Out in the Country Read Online Free PDF Page A

her way out of the twisting paths through the corn stalks in record time, and called encouragement from the outside, breathless with laughter.
    It gave Lynne a sweet pang of joy to hear her friend sound so happy.
    By the time they returned home laden with apples, sugary donuts, and several quarts of fresh-pressed cider, the sun was a flaming, golden ball low in the sky and the air was sharp and cool.
    “First fire of the season?” Graham queried, and Lynne helped him carry some logs into the sitting room.
    Within minutes a cheery blaze was crackling, the flames casting long, leaping shadows around the room.
    Lynne curled on a sofa, Jessica opposite, and Molly sat in a rocking chair by the window. Kathy came in with mugs of hot chocolate for everyone.
    “This is lovely,” Jessica murmured as she took a sip of her cocoa. “I don’t think I’ve felt this wonderfully relaxed in ages.”
    Kathy beamed and after a moment Graham cleared his throat. “Kathy and I have an announcement to make,” he said in an official-sounding voice, and even Molly, who had been lost in thought, looked up in wide-eyed curiosity.
    “We’ve decided to retire,” Graham continued, looking a little sheepish as he explained, “not from work, as that happened awhile back, but from this house.”
    Lynne remembered her conversation with Kathy the evening before. She saw the twinkle in Graham’s eye and wondered what was coming.
    It didn’t take her long to find out.
    “We’d like to move to a bungalow on the outskirts of town,” Graham explained. “It’s all arranged--just a matter of when we decide to up sticks.”
    There was a moment of silence, and then Lynne forced herself to ask the question that was on everyone’s mind.
    “What about the house?”
    Graham turned to Lynne with a smile that managed to be both determined and appealing. “We want you to take it, Lynne. Do with it what you would have done in Scotland--turn it into a hotel, a bed and breakfast, whatever you like.”
    The announcement was greeted with an astounded silence, and Lynne opened her mouth, although she didn’t know what to say. It was so different from her plans in Perthshire, and yet somehow so much more... complete . She glanced around the room with the leaping shadows cast by the fire, everything so cozy and lovely and dear. She swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. “I don’t know what to say.”
    “Say yes,” Kathy said gently. “Unless you really don’t want to. But you have the raw material right here, and we’d do everything we could to help you. We’d love to see this house alive again, with people and food, love and laughter. And if it helped you in realising your own dream...” She trailed off, and for a moment the only sound was the crackling of the fire as a shower of orange sparks hit the hearthstone.
    Everyone waited, smiling and expectant, looking at Lynne.
    “What do you say, Lynne?” Graham asked, his eyes alight. “Will you do it?”

 
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    Lynne gazed around at the ring of smiling faces, everyone expectant and happy... for her. A lump rose in her throat at the obvious sign of their support and encouragement.
    Yet even so, she also felt a lurch of fear, and it was that she gave voice to now. “I don’t know the first thing...”
    “You can learn,” Kathy argued with cheerful optimism. “And it would be putting the house to good use.
    “Hardiwick doesn’t have a bed and breakfast, if you can believe it,” Graham added. “The Firefly Inn closed last year when the Grants retired. Their kids didn’t want to keep it going.”
    “City people,” Kathy confided with a shrug, and Lynne let out a little laugh.
    “Is that supposed to make me feel guilty?”
    Kathy looked genuinely startled and alarmed by the idea. “Oh, no, Lynne! We didn’t mean--”
    “I’m just teasing,” Lynne told her with a smile. “I’m honoured you’ve thought of me, Kathy, and that you trust me with your home. It’s such