Page 35 of The Village of Lost and Found

Tom nodded. ‘Yes, it does.’

Something in his tone of voice made Grandma Tilly look at him sharply. ‘You need a nice lady to go out with,’ she told him.

Tom laughed. ‘I think I’ve got enough on my plate without adding a complicated love life to it,’ he told her.

‘Leave him alone,’ said Josh, coming to stand next to his grandmother to start making the coffee.

‘And that’s what he will be if he doesn’t start dating,’ said Grandma Tilly. ‘Alone.’

Tom kept the smile on his face, even though her words wounded him. He knew she meant well, but it was true. Deep down, he was lonely.

‘I know! What about speed dating?’ carried on Grandma Tilly. ‘I went a few months ago with Maureen. We had such fun.’

‘What on earth were you doing at a speed dating event?’ asked Josh in astonishment.

‘Maureen’s newly widowed,’ said Grandma Tilly. ‘Thought it would cheer her up. We had an absolute hoot. Mind you, I think one of them lads did say he was into M&S.’

Josh and Tom exchanged a pained look.

‘He looked a bit confused when I said their sandwiches weren’t what they used to be,’ said Grandma Tilly.

‘None of this is going in the paper, right?’ said Josh under his breath.

‘No, I think this should definitely stay between us,’ said Tom, bringing out his card to pay for the coffee.

But for all the good humour about Grandma Tilly’s dating experience, her words about loneliness had hit him hard. She was right, of course. He should try to move on from Andrea. But the wounds were still deep and the thought of setting himself up for that kind of hurt again was too much to bear.

So he returned to the office and settled down at his computer to concentrate on his work for the weekend.

19

The week up to the gin night at the pub had flown by. Lucy had spent each morning clearing the office until, finally, there was a noticeable difference in the mess when she had arrived and the somewhat tidier-looking office.

Her spare time had been spent either with Uncle Frank or delivering the newspapers as Dodgy Del had let them down again, thanks to his coach breaking down.

By late Saturday afternoon, Lucy had already delivered most of the newspapers on the list for the new edition. She had deliberately left Henry until last, hopeful that perhaps if she didn’t have to rush off then they could chat for just a little while longer.

She parked the car in front of the farmhouse and checked her appearance in the mirror before getting out.

But as she walked up to the front door, she realised that Henry’s car was missing. Keeping hopeful, she went up to the front door and rang the bell but was disappointed to find no one at home.

She turned in a circle, looking at the glorious view. There was nothing but fields and an endless sky. But as she looked across the beautiful landscape, she thought she saw something grey and fluffy in the far distance.

She frowned, squinting at what appeared to be a small animal racing across a field. Then she realised that it was probably Henry’s dog. Had he run off again? Did he need help?

She looked around, trying to plot a route towards where the dog was in the fields beyond. She spotted a small footpath leading off into the distance and decided to head down there, just to check that the dog was OK.

There had been a thunderstorm the previous evening thanks to the high temperatures and the sky was beginning to grow dark again. She figured she wouldn’t be very long and would just have to hope that she didn’t get too wet.

Heading down the track, she realised that the recent rain had made the ground slippery and her trainers and bare ankles were quickly caked in mud. This was a crazy idea, she thought, but she was still determined to carry on. What if the dog was hurt or in distress?

Nature had run amok along the trail. The weeds and nettles had gone mad and now they were almost covering the path. She sidled sideways along, hopeful that the possibility of a clearing at the end of the path would be a little easier to negotiate.

She was grateful when, finally, the path finally widened a little as she reached two large fields on either side. The trees were overgrown, but she could just about see that both fields lay empty. Ahead of her, she could see some water flowing and realised that she must have come upstream along the river.

Here the river grew wilder, untamed by the brick-built banks in Cranbridge. It ebbed and flowed around corners and spilled over its banks, making small lakes everywhere. The reeds and nettles were already growing in abundance. Everything was green and fresh.

She turned away to look at the fields. The one to her left was also full of recently filled ponds of water, presumably an overflow from the river. The other field was full of grass that was considerably shorter, so she was easily able to see the grey dog dashing around.