‘I was furious with her – and I’m so sorry, Izzy.’
‘Why? It’s hardly your fault your mother’s nutty as a fruitcake, is it? And I don’t suppose she’ll try anything like that again.’
‘She’d better not,’ he said grimly. ‘Come on, let’s get home.’
‘I hope Guy doesn’t show up,’ I said, after we’d walked in silence for a few minutes and my mind had reverted to Lulu’s problems. ‘He’s horrible. Also, he’s bigger than Cam, though Cam did karate when we were teenagers, so maybe he could just chop him into little neat pieces.’
‘I’m sure Cameron can take care of himself,’ Rufus said. ‘But there are lots of people around at the Screaming Skull, so they’d just throw Guy straight out again before it got to the rough stuff.’
‘Yes, that’s true,’ I said, reassured. ‘But Lulu really doesn’t need the added hassle at the moment. She’s got so many bookings for the first Haunted Holiday that the hotel will be bursting at the seams!’
‘Jonas will enjoy having a big audience for his ghost stories on Saturday night, then,’ Rufus said. ‘I wonder if he’s “remembered” any new ones.’
‘Probably. He’s obviously got a good memory for films he’s seen and stories he’s heard, as well as a very inventive imagination.’
And my imagination was also working overtime, but whatever scenario I’d thought might transpire when Rufus dropped me at the Lodge, there was no attempt to repeat that kiss. Clearly the unwelcome possibility of Fliss’s advent had cast a blight over him, yet again.
Perhaps that was just as well, considering.
Chapter 31: The Stars in Our Eyes
I got through the Sweetwell gates with more luck than judgement and came to a halt just before the turn to the Lodge, praying that Judy wouldn’t emerge before I’d got out.
‘What are you stopping for?’ asked Harry. ‘Keep going!’
When Lulu met me in the woods late next morning, she said Florrie Snowball, landlady of the Falling Star in Sticklepond, had rung her parents up that morning.
‘She wanted them to warn me that Guy was staying there.’
‘But how did she know he was anything to do with you?’
‘Because last night in the bar he got talking to Dan and was mouthing off loudly about how he was going to come over to the Screaming Skull to show me he wasn’t the kind of man to be messed with! And Dan was winding him up by telling him he’d heard I was carrying on with Cameron Ross.’
‘He would,’ I said disgustedly. ‘But I didn’t really expect Guy to show up, did you?’
‘No, and now I haven’t a clue when he’s going to suddenly appear. Florrie said he went out with Dan about ten and asked her for a key in case he was late, but she told him the place was locked up at half-past eleven and anyone coming back after that time would find themselves on the doorstep till morning.’
‘Good for her! But I wonder where they went.’
‘Well, we were woken up last night by Dusty barking, though we couldn’t see anything. At the time, we assumed it was a fox, but it might have been Guy scouting out the lie of the land. By now, everyone locally must know I’m living in the trailer, so I suppose Dan will have told him, though he probably didn’t realise I had a dog.’
‘I expect you’re right,’ I said.
‘Anyway, there’s been no sign of him so far and Dusty needed a walk, so I thought I’d meet you anyway.’
‘Have you told Cam?’
‘Yes, and he got angry and wanted to go over to the Falling Star and have it out with Guy once and for all, but fortunately Jonas couldn’t mind the gallery, so with a bit of luck Guy will have made his appearance at the Screaming Skull and been turfed out by Bruce and the barman by the time Cam shuts the gallery.’
‘You’d better be really careful on the way back home,’ I advised her, when we’d done a circular walk through the woods and come out again by the Lady Spring. Dusty and Babybelle were running ahead … or ambling, in Belle’s case.
‘I’ll certainly be keeping a lookout for him, but it’s a huge nuisance with the big weekend coming up.’
‘It’ll certainly cast a cloud over things if he hangs about for long – and let’s hope this rainy weather clears for Saturday and the Morris dancing.’
‘I would really like a nice day to greet the first Haunted Holidaymakers,’ Lulu agreed.
I was worried Guy might be lurking in the woods near the pub, so although Lulu said she’d be safe enough with Dusty, I insisted that Babybelle and I escort her home. A bit of extra exercise wouldn’t do either of us any harm.
We emerged from the safety of the trees cautiously and Lulu checked the car park for Guy’s big blue Citroën.
‘No sign of him,’ she said, relieved. ‘Come on, I’ll give you a cup of coffee before you go back.’
The big door to the public bar was open and I followed Lulu and Dusty in … and then almost ran into the back of her, as she stopped dead on the threshold.
She had good reason. Her father and Bruce were having an altercation with a tanned, silver-haired man at the other end of the long room: Lulu’s ex, Guy. His tall, muscular frame had run to seed a bit since I’d last seen him and his high complexion was turning to a mesh of broken veins, probably from all the boozing.
The room was heavily shadowed where we stood and at first none of them noticed us.
‘My daughter wants nothing more to do with you, so you’ve wasted your journey,’ Mr Benbow said. ‘You might as well pack up and get back off to France.’
‘It’s none of your business! I’ll soon sort this out and put a stop to her getting ideas about any other man. Now, where is she?’ Guy demanded.
Lulu, still holding Dusty’s lead, began to edge slowly backwards and we could probably have crept away had Belle not subsided heavily onto my feet, pinning me to the spot.
‘Leave now before you’re thrown out, and don’t come back,’ Bruce said evenly.
Guy’s hands clenched into fists and his face reddened even further with rage, so I’m not sure what would have happened next had Dusty not suddenly growled deep in his throat, attracting his attention.
His whole persona changed, chameleon-like, in an instant. ‘Lu, darling, there you are!’ he exclaimed. ‘I was just telling your family that I was certain you’d want to see me and you were only pretending to have a fling with that friend of yours to make me jealous.’
‘But I don’t want to see you and I’m not pretending about anything. Cam and I are engaged,’ Lulu said, standing her ground now she was discovered. ‘I wrote to tell you I never even wanted to hear from you again!’
‘I didn’t take any notice of that. I knew you were still angry because you’d found out I’d been seeing someone else. But I admit I was a fool and I soon realised I wanted you back – and I’ll make it up to you, Lulu, I promise,’ he added persuasively. ‘Now, go and get your things, and we’ll head for home.’
I don’t think he’d even registered my presence, a step or two behind her in the shadow of the door, or either of the dogs.
‘It’s too late, Guy. I mean what I say. I love Cam and we’re going to get married,’ she told him.
In an instant his expression changed to one of fury.
‘Do you think I’d let you—’ he began, then broke off as Bruce took one of his arms in a vice-like grip and said encouragingly, ‘Time to go!’
‘On your way, flower!’ said Sam the barman, taking the other and urging Guy forward, with Mr Benbow bringing up the rear.
‘Yes, do go away, Guy,’ Lulu said, exasperated, and then he totally lost his rag and shouted some foul things to her as he was dragged past us.
Dusty, who’d kept up his low menacing growl with his eyes fixed on the interloper, now helpfully tried to lunge forward and bite him, while Belle watched interestedly, clearly not feeling it was her fight.
‘And out we go!’ Bruce said, impelling Guy forward and down the steps. We could hear him alternately threatening and bl
ustering his way back to his car, then slamming the door, revving the engine and driving off.
‘There, that should be the end of him,’ Mr Benbow said as the men returned. ‘I don’t expect he’ll be back after that.’
‘He must have changed his car. I hadn’t thought of that, or I wouldn’t have come walking right into the middle of things,’ Lulu said.
‘It’s probably all for the good now that it’s over with,’ I suggested, having finally dislodged Babybelle and got the circulation back in my feet.
Some customers came in, looking curious, and Bruce said he’d better get back to the kitchen, and Sam behind the bar.
‘We’ll come through to the hotel with you, Dad: I was going to make some coffee for Izzy before she went home,’ Lulu said, but since it was getting late I told her I’d better get back to the Lodge for lunch, before Judy sent out search parties.
‘I’ll see you tonight, though. And I hope that really is the last of Guy. Be careful until you’re absolutely certain he’s gone back to France, won’t you?’
‘I will, but don’t tell Cam what happened if you see him, or he’ll lock the gallery up and go and duff Guy up at the Falling Star, or something daft.’
‘Good thinking,’ I agreed.
Lunch at the Lodge was Lancashire crumbly cheese, chewy dark bread and home-made fruit chutney, over which I entertained Judy with an account of the fracas at the pub.
Then afterwards, while Judy went to collect Debo from the station, I caught up with the kennel paperwork. A hint of carelessness had already crept into Debo’s ways, with everything shoved into the roll-top desk, but I fished it out again and dealt with it.
Judy called me for tea and cake later, and Myra was there, too, having popped in for a cuppa and a catch-up on her way back from the shop – and to give us the unwelcome news that Fliss had arrived at Dan’s cottage earlier.
‘My friend, the one who lives next door to Dan Clew’s cottage, saw her arrive this morning in a taxi, and she must have come to stay because she had six large pieces of luggage with her.’
‘Oh, blast,’ I said. ‘That’s going to upset Rufus.’
‘Well, my friend wasn’t too happy about it, either. She said she hoped they weren’t going to be rowdy late at night, like the last time she stayed over,’ Myra said. ‘It beats me how a nice man like Rufus can have a mother like that!’
‘I think we’re all pretty baffled by that one,’ agreed Debo.
As soon as I could, I sent Rufus a text warning him of Fliss’s arrival and got a brief one back saying simply, ‘I know’.
It was no surprise that evening, then, that he was in one of his withdrawn, brooding moods when we forgathered at the pub.
‘Fliss’s furniture came in a small removal van this morning, and when I rang her to say she might have warned me, she told me I should be grateful she hadn’t arrived with it but was staying with Dan instead!’
‘Where did you put her stuff?’ I asked curiously.
‘In one of the unused stables in the courtyard. I’ve covered it up and locked the door, so it should be all right.’
Lulu attempted to divert his mind by describing Guy’s earlier unwelcome appearance, but he only said morosely, ‘Maybe I can hire Lulu’s brother and the barman to throw Fliss out of the cottage if she tries to stay on after Dan moves out.’
‘Oh, come on,’ I said encouragingly, ‘she’s not going to be happy living in a small cottage with Dan for more than a couple of days, surely. After all, she told you she was tiring of him.’
‘I expect she is, but she’ll stay because she wants to take over the cottage when he goes, while that sucker Dan probably thinks she’s going to move to his new place with him.’
‘Well, look on the bright side, at least he’s still banned from the Screaming Skull, so you won’t have to see him and Fliss tonight,’ Lulu consoled him. ‘He’s drinking at the Falling Star in Sticklepond instead and the landlady told us he and Guy chummed up in the bar there last night.’
‘This Guy does sound like the sort of man Dan hangs out with,’ Rufus said. ‘They probably got on like a house on fire.’
‘Lulu wouldn’t let me go over there and have it out with him,’ Cam said. He’d been brooding over his half of bitter since he’d found out what had happened earlier.
‘He’s probably packed up and gone, so there’s no point,’ Lulu told him. ‘Come on, Cam, you might as well stop sulking and help me to lay the breakfast tables. We’ll get it done early.’
They said good night and went out, and Rufus, still wrapped in his own thoughts, said darkly, ‘I’d like to forget I have a mother, especially since every time you see her, Izzy, you must think of your own mother and that if it weren’t for Fliss she might still be here.’
‘I did when I first found out what happened, but now I’ve met Fliss … well, I’m sure she wouldn’t have bothered to go out of her way to draw my mother into her circle again, would she?’
‘No, she’s way too lazy and self-centred. The most she might have done was rung round her friends and told them all to come to some party or nightclub. That would be about it.’
‘And my mother didn’t have to let herself be sucked back into that toxic circle, because by then she had me to think of. She made the choice.’
‘Perhaps, but it would still be much better if Fliss wasn’t around, reminding you.’
‘But every time you see me, you must think about Harry and how you’d have known your only brother if only I hadn’t been stupid enough to drive back from the pub that night.’
He stared at me, light green eyes wide with astonishment. ‘Is that what you really think? But of course I don’t blame you, especially now I know how he persuaded you. Harry brought the whole thing onto himself.’
‘If my dreams are memories and it’s all true.’
‘We’re way beyond doubting that now … and if neither of us is blaming the other for what happened in the past, maybe we can put it all behind us and move on … together?’ he suggested, looking at me with just a hint of that smile.
He didn’t define what he meant by ‘together’, but I agreed that yes, perhaps we could …
When we walked home, he took my hand in his as if he had a perfect right to hold it, and I swear that the air between us was so clear that I could see the million firefly stars of distant galaxies.
Chapter 32: Stopped
‘I – I can’t,’ I said, unbuckling my seat belt with trembling hands. ‘You can leave it here and walk up, can’t you? Or drive it yourself, now you’re on private land. I have to go – Judy will be setting out for the pub to collect me if I’m not home in a few minutes.’
‘I did stop at the Lodge and I was trying to get out of the car!’ I told Rufus, the second he slipped into the pool next to me in the morning.
I was shivering a bit, because there was a grey, watercolour sky and a brisk, chilly breeze, making a swim not such an inviting idea.
I think it had numbed Rufus’s brain too, so, seeing his blank expression, I explained, ‘You know I dreamed that I did stop at the Lodge?’
He nodded.
‘There was a bit more last night where I was trying to get out and told Harry he could drive from there, but somehow he must have persuaded me to keep going. I suppose that accounts for why I wasn’t wearing a seat belt when we crashed – I must have forgotten to put it back on again.’
‘At this rate, you’ll probably find out!’
‘I don’t know. Each time now I think I must have gone as far as my memory can take me,’ I said doubtfully. ‘But I suppose it doesn’t matter really, because I already have all the answers to my questions.’
Except, of course, what made me swerve off the road, and I didn’t really expect ever to be able to tie that end up into a neat bow.
When later Lulu walked up to the Lodge through the woods with Dusty, and I’d made tea and found some sultana and cinnamon swirls, she told me that Florrie Snowball had rung her mum again.
‘Fliss, of course.’
She nodded.
‘When Mrs Snowball warned her that she’d be thrown out if she didn’t stop her caterwauling, she announced that she was famous and people paid to hear her.’
‘I bet Mrs Snowball wasn’t impressed!’ I said. ‘I didn’t really know who she was until I Googled her.’
‘She told her she didn’t care if she was the Queen of Sheba, she expected all her customers to behave themselves like decent people. Then she said at Fliss’s age she shouldn’t be wearing a skirt so short it was practically a belt, because people would start thinking the Falling Star was some kind of house of ill repute.’
I giggled. ‘I wish I’d been a fly on the wall! But poor Rufus isn’t happy Fliss’s staying in Dan’s cottage, though I’m sure she’ll have got bored with living there before Dan even moves out.’
‘I expect you’re right,’ Lulu agreed. ‘Last night I was a bit too taken up with stopping Cam rushing down to the Falling Star for a confrontation with Guy to think of how Rufus was feeling, but it must be hideously embarrassing to have your mother shacking up in your cottage with the man you fired, especially now he knows she was behind the vendetta to get you all out of the Lodge.’
‘And she was the one who shot at me in the woods,’ I revealed.
‘Really?’ Lulu stared at me, wide-eyed.
‘Rufus guessed right away, but I found out only the other night. She thought she’d just give me a scare. He says she’s an excellent shot, so I wasn’t in any danger, but it was the final straw that decided him he never wanted her to come back to the village again.’
‘Well, I think he might be stuck with her, at least for a few days, from the sound of it.’
‘Still, Guy has recognised defeat and gone home, so that’s one problem permanently solved,’ I said encouragingly.
Creature Comforts Page 31
