Foxglove Farm. Christie Barlow

      ‘So now I’m not allowed to see my friends?’ she protested.

      ‘That’s not what I’m saying.’

      ‘Goodness knows what you’re trying to say.’

      They held each other’s gaze and Drew exhaled.

      ‘I mean it Isla, I’m sick to the back teeth of bringing in the cash. If you carry on spending it faster than I am making it, then we might have to think about you getting a job.’

      His words had an air of finality to them but there was no way on earth she was prepared to just go back to work yet, especially with the baby being so young. And they’d talked about her staying at home while the kids were little. He’d never mentioned this before … What had gotten into Drew?

      ‘If you want to talk about what’s really going on here, without attacking me the second I walk into the room, I’m all ears.’ Isla’s voice was firm.

      Drew stared at her, then yanked his coat from the back of the chair with anger before flouncing out of the door with a slam.

      ‘Damn you, Drew Allaway,’ she bellowed after him, close to tears.

       Chapter 2

      Perplexed, Isla stood in the window and watched Drew stamp across the yard. Of course, she knew the pair of them could squabble from time to time, just like any other married couple, but recently things seemed different between them. This argument seemed different. Drew seemed more distant, his sleep restless. Isla knew having a new baby in the house had changed the dynamics of their normal routine completely, and she knew Drew wasn’t a huge fan of the baby stage – he preferred when he could chase them up the stairs, give piggybacks and hold a conversation with them. Maybe, he just felt he wasn’t getting enough attention from her? But then, neither was she and surely that was what family life was all about?

      ‘Who does the cooking, the cleaning, the washing … takes Finn to school etc. etc.?’ she mumbled under her breath, picking up her phone from the table and texting Felicity.

      ‘Ask Rona to throw me in a Full Scottish. I’ll be over in ten minutes.’

      Almost immediately her phone pinged, ‘You got it! Reserved your favourite table too.’

      Isla knew she could always rely on Felicity. She was her best friend and Isla would be able to vent her frustration about this morning’s argument without it going any further, even though her partner Fergus was Drew’s right-hand man on the farm.

      She was maddened by Drew’s behaviour, even more so after she’d woken up feeling quite chirpy. Baby Angus had only woken once in the night for a feed, leaving her feeling refreshed, even though she longed for the time when he’d sleep straight through. Isla knew she would have to tackle Drew’s mood again later and wasn’t looking forward to that. As soon as she picked up Finn from school, the hours were hectic until bedtime. Every night was the same routine: preparing the tea, bathing Finn and Angus, followed by making the sandwiches for the following day, putting the children to bed … the list was endless.

      The more she thought about it, the more Isla became even madder with Drew. Who did he think looked after the day-to-day running of the farmhouse? Did he think the food miraculously appeared on the table in front of him the second he stepped through the door after a hard day’s work on the farm?

      ‘Get a job … get a job,’ she puffed to herself, reaching for the money pot on the shelf and tugging off the lid. She stared inside, shook it, then turned it upside down in bewilderment, but nothing fell out, it was completely empty.

      ‘That’s strange,’ she muttered, knowing that’s where Drew kept the cash. At the beginning of the week there had been over a hundred pounds stuffed inside.

      Hearing Angus cry from his cot, she hurried upstairs and found the baby lying on his back kicking his legs. She reached inside and nestled him into her shoulder. ‘You are all that matters,’ Isla said softly. ‘You and Finn … us … our family. We need to get to the bottom of what’s up with your daddy and put it right.’ Isla kissed his head lightly.

      ‘Come on, let’s go and see Auntie Flick at the teashop.’

      Five minutes later, with Angus bundled up tightly in his blue woven blanket and strapped inside his pram, Isla began to stroll towards the teashop with her argument with Drew still very much on her mind. She spotted him and Fergus thudding their mallets into the new wooden fence panels they were erecting in the bottom field. ‘Let’s hope daddy comes home in a better mood,’ she said hopefully, smiling down at Angus.

      As Isla walked along, hearing the woodpeckers drumming against the trunks of the trees and the birds twittering away in the line of blush-pink-blossomed trees that adorned the pavement of Love Heart Lane, she hovered for a second, her nose pointing skyward, eyes closed as she inhaled the earthy spring smell, a perfume of rain, grass and soil. Isla immediately began to feel calmer. Spring had definitely begun to arrive in the small village of Heartcross.

      There wasn’t another soul in sight on Love Heart Lane, which Isla was thankful for, as after the argument with Drew she didn’t feel much like exchanging pleasantries with anyone.

      As she approached Bonnie’s teashop, she saw Felicity and her mum Rona beavering away behind the counter. Rona swiped Felicity with a tea towel as she pinched a cup cake and shovelled it into her mouth. They both burst into laughter.

      Watching them, Isla felt a tiny pang of jealousy. They were both having so much fun and that’s what she missed … fun. The more she thought about Drew, the more she couldn’t pinpoint the last time that they’d spent any quality time together or the last time they’d laughed, and she meant proper belly laughing when the tears rolled down your cheeks and your stomach ached that much, you could barely breathe or move … which made her sad. She missed those times.

      Isla manoeuvred the pram through the teashop door, the tinkle of the bell above alerting Felicity and Rona to her arrival.

      ‘Rescue me, Isla,’ Rona beamed. ‘I’ve been up since the crack of dawn … baking cakes … savouries,’ she swung her hand towards the delicious array of food displayed in the glass cabinets. ‘Not to mention,’ she continued, ‘the homemade carrot-and-leek soup simmering in the pot, rounds of cheese-and-pickle, beef-and-mustard, and tuna-and-cucumber sandwiches stacked away in the fridge, ready for lunch time. Jacket potatoes prepped, and this one … this one,’ she wagged her finger at Felicity in jest, ‘decides she’s already eating the profits before we begin our day!’

      Felicity allowed her lips to twitch into a smile and patted her stomach. ‘When life hands you lemon cake … and it was just looking at me! And never mind the profits,’ she added. ‘It’s my waistline I’m more worried about. Since re-opening this place, it’s expanding by the day.’

      ‘So, stop eating the cake!’ said Rona, laughing.

      ‘Never mind you pair, I need rescuing myself this morning.’ As a wave of emotion washed over Isla, her voice faltered and she suddenly felt like she was going to burst into tears.

      Felicity and Rona exchanged a glance before Felicity quickly pulled out a chair and ushered her friend towards it.

      ‘I’ll get the tea … always good in a crisis,’ offered Rona, swiping her hands on her apron, leaving Felicity to take care of her friend.

      ‘I need gin … in fact a double … no, a triple wouldn’t go a miss,’ said Isla, wiping an escaping frustrated tear away with the back of her hand.

      Felicity parked the pram next to the table and gently ruffled Angus’s soft hair before sitting down next to Isla.

      Isla’s eyes trailed after Rona as she disappeared back behind the counter, before she turned back towards Felicity. ‘You’ve got a good life, haven’t you?’

      ‘I can’t complain.’