Page 42 of The Village of Lost and Found

And it was going to take an awful lot more gin to lessen that much pain, he decided, taking another large gulp of his drink.

23

As the evening wore on, Lucy watched as Tom became more and more morose.

As well as extremely drunk, she thought as she glanced up the table towards where he was swaying in his seat.

She, Amber, Belle and Josh had tried to make small talk, mainly about the planned quarry. But there was an underlying atmosphere caused by Tom’s misery.

Normally he was always cheering people up, cracking jokes. But not that evening.

‘Well, this has been a night to forget,’ said Belle, as she collected some empty glasses from their table.

‘Have you done quite well?’ asked Amber.

Belle shook her head. ‘Not as much as we’d have liked,’ she said with a heavy sigh.

Lucy gave a shiver, as the night air began to cool all around them. A soft breeze was also bringing down the temperature and she had forgotten to bring a sweatshirt.

She looked over to where Molly and Bridget were still chatting away. Lucy was really hoping that Bridget wasn’t staying over that evening as she wasn’t sure she could endure another minute of Molly’s awful friend.

‘Shall I light the fire pit?’ said Belle, noticing the goosebumps on Lucy’s arms.

Lucy actually wanted to leave. It had been an awkward evening and she was hoping to just climb into bed and pull the duvet over her head. All she really wanted to do was try to wipe out the memory of Tom mocking her.

But Belle had obviously been disappointed by the turnout this evening so Lucy decided to hang on for a while longer to lend her some support.

The fire pit was an old table into which somebody had inserted a metal grate box where logs could be lit. Once the flames had begun to lick up the sides, the last remaining customers in the pub garden moved their wooden benches over to surround the fire.

At least it was warmer, thought Lucy, enjoying the soft heat coming from the flames as she sat down next to the fire pit.

Dodgy Del came over to sit next to her, placing a couple of bottles on the edge of the table in front of them.

‘What flavour can I get you?’ he asked.

Lucy shook her head. ‘No, thanks. I’m good,’ she said, holding up her undrunk strawberry liqueur from earlier.

She had actually only managed about half a glass and had endured such a horrible headache ever since that she hadn’t been able to face another drink.

Lucy looked around but suddenly couldn’t see Tom, only Amber, who was giving her a wink as she sat down next to Josh on the next bench along.

Belle had just returned to the garden from inside the pub after a short absence.

‘Is Tom in there?’ asked Lucy.

Belle shook her head. ‘He’s gone home. He was roaring drunk so I walked him back to his cottage, just to make sure he didn’t fall into the river.’

‘I don’t know what he had to be so depressed about tonight,’ said Amber, looking at Josh.

Josh held up his hands. ‘I don’t know either.’

‘Ah well,’ said Del, with a shrug of his shoulders. ‘Let’s not let Tom ruin our evening. It may yet be a night to remember!’

He turned to give Lucy a wink.

She was just wondering how on earth to reply when there was a loud bang from the fire pit which made them all leap up in surprise.

The flames were now huge, at least two metres high.