In the second week of November they made two trips to Sarah and Georgie’s and brought back the two horses and the pony that the sisters had got for them. Once the horses had settled into their new surroundings they took them out for short rides in the fields around the farm. Bill and Emma had ridden often in recent years, and it didn’t take long for Jane to get back into the swing of it. Jamie was unsure at first, though, and felt uncomfortable.
‘I think I prefer my horsepower to be under the bonnet of a vehicle!’ he said one day, and they smiled at him and chuckled.
‘Don’t worry, mate, you’ll soon get the hang of it,’ Bill replied.
Jane had to resist laughing at the sight of him sitting there on the horse looking terrified, but was understanding with him. At night, though, when they were alone together, she would tease him playfully about it. The cart was repaired by Bill and Jamie and they trained both horses to pull it, in the yard at first and then on short road trips nearby. Sarah and Georgie came over on several occasions to help out and to check they were doing things correctly.
Jamie, Jane and Megan also became involved in the daily running of the farm and helping to tend to the animals, although that was primarily Phil and Sophie’s role. They got to know them a lot better during this time and the young couple would come over in the evenings for a drink and a chat. On their many visits during the year, prior to moving there, Phil and Sophie had usually been busy around the farm and they hadn’t had the chance to get to know them as well as they would have liked.
In mid-November they drove into Bexhill to collect salt from the bungalow and refill the containers, and then went to visit Matt and Zoe to see how they were settling in. They had made one trip back two weeks before to collect the salt, but hadn’t had time to visit them then. The couple were delighted to see them and invited them inside. Jane introduced Jamie to them and they all shook hands.
‘I’m sorry we haven’t come sooner,’ said Jane, ‘but we’ve been really busy with things back at the farm.’
‘That’s okay,’ said Zoe, smiling, ‘we understand. We’ve been pretty busy ourselves as well.’
They went through to the large kitchen, which was lovely and warm from the Aga. Matt made coffee for them while Zoe showed them around and then they sat at the kitchen table chatting. Matt asked them how they were settling in at the farm and they told them what they had been up to, with building the stables and getting the horses. It turned out Matt and Zoe hadn’t known about fuel deterioration, and that vehicles might be unusable within a few months.
‘Bloody hell!’ said Matt. ‘I had no idea. That’s a real shock to us. How long have you known?’
‘We found out at the end of June or early July, I think,’ Jamie replied, glancing at Jane for confirmation and she nodded. ‘Our friends Sarah and Georgie told us about it, from research their father had done before he died. To be honest, we hadn’t thought about it before that, either. We’ve been planning for it ever since. I must add, though, that this isn’t set in stone; there wasn’t much in the way of hard data on it, apparently. It’s possible that the remaining fuel might last much longer and we may have use of vehicles for another year, but we didn’t want to take any chances.’
They told the couple they had been making trips to gather anything they might need for the future while they still had usable vehicles. Matt and Zoe said they should do the same thing as soon as possible, in case they did lose the vehicles. As their motorhome was rather uneconomical, Jane suggested they break into some houses nearby to get the keys to other vehicles they could use, to which they agreed.
The couple had been using the snares Jane had given them, but it had taken many attempts before catching any rabbits. They’d been to Sainsbury’s warehouse and some smaller supermarkets and stocked up on provisions, for which they thanked Jane again, and had also visited the gun store near Hastings. They now had three of the smaller 20-bore shotguns and had shot some rabbits, ducks and pigeons with them. They had prepared the garden for planting vegetables and had sown seeds in pots in the conservatory for planting out when they were big enough. They had a water butt outside that collected run-off from the roof, which they were filtering and boiling, much as Jane and Jamie had done. Jamie asked them if they had bikes and they said they did, so he told them about the rack and paniers he had made to carry water for his own bike, but had never got to use.
Matt smiled. ‘Great minds think alike! I’ve built a trailer that fits onto the bike and it can hold a couple of large water containers. I’ve taken it to Egerton Park to test and it works fine.’
He took Jamie out to the garage to show him and Jamie was impressed and said what a great job he’d made of it. When they got back to the kitchen Luke and Amber came in from walking on the beach. They said hello to the visitors and Luke said they had found a boat on the beach, going back towards town.
‘Yes,’ said Jamie, ‘that’s ours. I converted it to a rowing-boat earlier in the year and have been using it for fishing when the weather was good. You’re welcome to borrow it when it’s calm enough, but it’s not the right weather for it now. All we ask is that you put it back in the same place and tie it up securely, with the tarp over the top. We plan to come back to the bungalow for fishing trips in the spring when it’s warmer.’
They both thanked them and Matt said he would go to the fishing tackle shop in Sackville Road soon to stock up on gear. He planned on getting beach-casting rods as well to be able to fish from the beach until the weather became good enough to take the boat out. Megan had brought Max’s ball so she and the twins took him outside to play with him.
When they had gone Zoe turned to Jane. ‘Would you mind expanding on the troubles you hinted at when we met by the railway, please? I feel the need to know.’
Jane told them everything: being shot and nearly gang-raped by the three thugs, then being saved by Jamie; the two incidents in Battle and Megan’s shooting three months earlier. The couple were shocked and horrified by what they heard. Matt said how glad they were to have shotguns now, and both said how pleased they were that Megan was okay.
‘Well, I don’t think you should get hooked-up on it,’ said Jane, ‘but just be aware when you’re out and about, that’s all. You can’t take anything for granted now, and make sure you check stores and warehouses before going inside; we always stand outside listening for a minute first. I know we haven’t seen any more survivors in Bexhill, but they could come in from other areas. I mean, for all we know, there might still be other people left in the surrounding countryside who could make their way here. I’m not saying they’re going to be hostile or dangerous, but they’re likely to be wary and on edge, like I was when we met. And… I know it’s horrible to think about, but you’ve got to be prepared to use those guns on people if it comes to it, to protect yourselves.’ Zoe and Matt looked mortified at the prospect.
‘Jane’s right,’ said Jamie. ‘You mustn’t dwell on it, but you’ve got to be aware of the possibility. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. If someone had told me a year ago that I was going to kill four people in the space of five months this year, I’d have said they were crazy! But you do what you have to do when the time comes.’
Jamie looked down and Jane reached over and put her hand on his. It went quiet for a while as the couple thought about what they’d been told. Matt looked at Jamie with fresh eyes; it was hard to imagine this nice, unassuming man having killed four people. Zoe broke the silence and asked them if they would stay for lunch. Knowing the couple weren’t set up properly yet and were still living from tinned produce, they thanked them but declined the offer, saying they had things to do, but secretly not wanting to use up their supplies.