone could help themselves. The talk around the table was of farm matters and some questions directed at Lynne by Janey and Anna. They learned she had grown up in Putney, her parents were divorced when she was eight years old, and she had not seen her father since she was ten.  Her mother had died when she was at college and there were no siblings. She worked as a loan officer for a bank in London. Penny asked nothing but listened to the tone of her voice, the cadence and watched her movements.

The right opportunity would present its self she could wait.

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