Page 45 of The Village of Lost and Found

So whilst the kettle was boiling, she headed over to switch on the lamp at the end of the sofa.

That seemed to please him and he closed his eyes.

Once the kettle had boiled, she poured him a very strong coffee and walked back holding the mug.

Tom’s eyes were still closed, so she put the mug down on the table. He looked absolutely exhausted, she thought.

There was no way she would be able to get him back to the cottage in this state. So she went and grabbed a spare pillow from her bed, as well as a couple of blankets that wouldn’t be needed until the winter months out of her wardrobe. Then Lucy headed back into the lounge and hesitated, before dumping the bedding on the small armchair. She then crouched down in front of Tom to take off his trainers.

Tom opened his eyes temporarily. ‘The paper,’ he said, sleepily.

‘Don’t worry about it now,’ she told him. ‘The work will still be there in the morning.’

But he shook his head. ‘No,’ he said with a little moan. ‘It’s no good. No good. Not going to make it.’

Was he still talking about the newspaper? she wondered. But she tried to dismiss it from her mind. One thing at a time.

‘Try not to worry,’ she said, untying his shoelaces.

‘Very tired now,’ he said, sleepily.

‘I know,’ she told him, pulling off the second trainer. She then placed the pillow at one end of the sofa and gently lifted his feet to swivel him around so that he was lying down.

It was a relatively warm night and he was already wearing a sweatshirt so Lucy only placed one blanket over him but left the other one on the table in case he needed it.

As she pulled the blanket up to his chest, he suddenly opened his eyes again. Up close and in the soft light, they were a startling shade of blue.

‘You smell like strawberries,’ he murmured before closing his eyes once more.

Lucy looked down at him for a moment. Then she tentatively reached out to brush his hair away from his forehead. He looked peaceful in sleep, she thought. And a lot less haggard. It really was quite a good-looking face.

Then, after watching him for another few seconds, she left him to go and try to get some sleep. But she lay awake for a long time, wondering if he really had been talking about the newspaper and what he could be so upset about.

25

Tom woke up with a start, quickly followed by a moan at the pounding in his head.

He cautiously opened his eyes and was shocked as he stared up at the wall next to him. The world seemed very bright and, for some reason, extremely pink.

He was also extremely hot. He slowly realised that he was wearing his sweatshirt and swiftly drew it over his head and threw it away from him before slumping back down.

He groaned out loud.

‘Good morning.’

He was completely nonplussed. There was someone else with him, wherever he was, and it was a woman.

Slowly and painfully, he turned his head and found that he was looking at Lucy, who was walking towards him in just a vest top and pyjama shorts. He quickly looked away, wondering what on earth had happened last night.

‘I didn’t mean to wake you, sorry,’ she said. ‘How are you feeling?’

He struggled up to a sitting position, clutching his aching head as he did so. ‘Terrible,’ he said. ‘Where am I?’

‘In my apartment above the newspaper office.’ She sat down on an armchair opposite him, placing two mugs of steaming hot drink on the coffee table between them. She then pulled out a plastic tab of what appeared to be pills from her pocket. ‘That’s coffee and ibuprofen,’ she told him. ‘I’ll make some toast if you can stomach it.’

‘Thanks,’ he croaked, leaning forward to take both the pills and a sip of hot coffee.

He leant back against the sofa and groaned at the pain in his head as he tried to remember what had happened the previous evening. He remembered Andrea calling him and then feeling utterly miserable. The gin night at the pub, that was it. Finally, he remembered upsetting Lucy before all that had happened.