The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) by T. Belshaw (the best books to read .txt) 📗

waiting for them. A hasty meeting was arranged between the protesters and the council and it was agreed that the demolition work would be postponed until either Toby, or his residence, keeled over.

I was alerted to Toby’s arrival by the sound of a braying donkey. Smiling to myself, I grabbed a couple of apples and a large carrot and made my way through the five barred gate and up the side of the house to the lane.

Toby was holding the reins of a young, tan coloured, donkey that was harnessed to his cart. The docile animal swished its tail and looked towards me as I approached.

‘Toby! Where’s the old girl? I’m sure I heard her.’

‘She’s at the back, Missis,’ he said. ‘She’s too old to pull the cart nowadays, but she makes such a racket if I leave her behind that the neighbours complain.’

‘Who is this then?’ I patted the young donkey and scratched between its ears.

‘That’s Tan,’ Toby replied. ‘I’ve had her a few months now.’

I held out one of the apples, Tan took it from my hand, and as he crunched on it, I walked to the back of the fully loaded cart to find an old, grey donkey trying desperately to look around the side of the wagon.

I threw my arms around the donkey’s neck and she rubbed her head against mine.

‘Hello, my lovely,’ I said. The animal was older than me and I had known it all my life. Toby had been a regular visitor to the farm over the years and he would always stay for a natter with my parents while Amy and I petted the beast. He had never given the animal its own, unique, name, he just called it Donkey.

Toby suddenly appeared at the other side of the cart.

‘I’ve got a big problem, Missis,’ he said.

I continued to fuss Donkey as she tried to fish the apple out of my pocket. I laughed, pulled it out and fed it to her.

‘Anything I can help with?’ I replied.

‘I’ve been told to get rid of Donkey,’ he said sadly. His face crumpled. ‘She’s too noisy. People complain about her all the time now. A man from the council came around last week and gave me ten days to take her to the knackers yard or they’d send out a vet to put her down.’ He patted Donkey and ran his hand through her matted mane. ‘That means a bullet. It’s no way for a hard-working animal to die.’

I was outraged.

‘What the… who is this councillor? I’ll have a strong word with him.’

‘There’s nothing to be done, Missis.’ Toby produced a screwed-up sheet of paper from his pocket that detailed Donkey’s death sentence.

As if she’d just read the paper herself, Donkey threw back her head and brayed.

I stroked her ears to comfort her. ‘Don’t worry, lovely, it’s not going to happen.’

‘I was hoping you’d take her on,’ said Toby. ‘You live at the back of beyond, no one is going to complain about her out here, are they?’

‘It’s a farm, Toby, it’s noisy from dawn ‘til dusk. We have cockerels, cows, sheep and pigs, the noise can be deafening sometimes.’

‘So, you’ll take her? It would be a big weight off my mind, Missis.’

‘Of course I’ll take her. I’m not sure how she’ll get on with our Bessie, but there are two stalls in the stable. We can partition the paddock if we have to. She’ll have a happy retirement here.’

Toby wiped his grateful tears from his eyes and scratched Donkey’s head. ‘I’ve had her for twenty-eight years. She was younger than Tan when I first got her. She was with a travelling circus and I caught her owner whipping her because she wouldn’t pull the wagon. She was a stubborn thing, even then. She brayed and brayed and flatly refused to even try to move it so much as an inch. The thing was so big and heavy it needed two full grown horses to pull it any distance. The man threatened to get his gun and put a bullet in her head, so I offered him five shillings for her and we’ve been together ever since.’ He looked lovingly at the animal, then went on. ‘Five bob was a lot of money just before the First World War and I hardly ate for the next two weeks, but I never regretted taking her.’

I nodded sympathetically. I had heard the story many times.

Toby untied the tether from the back of the cart and with tears streaming down his face, handed it to me.

‘You can come to see her any time you feel like it, Toby, you know that. Bring Tan with you too.’

‘They don’t really get on, Missis. That’s one of the problems.’

I led Donkey to the side of the road and Toby turned his cart around. Holding Tan by the harness, he waved to us.

‘Goodbye, old girl, I’ll come and see you soon,’ he promised.

Donkey pulled her head back and brayed as the old man disappeared from view.

I thought she might play up as I pulled on the tether rope to lead her away, but after one lingering look back towards the lane, she allowed me to lead her down the side of the house and into the yard.

Barney, my foreman had been working in the cowshed. He came out as I was closing the gate.

‘What’s this? More livestock?’ He ruffled Donkey’s mane.

‘It’s us or the knacker’s yard, Barney,’ I replied. ‘There was never a choice, really.’

‘We were only just speaking about getting Bessie a bit of company.’

I nodded. ‘I do hope they get on.’

Barney walked with me as I led Donkey to the fence of the paddock. ‘We can easily partition a bit off for her,’ he said. ‘I’ll do it myself; George can take over in the dairy.’

Bessie was chewing grass in the far corner of the paddock, so I tied Donkey to a fence pole and lifted the lasso rope that held the gate shut.

‘We’ll have to give her a name,