Birds Of A Feather Episode 14
Rob was pleased with his progress.
He’d unpacked all his supplies from his van and was ready to go back to the little one-bedroom flat he had rented in Glastonbury.
It was nothing fancy. In fact, it was downright scruffy, but it was somewhere to put his head down.
It had a good Wi-Fi signal, which was of vital importance right now, particularly as the signal at Folly Farm was pretty poor.
An added bonus was that there was a half-decent pub not far from the flat and he was looking forward to a well-earned pint after his hard work.
Even if the pub in Little Billington had been open, he wouldn’t have stopped there.
He needed to get away from the place for a while and have a think.
He smothered a curse as, ahead of him, the lane was blocked by an old crumpled van that looked as if it had escaped from a local scrap yard.
Behind the old van, a large black Range-Rover was making a mess of a three-point turn.
The van had broken down just outside the cottage where he’d collected the key earlier and four people were gathered around it.
He recognised the two women. One was Jess, the woman he’d collected the key from; the other was her neighbour, wearing a pair of slippers in the shape of two grumpy ginger cats.
The two unsavoury-looking men were, he assumed, from the van.
He got out and went across to Jess.
“Is everything OK?”
“Hi, Rob.” She gave an apologetic smile. “I’m afraid the lane’s blocked until we can sort out a way to move this van.”
“Can I help?” he asked. “I’ve got a tow rope in my van. I could tow it to the car park at Folly Farm.”
“That would be great, if you could.”
Jess looked at the two men. The larger of the two was on his phone.
“Is he coming, Ed?” she asked anxiously.
“On his way,” Ed replied.
“Come on, then,” Rob said as he handed him the tow rope. “Fix this to your van while I turn mine around.
“Then we’ll see if we can get this off the road.”
By the time he’d turned his van round, the driver of the black Range-Rover was out of his vehicle and coming up to join them.
“Are you getting ready to move this?” he asked Rob.
Rob nodded.
“Shouldn’t take long. There’s a car park just up the road. We’ll put it in there for the time being.”
“In that case, I’ll wait,” the man said and went back to his car.
“That’s a shame.” Jess’s neighbour chuckled. “I was looking forward to him trying to drive that flashy car along South Drove Lane. Particularly if Will Gregory’s been muck-spreading.”
“Elsie.” Jess smothered a laugh. “That’s wicked.”
“Where’s he trying to get to?” Rob asked Jess as he bent to fix the other end of the tow rope to his van.
It was Elsie who answered.
“That’s our new squire, that is,” she declared. “The new owner of Billington Grange. Should have doffed our hats while we had the chance.”
Rob fumbled with the rope and bent down to pick it up.
“Billington Grange?”
“The place I was pointing out to you this morning,” Jess explained.