LITMIR.BIZ

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with the ghastly Dan … Then suddenly, a total stranger had me draped over one arm and was thumping me on the back, before tossing me out onto the side of the pool like a drowned rabbit.’

      Lulu giggled and I gave her a look, before reluctantly grinning myself.

      ‘OK, I suppose it was quite funny, in retrospect. But at the time it wasn’t, and when I’d finished coughing up all the water I’d inhaled when he grabbed me and got my first real look at him … well, it was a bit of a shock, because for a second I thought he was Harry.’

      ‘Why, is he so like him?’

      ‘Not really, it was just a momentary impression, though he does have the exact same green eyes as Harry and Baz did, and his hair is that really dark chestnut shade when it started to dry out a bit.’

      ‘It’s hardly surprising that Baz passed his colouring down to both sons, is it? Is he nice?’

      ‘No. I think if he’d known who I was before he rescued me, he’d have let me sink instead,’ I said morosely. ‘Dan told him I’d killed his half-brother while drink-driving and of course he lapped it up.’

      ‘I don’t know what Dan’s problem is,’ Lulu said indignantly. ‘He seems to have a down not just on Debo, but you and Judy too.’

      ‘Hell hath no fury like a gardener scorned,’ I said.

      She went back to staring at her notes. ‘I’d have invited this Rufus man to the meeting anyway, if I’d known he’d moved in. What does he look like, apart from the green eyes, in case I see him about?’

      ‘Big, broad shoulders, angular sort of face with a cleft chin and a proper Roman nose. He seemed naturally sarcastic and bad-tempered – and he said I looked like a damp pixie, which didn’t exactly help to endear him to me.’

      ‘But everyone did call you Pixie Ears at school,’ she reminded me, grinning.

      ‘That was quite a long time ago, Bendy Benbow,’ I said pointedly, and she winced. ‘Those days are long behind us, and anyway, I can’t help it if my ears are a bit pointy and I’m small, can I?’

      ‘I expect he thought you looked cute.’

      ‘I hope not,’ I said, revolted, because being small and looking years younger than my age meant I’d spent all my adult working life striving to be taken seriously. ‘And he didn’t seem to like me even before he found out who I was. What’s more, he’s got Debo worried that he’ll want her to move all the new kennels off his land.’

      ‘Do you think he will?’

      ‘I wouldn’t be surprised. At the moment she’s managed to convince herself he won’t, but you know what Debo’s like, she can swing from unfounded optimism to the depths of despair in minutes … and I’ve got so much to tell you, but the rest will have to wait till we can have a good catch-up when we won’t be interrupted.

      Perhaps Cameron could join us, too,’ she said.

      ‘Ah, yes – you and Cam,’ I said meaningfully. ‘Just what happened between you two on the way back from France?’

      ‘Nothing – it was only that I needed comfort and—’ she broke off, going slightly pink. ‘Really, it was nothing, Izzy, and I don’t want anything to change the friendship between the three of us. Cam understands that. He’ll be here tonight, but he’s got an art class first, so he’ll be very late.’

      ‘All right, I won’t mention it again,’ I said, ‘though I’m sure the three of us would always be best friends, whatever happened.’

      ‘Any word from Kieran yet?’ she asked, changing the subject firmly.

      ‘Nothing, just that one nasty message after his father was arrested, then silence.’

      ‘By now I thought he’d have seen your point of view and be texting you apologies every five minutes.’

      ‘Yes, so did I, really,’ I admitted.

      ‘He’ll come round,’ she said. ‘Only if he does, I really don’t want you to leave Halfhidden, just when the three of us are back together again.’

      ‘That’s OK, because I’m not going anywhere,’ I assured her. ‘I must be mega-fickle, because I seem to have fallen right out of love with him again – and I’m sure now he was a wrong turn up a dead end, and actually I was supposed to come back and live here on my own.’

      ‘An angel voice told you so?’ she said, half joking.

      ‘Something like that, though I never actually hear a voice, you know – I just get a sort of inner feeling that something is right or wrong.’

      ‘I wish I’d had any kind of message, angel or otherwise, warning me not to go and live in France with Guy,’ Lulu said with some bitterness.

      ‘You probably did, you just weren’t listening to it. Or like me with Kieran, you only heard what you wanted to.’

      ‘Or the ding on the head made you mad as a box of frogs, so there aren’t really any angel voices at all.’

      ‘There is that,’ I conceded.

      ‘Maybe Kieran will follow you up here, you’ll go weak at the knees again and the voice will tell you to marry him and live happily ever after in Halfhidden.’

      ‘I don’t know how I would feel if I actually saw him again,’ I confessed honestly. ‘I have wondered if I’d feel differently. But that whole scenario is probably not going to happen anyway, especially once he knows I’m definitely using what’s left of my legacy to bail Debo out of her current financial crisis, because oddly enough, both he and his dreadful parents were banking on it for a house deposit.’

      ‘Then they shouldn’t have counted their chickens before they were hatched, should they? And here are Rita and Freddie with more chairs. Come on, we’ll help put them out.’

      We managed to squeeze them all in, though I hoped everyone was feeling friendly tonight, because the rows were tight. On each seat we laid a copy of a leaflet grandly entitled ‘The Halfhidden Regeneration Scheme: A Plan to Bring Prosperity to the Whole Valley, by Increased Visitor Numbers’.

      People began to arrive, first clustering curiously around the wall map, before finding a seat, though some came over to say hello and how glad they were to see me back again.

      More and more shuffled in until the room was so full that the heat was getting a bit Black Hole of Calcutta and the doors had to be opened.

      Everyone seemed to be there – or everyone in Halfhidden who mattered, for the local families were out in force, including Tom Tamblyn, his sisters, Lottie Ross from the shop, and Myra, the Sweetwell housekeeper, along with her husband, Laurie, and their son, Olly. Then there were the Ferrises – Cara’s parents, the local vets – and of course, the Tompions. It’s always a surprise to me that though there has been much intermarriage between the local clans over the centuries, the tall, flaxen-fair, blue-eyed Tamblyn genes and the stockier, dark, brown-eyed Benbow ones continually reappear.

      ‘It’s a pity your parents couldn’t make it,’ I said to Lulu. ‘I know the restaurant is open tonight, so Bruce and Kate can’t.’

      ‘I think I’d rather they weren’t here, actually, because they know all about my plans and they think I’m mad.’

      ‘The jury’s still out on that till the rest of us have heard what they are,’ I told her. ‘Go on and do you stuff – it looks like everyone’s here that’s coming and it’s time.’

      ‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said, hands clenched so tightly on her notebook that her knuckles were white.

      ‘You’ll be fine,’ I assured her, then went and sat in the front row next to Judy and Debo, who’d been saving me a seat. Judy pointed out some newcomers nearby, who were actors in the Cotton

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