Page 25 of The Village of Lost and Found

‘OK,’ she replied. ‘I was going to deliver the rest of that backlog of newspapers this morning. Do you want me to ask around whilst I’m seeing everyone?’

‘That would be great,’ he said, standing up to head into his office. ‘I’ll get you the list of addresses.’

As Lucy stood in the middle of the office, she felt worried. She couldn’t believe it. An environmental disaster just minutes from the beautiful village and river? It was too awful to contemplate. Perhaps the newspaper could form some kind of campaign, she thought.

Uncle Frank had taken over the running of a group of newspapers from his own father. She could still remember the thrill of being allowed in the noisy, huge printing room where the newspapers were printed out every week. The business had all seemed so exciting to her at the time when she had been growing up.

But there was no doubt that the newspaper business was changing rapidly. Uncle Frank had told her that people were becoming increasingly interested in local news and information from their own area and, according to him, the local paper was the first place they turned to.

Lucy wasn’t so sure. As she looked down at the pile of newspapers she was going to deliver that morning, she couldn’t help but grimace to herself as she studied the front page. If they were looking for local news to appeal to a broad sector of the community, this wasn’t the place to find it.

She flicked through the pages, past the adverts for estate agents and news of some coach trips for pensioners. It was highly unlikely anyone was going to even bother to look at the newspaper and it would probably end up going straight into the recycling bin. And who could blame them?

Another problem was that the community wasn’t just made up of pensioners. There were young mums, families, stay at home workers and single people making up the villages these days. And the newspaper didn’t appear to cater to any of them.

If they wanted to get people on board about the quarry, surely they needed to make sure the paper spoke directly to them. But how?

As Lucy delivered the newspapers to various care homes and schools, she casually dropped the news of the quarry into the conversations. Most people were concerned but hadn’t heard anything about it.

She relayed the news to Tom when she returned to the office at lunchtime.

She had found him at his desk staring down at a large map of the local area which he had opened up across his desk.

‘We’ve narrowed down the possible site to a large area next to the Smythe farm,’ said Tom, pointing at a mark on the map. ‘You went there yesterday. Did you see anything?’

Lucy shook her head, remembering only Henry and his friendly dog. ‘No, unfortunately not. So what next?’

‘I’ll keep digging around and see what I can come up with.’

‘Well, we’ll fight it every step of the way,’ said Lucy with a determined nod.

‘Absolutely,’ said Tom, looking pleased at her attitude.

They were both united about their concern for Cranbridge and what the future held if the development of the quarry went ahead. Because, right at that moment, Lucy began to fear for the village’s future. And then what would happen to all the people, especially Uncle Frank, who lived there?

14

Although Lucy shared Tom’s concerns about the news of the possible quarry opening up on the outskirts of the village, to her surprise Uncle Frank didn’t appear to be fazed at all.

‘These things often end up not happening, in my experience,’ he said. ‘So nothing for anyone to get worked up about.’

Instead, he was more interested to hear that Lucy was spending the evening with Molly and Amber.

‘It’ll do you good to go and get to know a few people,’ he told her.

Lucy smiled but she still wasn’t sure. They had changed the location and were now meeting at Amber’s apartment instead as Molly was still not up to hosting whilst recovering from her migraine. However, Uncle Frank’s appointment with the nurse had taken longer than expected, thanks to a lengthy wait beforehand. Luckily, everyone was pleased with his progress, but it was early evening by the time Lucy parked her car outside his bungalow.

‘You get along now and join your friends,’ he told her, as he slowly clambered out. ‘I’ll be fine.’

‘What about dinner?’ she asked, picking up his bag of medication from the back seat of her car.

‘All set up and ready to go,’ said Uncle Frank, fiddling with his crutches. ‘Go on,’ he said, as she kissed his cheek. ‘I’m quite capable of walking up to my own front door. Stop fussing and have some fun for a change.’

Fun wasn’t something that Lucy had experienced in rather a long time, it felt. The parties she went to were normally as part of her parents’ business and were a pretty staid affair.

So she was a little nervous as she parked the car behind Riverside Lane and headed into the back of The Cranbridge Stores.

The stairs leading up to Amber and Josh’s flat were almost identical to the ones next door, thought Lucy as she went up. But even so, she wasn’t prepared for how familiar the apartment was going to look. She crashed to a halt. It was as if she had gone back in time. It was the same layout as the apartment next door but with the familiar pale walls and oak kitchen. The aroma of fresh baking was in the air as well. Despite the decorative touches that Amber had added, which were certainly more subtle and stylish than those next door, it felt as if Aunt Jane were about to walk around the corner.