Page 22 of The Village of Lost and Found
‘Oh.’ That struck Lucy as particularly sad, so she bent down to give his grey fur another stroke. She straightened up. ‘Well, I’d better get back to Cranbridge.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ Henry said, smiling. ‘Hopefully we’ll bump into each other again.’
‘That would be nice,’ she told him, slowly stepping sideways so the dog had time to balance himself back upright again.
As she got back into her car, Henry was still watching her, so she gave him a shy little wave before driving off.
Well, that had been very pleasant, she thought, smiling to herself.
Ten minutes later, Lucy parked her car at the back of the office but wandered around to Riverside Lane to update Tom.
‘So how did the deliveries go?’ he asked.
‘Fine,’ she told him. ‘Oh, apart from that nursery in Little Grove. They’re closing down at the end of the week so need to cancel their subscription. As well as Henry at Cranley Court Farm.’
‘Really? That’s a shame,’ said Tom, frowning.
‘I told the nursery that we could put something in the paper as they’ve got nowhere to hold their mother and toddler groups now. It’s being turned into a block of flats, apparently.’
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Just drop me a note and put it on my desk.’
If you can find it amongst the mess, thought Lucy.
‘By the way,’ he said. ‘Glenda the vicar’s just been in. She wanted to remind Uncle Frank that it’s the Pet Service a week on Sunday.’
‘The what?’ said Lucy, totally nonplussed.
Tom smiled. ‘It’s quite sweet really. It’s a special service at the church that they hold every year. You know, blessed are the animals and all that.’
‘And actual real-life pets are blessed? Like dogs and other animals?’ Lucy was astonished.
‘Of course,’ said Tom, laughing. ‘Everyone takes their pets along. Molly is apparently taking Simon.’
‘Simon?’ asked Lucy, confused. ‘Is that her boyfriend?’
Tom laughed again and Lucy found herself thinking how much more attractive he was when he was cheerful. ‘No. Simon is her mum’s black cat. Apparently she loves Simon Cowell.’
‘Glad someone does,’ replied Lucy. ‘Well, maybe I’ll join Uncle Frank there if I’m still here.’
‘And me too as I’ll be covering it for the paper,’ said Tom.
Lucy found she was feeling positive as she finished work for the day. She had managed to clear a small part of the mess and had hopefully been useful to Tom. Best of all, she had met gorgeous farmer Henry. Hopefully he might just find the time to take his dog to the Pet Service as well, she thought to herself with a smile.
But she quickly reminded herself that all her romantic relationships had ended in disaster and most recently on the front pages of the national newspapers so perhaps it was best that she didn’t see Henry again.
12
Tom woke up with a headache and couldn’t stop himself yawning as he got dressed and headed downstairs. Even the river sparkling ahead of him as he opened the front door didn’t give him much joy.
As always, he had managed to avoid using nearly every room in the house except for his bedroom and the bathroom.
He had done everything that he could to make his mum’s last year or so comfortable, including spending a fortune on private nurses and equipment so that she could stay in her lovely cottage.
He knew that he needed to clear his mother’s cottage and sell it to pay off the debts that had been incurred for her care but he couldn’t face it yet. The house was too empty without her these days and yet too full of memories and all of her items. So he had left it almost as if she was still living there but spent as little time there as he could.
He knew that his friends were concerned about him. They assumed that he had begun to drink a little too much each night as he was always the last one to leave the pub.
The truth was that, unable to bear going back to the cottage, he nursed one or two pints of beer every evening with only Belle knowing that he wasn’t drinking any more than that. She was kind-hearted enough to keep his secret, although even she didn’t know about his feelings of not wanting to stay in the cottage.
