Read Appleby Farm for Free Online

laying his plastered arm across his ribs, ‘I quite like being waited on hand and foot.’
    Auntie Sue tutted affectionately, bustled over to the Aga and slid the kettle on to the hotplate.
    ‘Tea, love?’ she called.
    ‘Um …’ I was ready for a drink, but I was shattered, too. And I knew that the pair of them would usually be in bed by now. Uncle Arthur was already in his dressing gown and pyjamas.
    ‘Or hot milk?’ she asked, selecting two mugs from an overloaded pine dresser.
    ‘Oh, yes, please.’ My eyes roamed the shelves of the dresser, stacked with crockery: pretty milk jugs hung from a row of hooks, Auntie Sue’s ‘everyday’ mugs filled one shelf, cups and saucers another, and the top was lined with her collection of teapots of every shape, colour and size, from novelty cats to vintage china. I’d spent hours playing with them when I was a little girl.
    ‘Sweet dreams special?’
    ‘Oh, Auntie Sue, that would be perfect,’ I sighed.
    I looked across to see her smiling to herself. My favourite bedtime supper ever, which she used to say would guarantee me a good night’s sleep, consisted of real butter on toasted homemade bread and hot milk with a sprinkling of nutmeg and a bit of sugar.
    The cats stirred from their slumber and wrapped themselves around my aunt’s legs as she retrieved a jug of milk from the fridge.
    ‘All right, Benny and Björn, just a drop.’
    I shook my head and chuckled, catching Uncle Arthur’s eye; Auntie Sue had always had a soft spot for ABBA. ‘Which is which?’
    ‘Björn has two white socks,’ said Auntie Sue. ‘And Benny has three.’
    ‘And plays piano,’ Uncle Arthur hissed. We both laughed and Auntie Sue tutted.
    He squeezed my hand gently and I held it up to my cheek. I caught the faint scent of cows on his skin – not as unpleasant as you might think – sweet and grassy and precisely as he had always smelled.
    ‘Thanks for coming,’ he whispered. ‘It’s not that we can’t manage, but she needs a bit of female company. You’ll cheer her up no end.’
    ‘I hope so,’ I said, biting my lip.
    It looked as if they were both keen to have me for the other person’s sake. I couldn’t escape the feeling that there was more going on here than just a few cuts and bruises. OK, so Uncle Arthur wouldn’t be driving a tractor any time soon, but surely Eddy could handle that side of things, or they could hire in some extra labour for a few weeks?
    I opened my mouth to voice my thoughts but Uncle Arthur cut me off with a gigantic yawn. Poor thing, he looked exhausted after his traumatic day.
    Auntie Sue was quick to act. ‘Right then, Artie. Bedtime for you after all the excitement you’ve had today,’ she said, brandishing a butter knife in his direction from her position at the kitchen table.
    ‘I was only allowed to stay up until you arrived,’ he said, with a wink. ‘Ouch.’ His hand flew to his bandaged brow. ‘Must remember not to keep doing that.’
    He swung his feet off the stool and I helped him to his feet. ‘I haven’t even heard any of your news,’ he moaned and lifted up my left hand to inspect. ‘But no ring yet, I see.’
    ‘We’ll catch up in the morning. Promise.’ I kissed his cheek, taking care not to touch his ribs. ‘Anything special you need me to do tomorrow?’
    ‘Plenty of time for all that,’ he said, batting my offer of help away with his hand. ‘See you in the morning.’
    I watched him go out into the hallway and towards the stairs before I dived into a plate of thickly buttered toast at the table.
    ‘Ooh, thank you,’ I breathed, taking a piping-hot mug of fragrant milk from my aunt.
    ‘Now, then,’ Auntie Sue’s eyes sparkled as she tipped a generous measure of brandy into our mugs of milk and sat down at the table beside me, ‘tell your Auntie Sue everything, and I mean everything.’
    Maybe it was the brandy or the heavy woollen blankets (Auntie Sue didn’t do duvets) or perhaps it was simply that the