AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE (Continued)

The Harder They Fall(Part 4)

Brian and Phil sat in front of the replenished and spluttering wood fire supping ale. ?I?ll be all right not likely to be a copper around anyhow can you imagine a copper on a tractor chasing me on a tractor to charge me with being drunk in charge of a tractor. Poor little chaps they have these days they probably don?t let them out in this weather in case they get lost or catch their death of cold.? Brian and Phil chuckled at the imagined picture.

?I?ve got a question for you now we?ve got the time, Phil said suddenly, ?its like this I?ve got these three cottages used to be for me dad?s farm workers but now it?s just me, the wife and the contract milker what does it all. Well if I could do them cottages up reasonable like for the right money I?d like to rent them out fairly cheap for local couples. Lets face it thanks to them damned second homers they can?t afford to buy and it?s a shame that families that have lived here for generations are having to move away whether they want to or not.? .

Brian answered without even considering the implications ?yes I?ll do it and I?ll try not to hurt you with the price. I can?t say more ?til I?ve seen them.? ?Good man,? replied Phil, ?we?ll have a look and see what?s needed when this bloody weather breaks. Oh I nearly forget you better take these.? he added as he struggled to put on his old duffel coat over his body warmer. It only a dozen eggs, he said taking two boxes from the pockets can?t spare anymore little buggers must be townies they don?t produce much in this weather. There was a swirl of snow as Brian opened the door and Phil was gone.

Over the next few months the work on the cottages had been identified, evaluated and, with more help than he had expected from the village men, completed. The hard bit was determining who was the most deserving but even this thorny problem had been resolved. Phil had proudly shown off his renovated cottages and badgered other local farmers to look and see if they had property to put into the scheme. This had produced a collection of farm buildings. two cottages and a block of stables all with planning permission. In total this would produce another eight homes.

It was in mid March whilst working in his garden that Brian heard a car door slam. He carried on preparing the seed bed he was working on until he heard
?Hey you there.?
He turned round ?Are you addressing me??
?Well you are the only person here aren?t you? Are you the renovation chapee??
?What do you want??
?You haven?t answered my question?.
?I?ll ask one more time what do you want??
?Well if you are the chapee we want we want to buy a cottage.?
?Oh I see and what will you contribute to the village??
?What?s that to you??
?Everything so answer the question?.
?Well it?s not about that. We live a stressful life in the city and we want somewhere to relax.?
?So that entitles you to deprive a young local couple of a first home so you can have a second home in the country does it??
?May I suggest the social consequences are nothing to do with you.?
?You can suggest what you like the truth is I renovate local property for the benefit of local couples who live here, work here and make a contribution to local life here. Now please get back in your car and go before you do any serious damage to my blood pressure.?
And with much huffing and puffing and loud meant to be overheard whispers about country bumpkins and yokels they departed

But this confrontation worried Brian, he would have to be careful about the renovations he was doing and equally careful about who he was doing them for.

Spring came late that year but when it arrived it did so in a rush from bitterly cold to summer days in the space of a single week.

It was a balmy summer?s morning Brian was repairing a length of guttering over his workshop. When, from the top of his ladder, he heard noises coming from the lane. It sounded rather like someone in distress. Brian looked round to see the source of this distraction. It was a young lady who was limping along the road and making this strange noise. He could see she was pretty with long dark tresses framing her elfinesque face. . He rushed over ?Are you OK? Have you hurt yourself? Where was the accident?? The girl looked at him in amazement ?You certainly know how to compliment a girl on her singing.? Have I hurt myself? Not recently. Have I had an accident?? Her low throaty chuckle had Brian blushing furiously. ?Yes I?ve had an accident but your a bit late to be my knight in shining armour. I had a pony roll on my legs at a gymkhana fifteen years ago .?

Brian stuttered an apology as the girl played up his embarrassment for all she was worth. Finally she said. ?Shall we start again I know who you are. I?ve got a pet name for you I call you Brian the renovator.? Once again Brian turned beetroot red, ?My name?s Jane I live in one of my Uncle Phil?s cottages, nothing as grand as the ones you did up though. They chatted for awhile and when she left Brian watched her way of walking. With one leg permanently bent she had to dip and swivel her hips as she took a pace forward and then swing the other leg in a half circle sometimes just clear of the path sometimes scuffing the side of her shoe along it.

As the weeks passed stopping by became a regular occurrence. Jane took to picking up a hoe or a rake and helping as they chatted. Her visits got longer and longer and little routines, taking turns to prepare lunch and so one were established.

To Brian the sky seemed bluer, the birds sung more sweetly and the flowers and herbs scented the air more intensely. He spent his late evenings sitting in the courtyard supping and daydreaming about the future. A future in which Jane figured prominently.

By the autumn they were in modern parlance an item. It was then that Jane had dropped a bombshell. ?What are we going to do now that winter?s coming? I can?t be doing with traipsing backwards and forwards when it?s freezing cold. Tell you what I can always sleep in one of the spare bedrooms if you object to sleeping with a cripple,? she had added quite matter of factly. Brian who by then was quite besotted by his little elf was appalled and explained about his wife and their former life. ?And you see,? he concluded, ?She bought me out of her life but we never got round to an actual divorce. I can?t marry you not until this is sorted out and that won?t be for awhile. I don?t even know which country she is in?, he lamented. ?As to wanting you the answer is yes, yes, yes.? ?Well ? Jane replied, ?I?ve nothing to go back to the cottage for and it?s getting late. So if you play your cards right you could have me tonight.?

Over the next few days and to no-one surprise Jane moved in and another cottage was freed up for a pair of local newly weds.

That year some of Brian?s plans were shelved. He had planned to bring the half acre behind the old barn into cultivation and maybe even start rebuilding the old barn itself. In the event the only improvement had been Wally tidying up the bountiful hedge. Wally?s missus had taken Jane under her wing and started teaching her country wife skills as she called them. Plucking this, skinning that and making the food stuff to fill the store.

Brian hadn?t been wasting his time though he had brought several old farm buildings back into use as homes for local youngsters who?s adult lives were just starting. He was pleased when a count up told him he had managed to provide twelve new homes, thirteen if you counted Jane?s old cottage.

There had been a change to at Christmas with Jane and Brian joining Phil and his family in their large farmhouse for Christmas lunch. Brian had still insisted on sending a large Yule log to the pub for their singles guests Christmas lunch. ?Got to keep traditions going how ever new they are,? he had explained to Jane with a grin.

New Year?s Eve saw Brian and Jane in the Barley Mow with just about all the village folk gathered there. No second homers though. There was a trendy little wine bar come bistro opened in the next village which suited them better and truth to tell their absence also suited the villagers. During the evening Brian found himself button holed and backed into a corner. He had kept clear of committees and the like. OK he pulled his weight and belonged to most of the village societies and joined in all the village activities. In fact he had laughed and said he only needed to buy a wig and dress and join the W.I. and Mother?s Union and he?d have a full set. But this time the arguments had been more compelling. Phil and others of the village hierarchy wanted him to become a trustee of the housing trust that had been formed to look after the newly renovated rental houses and furthermore they insisted he stand for the council. As Phil had said ?they both need a practical sort of bloke and you?d fill the bill perfectly. It was with a show of reluctance and some pride he accepted.

Mike and Brian stood together both in a sombre mood and watched as the pall bearers brought in the coffin. Brian felt guilty he knew he should feel something but if he was honest with himself he only felt relief .The last remnants of his old life could now be buried with Elaine?s corpse. Now, after three years with Jane, they could plan to wed. His next visit to a church would be under far happier circumstances.

Elaine?s emaciated body had been discovered under a pile of filthy rags in a disused warehouse nearly a fortnight previously. This Mike had told him and later the details about the discovery of the body and it?s subsequent identification had emerged. Apparently she had served a two year prison sentence for fraud. This, they had been told, would have been much longer had the majority of the proceeds not been recovered. The last nine months since her release she had spent going from squat to squat scavenging a living as a bag lady. She had been known to those she had squatted with as Ellie. All this Mike had told him before suggesting they should attend her funeral and Brian had reluctantly agreed. They had been the only two mourners. Their wreaths the only flowers on the coffin.

As they waited for the funeral to start Mike had said ?You do know Elaine never did have any of those affairs.? He paused before adding. ?She was quite ruthless back then, she told anyone and everyone who?d listen that you were a loser and there was no room in her life for baggage like that. Her claimed affairs were the quickest way to dump you once and for all.

Brian was stunned to be told this after all the pain he?d been through as a result of her cruel tongue. ?Well I?m happy, ecstatic even, with the way my life has developed. She probably got what she deserved. Oh I know you shouldn?t speak ill of the dead and all that but what is it they say about the harder they fall and if ever anyone was riding for a fall it was that one. I?ve been lucky I?ve got Jane in a different way she rode for a fall in her teens but she wasn?t greedy or self pitying she just got up and rebuilt her life.?

At the end of the service they left the gloomy church. As the door slammed behind them Brian felt that it had slammed on the last remaining unfinished business of his past life. He strode out into the sunlight of his future.

It was at the beginning of May that Mike got his invitation. Jane was to be a June bride.