Page 2 of Promises & Petals in Nettleford-on-the-Wold (Escape to… Nettleford-on-the-Wold #1)

S lowing to a stop outside the gate, Hannah opened the driver’s side door, ready to jump out just as three people popped up from behind the hedge holding a brightly coloured banner with the words, Welcome Home Hannah! emblazoned across it.

Hannah let out a laugh and closed the car door again as Gemma, one of her three childhood best friends dropped her end of the banner, letting it fall to Lucy’s side as she jogged towards the gate and pulled it open. Grinning, Gemma waved one arm dramatically to indicate Hannah should drive through.

‘Look, Alfie, it’s Gemma, Lucy and Sophie.

’ As she drove across the dropped kerb and into the driveway, she carefully manoeuvred the car so she stopped just inside the carport with her small caravan sticking out the end.

She could uncouple and move it later. Now, though, she needed to catch up with her friends.

After she’d left Nettleford-on-the-Wold, she’d kept in contact with the three of them via messages and phone calls, but this was the first time she’d set eyes on them in four years. And it had been too long.

Getting out of her car, Hannah patted her thigh as Alfie picked his way across the handbrake to the driver’s seat before jumping down. Turning around, she was met by Gemma, who wrapped her arms around her, pulling her in for a tight hug.

‘Hannah, don’t you dare stay away this long again. Do you hear me?’ Pulling away, Gemma wiped her eyes as happy tears began to fall.

‘Don’t. You’ll make me start.’ Hannah pinched the bridge of her nose, the tears stinging the backs of her eyes. ‘I can’t believe you three came here to meet me. How did you know what time I was coming?’

‘Gemma said you’d told her today, and we figured it would be in the morning sometime being as you’ve always been an early bird.’ Lucy pointed behind her to three camping chairs, each one with a flask stuffed in the cup holder. ‘Come here and give me a hug.’

‘It’s a good job I came this morning then and didn’t decide on a detour.’ Hannah’s voice was almost lost in Lucy’s curls as she wrapped her arms around her. Taking a step back, Hannah looked across at Sophie, who was rolling up the banner. ‘Sophie!’

‘Hey, sorry, one moment.’ Propping the now perfectly rolled banner on a camping chair, Sophie ran to Hannah. ‘It’s so good to see you. It’s been far far too long.’

‘I know. I’m sorry.’ Hannah hugged Sophie tight.

Gemma had always been the party girl of the group, Lucy the practical guide leader type and Sophie the quiet, reserved listener of the four of them, the one they all confided in.

If anyone could offer them advice and hope in even the most dire of situations, it was Sophie. ‘I’ve missed you.’

‘I’ve missed you too.’ Sophie spoke quietly into her shoulder before pulling away and placing her hands on Hannah’s shoulders, looking her up and down. ‘The nomadic lifestyle has treated you well, I see. You’re positively glowing.’

‘Ha, I’ve loved every minute of it.’ Hannah ran her fingers through her hair, choosing to omit the word ‘almost’.

It was true; she loved being able to choose where to go and when, and working remotely was the perfect combination to being able to travel, to choose what view to wake up to.

But she had missed this, missed her friends, missed the close-knit community of the village.

‘Mummy, Mummy, look what I’ve found!’ A small voice flooded the front garden.

Hannah watched as a small girl with the same wavy wayward dark hair as Sophie came running at full pelt around the side of the cottage, Alfie at her heels. Turning to Sophie, she widened her eyes. ‘Is this Florrie? I couldn’t have been away that long. How on earth has she grown so much?’

Florrie ran towards Sophie, clinging to her side as shyness suddenly overtook her excitement at coming across the small dog.

Running her hand down her daughter’s thick flyaway hair, Sophie grinned. ‘Yes, this is Florrie. Florrie, this is one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, Hannah.’

‘Hey, Florrie.’ Hannah waved at the small child as a lump formed in her throat. She’d missed so much of her friends’ lives. Florrie had only been a baby when she’d left. ‘I remember holding you when you were a teeny tiny baby. How old are you now?’

Florrie held four fingers up before glancing up at her mum, waiting for Sophie to nod before she spoke. ‘Four.’

‘Four, wow! You’ve grown so much.’ Hannah pointed to Alfie, who was now lying at Florrie’s feet. ‘I see you’ve found my dog, Alfie.’

Florrie beamed as she reached down and petted the dog. ‘I like him.’

‘I think he likes you too. He can be a bit of a pain with people he doesn’t know, but he seems to love you.

’ Hannah grinned. Although she could never predict Alfie’s temperament when he met new people, one thing he had in his favour was that he seemed to have so much patience for children.

It was just unfortunate that a small number of adults seemed to be a different matter entirely.

‘What was I saying on the phone the other night? This visit is long overdue.’ Gemma chided her softly. They all knew why Hannah had been away.

Nodding, Hannah sighed as she looked towards the front door. However lovely it was to catch up with her friends, she still wasn’t sure she was ready for this next step.

Walking towards her, Gemma took Hannah’s hand in hers. ‘Ready?’

‘No.’ Biting down on her bottom lip, Hannah glanced across at little Florrie before taking a deep breath.

She couldn’t break down and cry, which is what she felt like doing, not with Sophie’s young daughter here.

No, she’d just have to get on with it, block out her emotions.

After all she’d succeeded in doing so pretty well for the last four years, what would another hour or so do?

‘We can come back tomorrow if you’d rather? You can sleep in yourcaravan, or at mine, and we can go in another time?’ Gemma nodded towards the front door.

Shaking her head, Hannah pulled the key from the pocket of her jeans, yanking the key until the little stubby plastic seagull keychain freed itself from her pocket.

The keychain her grandad had bought her on their last trip to the beach at Littlehamptontogether.

‘Nope. I’m here now. Let’s get this over and done with. ’

‘Okay, let’s do this.’ Gemma squeezed her hand as she spoke with the enthusiasm and authority of the teacher she was.

DroppingGemma’shand, Hannah stepped forward before pausing on the doorstep.

Reachingout, she ran her palm across the green paintworkandtraced thepadof her index fingeraroundthe brass doorknocker shaped in the form of a bumblebee.

Sheremembered the day she’d chosen it, keeping it safe to give to her grandad on his birthday.

He’d put it up the very same day and waited by the door until the postman had knocked to deliver a parcel beforepulling open the front door and stating proudly that Hannah had bought it for him for his birthday.

She smiled sadly. She could have given him a rock, and he’d still have been so grateful.

He’d always been the first to praise her, to believe in her, to tell her she could do anything her heart desired.

‘Are sure you want to do this now? We can go and grab a coffee or something first? Let you get acclimatised back into village life?’ Sophie’s voice was quiet, soothing, as she rubbed her on the back.

‘No, I’ve got this.’ Hannah closed her eyes, an image of her grandad coming into her mind’s eye.

What would he think of her now? Having left his home empty for four years to go off travelling?

He’d probably still have been proud, told everyone and anyone who would listen how his granddaughter was off seeing the world.

What he wouldn’t have known though, was that he was the reason she’d not been home.

That he was the reason she’d beenkeeping away.

That shehadn’twanted to step footinsidethe cottage againbecauseit was hers and that meant only one thing, he would no longer be sitting in his armchair beside the fireplace ready to call out to her and ask what word has four letters with the clue, ‘driving through a watery road’ for his daily crossword.

Alfie yapped behind her, pulling Hannah from her thoughts.

He was getting impatient, and he didn’t even know why.

Opening her eyes, she stuck the key in the lock and turned it,listeningforthefamiliarclick before the door swung open.

It was darkinside, the blueblackoutcurtainsdoingtheir job.

Reaching across to thelight switch,Hannahflickedit, the sitting room suddenly bathed in light before the lightbulb flickered and plungedeverythinginto darkness again.

‘Oh,’ Hannah frowned. She’d been paying the electricity bills.

Each and every month, the standing charges for both gas and electricity had been coming out of her bank account.

She’d often been tempted to cancel them, to tell the energy company that the house was uninhabited for the time being, but because she’d kept telling herself that this would be the month she’d return home, she’d kept them going.

Plus, she hadn’t wanted the pipes to freeze or anything during the winter. So it couldn’t be because of that.

Yapping again, Alfie ran in front of her and disappeared into the dark room.

‘Not to worry, maybe the lightbulb has gone.’ Walking past her, Lucy hurried to the windows and pulled the curtains wide open, bathing the small sitting room in sunlight.

Stepping tentatively inside, Hannah looked around.

Everything was how it had been. Her grandad’s blanket draped over the back of his armchair, the Best Grandad mug she’d bought him decades ago still sitting on top of his newspaper, which she was sure if she looked at it would still be on the page of the crossword puzzle he so adored.

She blinked against the dust disturbed by the swoosh of the curtains as Lucy had pulled them open.

Her Little Miss Chatterbox mug still sat on the coffee table next to an open book, the one she’d been reading before she’d raced outside to find her grandad keeled over in the driveway.

‘Are you okay?’ Sophie came up beside her. She was wearing her signature flowery perfume, another thing that hadn’t changed.

Hannah nodded. ‘I think so.’

‘Would you rather we waited outside so you can take a look around on your own?’ Gemma asked.

‘No, I...’ Hannah frowned as the sound of Alfie wincing reached them. Looking around, she searched the living room. Where was he? The door to the kitchen was shut still, and that was it downstairs. There wasn’t anywhere else he could have gone unless...

‘I think he’s gone upstairs.’ Gemma nodded towards the stairs in the corner of the room.

Hurrying across the floor, Hannah walked across the patterned cream and red rug before reaching the bottom of the stairs. ‘Alfie. Alfie, come.’

Nothing.

‘Can I go and get him?’ Florrie tugged on the hem of her mum’s t-shirt.

‘Not yet. Let Aunty Hannah see where he is.’ Sophie smiled at her daughter.

As Hannah climbed up the stairs, familiar creaks of the floorboards beneath her trainers, she frowned.

What could she hear? Alfie had gone quiet, but there was another noise, one she couldn’t quite pinpoint.

If she hadn’t been inside the cottage, she would have said it almost sounded like a breeze.

Reaching the landing, Hannah turned before letting out an audible gasp.