Free Calico Road by Anna Jacobs Page B

some money and buy a few things for the house. All they owned now was a bed, two rickety old chairs, a table and a few dishes.
    When they went to bed that night Meg felt so nervous she didn’t know what to do with herself until Ben gathered her in his arms and laughed softly in her ear.
    ‘What do you think’s going to happen, lass? I’m going to love you, not beat you senseless.’ He trailed one finger down her cheek. ‘I’ll be gentle, I promise. You might even like it.’
    He was gentle but she didn’t really enjoy the lovemaking. At least it was over quite quickly and didn’t hurt as her mother had told her it would. Ben enjoyed it, though, so from then on Meg pretended to like it, which seemed to make him happy.
    What she enjoyed most was the way he held her in his arms afterwards and talked about his dreams for their future. He filled her so full of hope. Surely life couldn’t help but get better now that she was married and away from her?
    Toby looked round the tap room, trying not to let his feelings show on his face. So far the folk here in Calico weren’t giving him a chance to settle into the community and make friends. They were polite enough, but conversations stopped whenever he went near a group and no one ever made a real attempt to chat to him, even when he was alone in the bar with a customer. At Christmas they’d been cool with him, though many of them had grabbed Phoebe and planted kisses on her cheeks in honour of the season.
    She said it was early days yet and you had to give folk time to get used to you, but he wondered if she knew more than she was telling him.
    So he thought, to hell with it, and went for a stroll round the unused and dilapidated part of the house. The rooms in the middle area were as dusty and depressing as ever. Some contained a few pieces of furniture, though they were heavy and old-fashioned, covered in thick dust. If there’d been any demand for bedrooms, he’d have got some of them cleaned out and ready. But there wasn’t.
    The better class of traveller, whether in their own carriage or on horseback, mostly went straight past the inn. It was a good thing in one way because the stables were run down and there was no spare fodder for customers’ animals. When he asked Phoebe what she and Hal had done if someone had a horse, she frowned for a minute then said, ‘Sent for some fodder off Ross or Jim. Eh, it’s a long time since that happened.’
    ‘Well, I think we’ll buy a bit extra in, just in case.’ Toby was finding he had a shilling or two to spare each week and was saving his money carefully, making do with the wood that was lying round when he wanted to do repairs, making every nail count.
    The less affluent travellers sometimes called in for a drink and often wanted food. Phoebe always managed to find them something, telling Toby many a time how much easier her life was with the new stove to cook on and provide her with hot water by simply turning on the boiler tap. To her it was the most marvellous thing he’d done, putting in that stove.
    During the warmer weather he’d do something about the outside of the house, he decided, but in the meantime he’d continue checking the place over. It stood to reason that he needed to keep it weatherproof. He found a room in the middle part where rain was getting in through a warped window frame and another where there were water stains on the ceiling. When he went outside he could see slates hanging awry on a small sideways sloping piece of roof. He climbed up and fixed them. Such a small job. Why the hell hadn’t Hal Dixon done things like that? What had been wrong with the man?
    ‘I’m going to work on the back part of the house today,’ he said to Phoebe one morning, once the front and middle were fully weatherproof. Alarm flickered in her eyes, he could have sworn it, but she didn’t say anything.
    As she watched him gather his tools, she wrapped her arms round herself and continued to look