it’s now perfectly OK to accept it as a loan. She’s convinced she’ll be able to pay you back, though you do realise that that’s unlikely, don’t you?’
‘Oh, yes, and I don’t want it back. I’ve put aside enough to get the business going.’
‘Don’t you think you should wait till you can see Kieran again before making a final decision? I mean, if he’s worth his salt and loves you, he’ll move north, and then you might want some of the money for a house deposit after all.’
‘No I won’t. I never agreed to use it to buy one in Oxford in the first place, and anyway, at the moment I’m not sure I even want to see him again, let alone marry him.’
‘He still hasn’t rung, or anything?’
‘No, not even a text message to say he’s back,’ I said shortly, and she let it lie.
Debo caught us up and after a tussle we got Belle back in her kennel, though I had a feeling she could get out again any time she liked, just by leaning on the fence till it gave way and then walking over it, much as she’d walked over me.
I hoped I hadn’t let Rufus Carlyle walk all over me too … but on the whole, I thought that honours were so far about even.
I walked down to the Hut early for Lulu’s Halfhidden Regeneration Scheme meeting, but Rita and Freddie Tompion, who ran a clock repair shop in the village, were already there, carrying out stacks of tubular metal and canvas chairs from the curtained-off storage area and arranging them in neat rows.
It looked like they were expecting a full house.
From the tiny church of St Mary’s next door, the strains of a small organ playing ‘Nearer, my God, to Thee’ wafted across. Jonas was giving the pedals some welly. Now he’d moved in with his daughter, Lottie, he was practically next door, so I expected he often popped in to practise. He played for the monthly service when the new young Middlemoss vicar came over, too.
It was lovely to see Lulu again and give her a big hug – and even better that already she looked subtly different from the last time we’d met, when she was still firmly under the thumb of the increasingly jealous and controlling Guy. Cam and I had been so worried about her.
She hadn’t yet entirely lost the slight look of apprehension, but she was no longer quite so worryingly skinny and the blue shadows had gone from under her eyes. She’d always been the confident, gregarious, lively one of the three of us, till Guy got his hands on her, so now we’d just have to help her get some zippity back into her doo-dah.
She returned the hug, looking both pleased and relieved to see me. ‘Thank goodness you’re here!’
‘You said to come early, but it doesn’t look like you need me except for support, because you’re very well organised.’
She had a flip chart, a blown-up wall map of the whole valley, with numbered stickers all over it, and a stack of printed leaflets. She also carried a fat notebook and had a pencil stuck in the thick dark curls behind one ear.
‘Outwardly, perhaps, but inside I’m petrified!’ she confessed.
‘It’ll be fine,’ I assured her. ‘Come on, I’ve got some pecan biscuits here from Judy, for refreshment time, so let’s add them to the supplies.’
There wasn’t a kitchen as such because the Hut was too small, but tea, coffee, milk and a kettle were arranged by the small sink in the curtained-off storage alcove, along with a stack of paper cups and plates. There was a biscuit tin there already.
‘Myra’s bringing one of her famous marmalade cakes and Bruce’s latest batch of madeleines are in that tin,’ she said, following me over. ‘He says he’s perfected them now, but he’s had so many attempts lately, we’re all completely sick of them.’
Her brother was an excellent chef and since he and his wife, Kate, took over the restaurant side of the Screaming Skull, I’d heard it had gained quite a reputation for good food. When I said so, Lulu sighed.
‘He and Kate have really made a success of it and Mum and Dad could manage the hotel and pub side of things in their sleep, so I know they only gave me the Haunted Weekend breaks to give me something to do. I really feel I’ve got to make my own mark by expanding the holiday bookings.’
‘Well, that’s what tonight’s all about, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, and that’s what’s making me nervous, because maybe I’m being too ambitious in trying to involve everyone else. And you do look lovely, by the way,’ she added enviously. ‘Is that dress made of sari material?’
‘Yes, do you like it?’ I gave a twirl. ‘My own design, and it’s going to feature in my first collection, with a matching quilted patchwork jacket.’
‘It wouldn’t suit me, now I’m so skinny.’
She’d always had more curves than I, so it was odd that now I was the one with a modest figure, though if Bruce kept feeding her up with madeleines, she could soon overtake me again.
‘I’m sure it would look good on you because I’ve draped it sari-style and saris suit every size and shape. But I’ll design something especially for you one of these days, and then you can model the prototype for the online catalogue. Meanwhile, here’s a little something I brought you back.’
I gave her an amber silk scarf, which was a colour that really suited her, and a pair of silver and citrine earrings. She put them on straight away and draped the scarf around her neck so the two ends drifted behind her as she walked. It looked a little incongruous with her plain white T-shirt and jeans, but then, I liked incongruity. The clothes I was designing might be inspired by my collection of vintage Indian cotton garments from the seventies, but there was also more than a hint of classical Greek drapery and other influences thrown into the mix.
‘I’ve had an eventful afternoon,’ I told her, after the Tompions, having decided we might need yet more chairs, had gone to raid the stack kept in the church vestry. By then, Jonas had switched seamlessly to ‘Jerusalem’, by way of ‘Lead, kindly Light’.
‘I went down to the Spring for a dip just after lunch and had a run-in with Dan Clew on the way, which I’ll tell you all about later. But then I had another – with Rufus Carlyle!’
‘Who?’ she said absently. She was now riffling through her notebook, her mind obviously elsewhere.
‘The new owner of Sweetwell! You know, the missing heir who popped up just in time to scoop the jackpot when Baz had the heart attack?’
‘Oh, right.’ She looked up and focused. ‘Is he living in Sweetwell now, then? I knew he was moving his business here from Devon because there’s a garden antiques sign over the gateway, but if I’d known he’d be around, I’d have invited him to the meeting.’
‘Judy said Myra wasn’t expecting him till tomorrow, so running into him earlier was a bit of a shock … especially when I wasn’t wearing any clothes.’
‘What?’ she said, giving me her full attention at last.
‘Remember when we both bought white bikinis, for that holiday in Greece with your parents?’
She nodded. ‘I still have mine somewhere, but I don’t know why, because I haven’t been that plump for a good ten years and it would just drop off me.’
‘I have the opposite problem, because I’ve definitely got much more hip and boob than I used to. Anyway, I couldn’t find my old cossie and I haven’t unpacked my bags yet, so I grabbed the bikini instead. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be around at that time of day, not even Tom, but once I realised how tight the bikini was I double-checked that the clearing was deserted before I left the