‘Do you want to run it by them?’ Millie asked, scanning the crowds now spilling from the church. ‘Where are they anyway?’
‘I think my mom and dad are looking at the windows.’
Millie raised her eyebrows in a silent question and Tori smiled. ‘Long story, but Spencer has stirred up some curiosity about old buildings that I never knew they had before. I think this is pretty much the oldest building they’ve ever been in.’
‘My parents are chatting up the new vicar,’ Spencer said. ‘At least, Mum is, and Dad is there as backup to prevent his escape. I expect they’ll be out in a couple of minutes so we can ask then.’
Millie checked her watch. ‘We should get back,’ she said to Dylan. She turned to Spencer. ‘How about you let me know when you’ve checked with them and we can make some arrangements?’
‘Sounds great,’ Spencer said. ‘Thank you… You know, for…’
‘I know,’ Millie smiled. ‘A friend in need and all that. You’d do the same for me.’
‘See you later,’ Dylan said, nodding at them both before he and Millie set off down the path and into the night.
Spencer looked at Tori. ‘If they ever get out of this church, do you still want to go and hit that Chinese restaurant?’
‘Sure!’ Tori smiled. ‘For egg foo yung I’ll drag them out of the church myself!’
Darcie hadn’t realised she was holding her breath until she started to feel dizzy. She let it out and stared at the window. As quickly as it had appeared, the face had gone again, but she wasn’t going mad – she had definitely seen it and it wasn’t Nathan. Her heart thudded through her chest as she watched and waited, hardly daring to move. She needed to get help… She needed to grab something to defend herself should the man try to get in… She needed to protect Oscar… But she could do none of these things because her limbs refused to move. Instead, she stood clutching her phone and staring at the window in the darkened room, dreading to see the face again but needing to know if it was really there at all.
The sound of the key in the lock at the front of the bakery had her spinning around so fast she nearly lost her footing. She dashed into the main room, half expecting to see some stranger wielding a knife and coming to kill her.
‘Darcie?’ Millie asked in a tense voice. ‘I’ve just seen your missed call, is everything alright?’
Darcie flung herself into Dylan’s arms. ‘There’s someone outside!’
Dylan held her at arm’s length. ‘What do you mean there’s someone outside?’ he asked with a stony expression. ‘Where outside? Trying to get in? Did they hurt you?’
Darcie shook her head. ‘I saw someone out in the backyard. A face in the window, just for a second, but I know they were there.’
Dylan shot Millie a determined look. ‘I’ll go and check it out.’
‘No!’ Millie cried. ‘What if he’s armed? What if it’s someone who’s unstable?’
‘He won’t be stable when I’ve finished with him.’ Dylan strode off to a cupboard and pulled out a broom.
Millie chased him and grabbed his arm. ‘I can’t let you go out there – Darcie, call the police.’
‘I can deal with this!’ Dylan said. ‘There’s no need to get the police and they won’t thank us for coming all this way if it turns out to be a false alarm. At least let me check out there first.’ He put a gentle hand on Millie’s arm. ‘I’ll be fine. You worry too much.’
‘Only because I love you.’
‘I love you too.’ He kissed her lightly on the head and headed for the back of the bakery. Darcie and Millie stood and watched with wide eyes.
The back door was opened, and then there was a scuffle, followed by shouting. A few moments later Dylan was dragging a young man in. He sat him on a chair and loomed over him.
‘You don’t move until I say so… Darcie, now you can call the police.’
‘Wait!’ the man cried. ‘Please… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m just… I was freezing out there. I wanted to get a quick warm, that was all, so I didn’t freeze to death. I’ll be on my way now, I swear, and you’ll never see me again.’
‘Too late, buddy, I’ve seen you this time and you don’t get another chance to terrorise my family.’
‘I wasn’t trying to – I swear! I was hoping… It doesn’t matter. Please, let me go.’
Darcie looked at him. He was young – perhaps late teens or early twenties, with black hair and dark skin, and he was in full army gear. Weren’t there army bases nearby? She was certain she’d passed at least two on the roads that led into the village since she’d arrived in Honeybourne. What was most striking – more than how young and vulnerable he looked, more than the deep brown eyes that pleaded for mercy in a way that could only be genuine, and the way he was shivering with the cold – was that he looked terrified and very, very lost. It was the look of someone who was not only lost geographically, but in life, and she knew it because it was what she saw in the mirror every day.
‘Why do you have an army uniform on?’ she asked quietly.
Dylan and Millie stared at her.
‘It’s not such a strange question,’ Darcie said with a slight shrug.
‘No,’ Millie said thoughtfully. ‘I didn’t think it was. It’s a very good question.’ She turned to the man. ‘Why are you in uniform?’
Dylan folded his arms, the broom handle tucked inside them. ‘Larkhill or Tidworth?’ he asked the man, who swallowed hard.
‘I’m already in so much trouble,’ he replied. ‘Please, just let me go… I’ll disappear.’
‘I can’t do that,’ Dylan said. ‘Wherever it is you’ve run from you have to go back. You know that as well as I do.’
‘Where has he run from?’ Millie asked, looking from one to the other with a puzzled expression.
‘AWOL,’ Dylan said. He looked at the man. ‘I’m right, aren’t I?’
‘What does that mean?’ Darcie asked.
‘It means…’ Dylan turned to her, ‘that he’s on the run from one of the army camps. Absent without leave.’ His attention went back to the man. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Tariq.’
‘And the rest…’
Tariq shook his head. ‘You’ll phone the base and the ARWO will come for me.’
Dylan frowned in confusion.
‘The recovery officer,’ Tariq said.
‘Right. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. You can’t stay here and I can’t let you go terrorising the rest of the village.’
‘I wasn’t trying to terrorise anyone. I just wanted ten minutes to warm up and I would have been gone… I wasn’t to know there was a young woman in the house on her own, and I’m sorry for that. Let me go and I’ll be on my way.’
‘To where?’
He shrugged.
‘Don’t you have family you can call?’ Millie asked.
‘They’d be ashamed of me,’ Tariq said. ‘And they’d be right to, because what I’m doing is cowardly and shameful, but I can’t help the way I feel.’
‘Have you spoken to any of your friends about this? A commanding officer perhaps? If there’s some emotional issue, there must be help available?’ Millie glanced at Dylan who nodded agreement.
‘There’s nobody I can talk to,’ Tariq said. ‘I’m not like the others – I’m an outsider. They don’t trust me. I can see it in their eyes.’
‘Why would you say that?’
He studied his hands as he knotted them together. ‘You only have to look at me to see why.’
‘I don’t see anything except a man who needs help,’ Millie said gently.
Tariq looked up and held her gaze. ‘I’m also a Pakistani Muslim,’ he said. ‘I’m not ashamed of my religion or my background but the other soldiers… They don’t treat me the same as their friends. They laugh and I’m not included in the joke. They share secrets with each other but they don’t share them with me. I see them watching me when they think I’m not looking and all I see in their ey
es is distrust. I joined the British Army because I wanted to serve my country, the place I’ve grown up, but it seems that same army thinks I can’t have allegiance to more than one home.’
‘I can’t imagine everyone views you that way. Have you tried talking to someone about it? Maybe even the people you think are doing this to you?’ Millie asked.
‘And running away isn’t going to solve anything,’ Dylan added.
‘Have you ever served in the forces?’ Tariq asked him.
‘No.’
‘Then you can’t understand.’
‘You’re right. But I do know that burying your head in the sand is not the answer. You will get taken back, whether it’s here and now or a few days down the line. I would imagine that going back sooner of your own accord and telling your superiors what you’ve told us will go a long way to them understanding your concerns and being more lenient in their dealings with you.’
‘I don’t want to go back.’
‘Then why don’t you leave for good? Tell them you’re quitting the army?’ Darcie asked.
‘I can’t do that either. It would bring shame on me and my family.’
Dylan let out a breath and pulled a chair from a table to sit in front of Tariq. ‘Well, if you don’t want to be there and you don’t want to leave, you’re on a pretty sticky wicket.’
‘How long have you been missing?’ Millie asked.
‘A few hours,’ Tariq said.
‘So they might not have realised anything’s wrong yet?’ she pressed.
‘Someone will have noticed by now.’
She paused. ‘Would you like a hot drink? It might make you feel better? And I expect you’re hungry too.’
Tariq gave a tiny nod, but Dylan looked sharply at Millie.
‘It’s just a cup of tea,’ she said. ‘Maybe a leftover cake. It’s not like we don’t have any of those.’
She made her way to the kitchens and Dylan leapt up to follow her. ‘Don’t move!’ he ordered Tariq as he went.
‘Don’t be afraid,’ Tariq said to Darcie. ‘I’m not moving, because he’s right… There is nowhere for me to go. Even if I wanted to go home they’re hundreds of miles away from here and I have hardly any money with me.’
‘Where are they?’
‘Yorkshire.’
Darcie was thoughtful for a moment. ‘Why did you run away? Millie is right – you could have gone and talked to someone. They must have counsellors and stuff for soldiers. You must have at least one friend there you could confide in?’
‘Nobody. I don’t know why, I just haven’t ever seemed to fit in. And approaching a counsellor… Well, they just think you’re a wimp then, that you can’t hack it. Then today I just felt as if I would explode if I stayed there any longer, and before I knew what I was doing I was running.’
‘And then you ended up here.’
‘Yes. What are you going to do?’
‘Dylan and Millie are good people. Dylan is just protecting his family but I think he’s listening and I think he has sympathy for you. The problem is that it puts us in an awkward position. We have to do something.’
‘You could pretend you’ve never seen me.’
‘We could, but I don’t think that would sit well with any of us, and not because of stupid laws or anything, but because we would worry about you – where you were, what you were doing, if you were safe or in danger.’
Tariq nodded. ‘I understand.’
‘If you go back…’ Darcie paused. She didn’t want to ask the next question, but she couldn’t get it from her mind and she knew it wouldn’t leave her alone until she did. ‘You wouldn’t do anything silly, would you?’
‘I wouldn’t kill myself if that’s what you mean.’
‘Only… Well, you seem…’
‘Crazy?’ he finished for her.
‘I wasn’t going to say that. I’m not sure what I was going to say but I don’t think you’re crazy.’
‘Maybe I am. I must be for doing something as stupid as running.’ He sighed. ‘Maybe your Dylan is right… I should go back and face the music.’
Darcie looked out of the window. It was snowing again, fat flakes backlit by the street lamps. ‘I don’t know if it’s a good idea tonight, though.’
Millie and Dylan returned. Dylan threw a black look in the direction of Tariq as Millie placed a small teapot, milk and sugar on the table next to him. It was clear they’d been arguing and it didn’t take a genius to guess that they had very different opinions on what to do with their unexpected guest.
‘Thank you,’ Tariq said as he poured some tea into the cup.
‘Do you want something to eat?’ Millie asked.
He shook his head.
‘You must be hungry,’ Millie insisted.
He smiled thinly. ‘It must be the stress, but I’m not hungry at all.’
‘Sit with us for a while,’ Millie said. ‘We won’t make you go anywhere just now. When you’ve warmed up and had a hot drink, you might feel more able to make a decision.’
‘There’s no decision to make,’ Dylan cut in. ‘You have to go back so I don’t see the point in delaying the inevitable.’
‘He doesn’t have to go back until he’s ready,’ Millie said, shooting a defiant look at Dylan. ‘There’s no reason he can’t pull himself together first, and I thought we had just agreed on that.’
‘I never agreed to anything,’ Dylan began, but Tariq got to his feet.
‘I don’t want to cause an argument. You’ve been more than kind to me and I’ll leave now.’
‘No,’ Dylan said, but Millie interrupted.
‘Please, what my boyfriend means is that you are free to go if you want to, but we want to help you. So if you’d like to stay and finish your tea, maybe talk about things for a while, you might decide to return to the barracks of your own free will and you might walk back in there with your soul a little lighter.’
Darcie gave Tariq an encouraging smile. Millie always did have a way with words and a gift for making people feel at ease. Darcie often thought that if Millie ran the world, it would be a pretty nice place. Tariq seemed to think so too, sitting down again and offering a nervous smile of gratitude.
‘I don’t know about returning, but my soul is already a little lighter with the kindness you’ve shown me tonight,’ he said.
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Millie replied. Dylan simply grunted and sat on a nearby chair, broom handle slung across his knees as he watched Tariq closely.
‘Maybe you would feel better if you slept on it?’ Darcie asked. ‘I know I always do.’
‘Here?’ Dylan asked, stiffening in his seat.
Darcie realised her mistake immediately. This wasn’t her home and it wasn’t her place to make offers like that, even though it was probably what she would have done.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said quickly. ‘Maybe there’s room at the Dog and Hare?’
Dylan shook his head. ‘Best not to involve anyone else if we can help it.’
‘Would we get in trouble for having you here?’ Darcie asked Tariq.
He gave his head an uncertain nod. ‘I’m not sure. Possibly. But if I were to go now nobody need know I was ever here.’
Dylan’s tone softened as he looked at him thoughtfully. ‘You know it’s better for you in the long run if you go back tonight? Let me drive you – it’s not that far.’
‘You’d do that for me?’ Tariq asked.
‘Why not?’
Millie glanced at the window. ‘I don’t think it’s a very good idea in this snow. Can’t we call your barracks to send a vehicle out?’
‘But then they would know you were involved,’ Tariq replied.
‘Yes, but we’d also be returning you,’ Millie reminded him.
He shook his head. ‘I’ll return the way I came.’
‘Walking? In this?’ Darcie asked, following Millie’s gaze back to the window.
He smiled faintly. ‘I’m a soldier – I’m trained to survive.’<
br />
‘But you’re not Captain America,’ Dylan replied. ‘It’s a bit late to be noble now you’re here. You may as well let us help, and if it means you going back then I’m all for helping… Not because I want to get rid of you,’ he added turning to Millie with a look to thwart any argument, ‘but because we all know it’s the right thing to do.’
Tariq inclined his head slowly as he let out a long breath. ‘Ok,’ he said. ‘I’m ready when you are.’
Millie looked at the window again and then at Dylan. ‘Can I have a word… in the kitchen?’
Dylan nodded and glanced at Darcie.
‘We’ll be fine,’ she said, understanding his silent question. ‘I’ll call if I need you.’
Millie went out and Dylan followed.
‘He still doesn’t trust me,’ Tariq said. ‘That’s the same look I get from the other soldiers.’
‘It’s not you he doesn’t trust, he’s just protecting his home. See it from his point of view – you were snooping around in the middle of the night and he has two women living here with a baby sleeping upstairs. I think you’d react the same if it was the other way around. I think most people would.’
Tariq’s gaze went to his feet. ‘I’m sorry for scaring you.’
‘It’s alright. I know you didn’t mean to, and being on my own makes me jumpier than I would usually be.’
‘I suppose anyone would be jumpy if a strange man was hanging around the place. No wonder Dylan is angry with me.’
‘He’s not angry, and you’re not that strange.’
‘Thank you,’ Tariq said, and for the first time he returned her smile with one of his own, and the warmth and goodness of his soul shone from the depths of his dark eyes.
Something switched on inside Darcie, and as she looked at him her heart seemed to beat that little bit faster. She felt a strange pull towards him, but not in the way she felt pulled towards Nathan; it was a deep, inexplicable wrench that came from a place she had no control over.
‘I suppose you’ll be in big trouble,’ she said.
‘I don’t honestly know. Maybe they’ll be lenient because I’ve gone straight back. I suppose I’ll have to try and explain the best I can and hope they understand.’
Christmas at the Little Village Bakery Page 20
