Freya North 3-Book Collection: Secrets, Chances, Rumours. Freya North

thought about this. ‘You're right,’ she said, ‘and God, you have an amazing way of putting things.’

      ‘I'm not just a pretty face either, you know.’

      They laughed.

      ‘Have you eaten?’ Lisa asked. ‘We've a picnic – if the trolls haven't troughed the lot. Come on.’

      So Tess and Em and Wolf joined Lisa's family for lunch. The picnic was set out in the triangular meadow, bridges for Poohsticks at either end, the steep haul of the woods as a backdrop, the river and miniature railway as soundtrack. The grass was lush, long and glossy, not yet put upon by the main brunt of the visitor season. It was the first time that Tess had properly met Lisa's husband and she found him amiable. She liked the way he was with Lisa and with Sam. He gave Wolf some chicken and he sprang Em's curls between his fingers. He also seemed genuinely interested in his wife's new friend which Tess found affirming.

      ‘And what's next, then?’ he asked, when she'd given him a room-by-room inventory on her work at the house.

      ‘Well, I'd like to do the attic rooms – but there's so much stuff there and none of it's mine, so I can't chuck it out without Joe's say-so.’

      ‘You'll have to put it on hold, then, till he's next back.’

      She nodded.

      ‘When'll that be?’ Lisa asked.

      Tess ran her fingers through the grass like she did Em's hair. She wanted to appear blasé and not crestfallen. ‘I don't know.’