Page 49 of The Village Inn of Secret Dream

‘I don’t know,’ he lied.

But deep down he knew that the truth was that he hadn’t.

And he was beginning to think that perhaps he might find it there in Cranbridge instead. But that was impossible, wasn’t it?

27

Belle glanced at the grey clouds and rain outside of the window before looking back at the sunny view through a porthole that her aunt and uncle were showing her via FaceTime.

‘Lucky you,’ she told them, as they turned the camera back on themselves. ‘The weather’s been terrible here. We lost the power last night it was so windy.’

‘We’ve had a few choppy days out at sea,’ said Uncle Mick, with a grimace. ‘But it’s settled down now that we’re in the Caribbean.’

‘Wow, sounds amazing,’ said Belle.

But to her surprise, Aunty Angie was rolling her eyes. ‘It’s all right,’ she said, in a sullen voice. ‘But your uncle wanted to go on a trolley tour of one of the islands yesterday and we wasted most of the day looking at boring dockyards.’

‘Oh dear,’ said Belle.

‘They weren’t boring,’ snapped Uncle Mick. ‘And I said you didn’t need to come.’

‘So you don’t want to spend any time with your own wife now you’ve made all these new friends onboard? Is that it?’ said Aunty Angie, glaring at him. ‘Right, well, it’s lovely to see you, Belle, darling, but I’ve got Pilates at eleven so I’d better get going. Love you.’

‘Love you too,’ called out Belle before she heard the cabin door close.

Uncle Mick blew out a sigh. ‘I dunno, love,’ he said, sounding miserable. ‘Maybe this was a bad idea to be stuck together day in and day out for any length of time.’

‘Still, only one hundred more days to go, eh?’ said Belle, with a sad smile.

Uncle Mick gave a grunt of humour in reply.

Later on that morning, Belle headed into the community hub to find out if the village had survived the bad weather. She found her friends already in there grabbing a quick coffee and a catch-up.

‘There’s loads of trees down,’ said Molly, who, as social media manager for the local newspaper, was typing up the latest Twitter posts.

‘Thankfully the power wasn’t off for too long,’ said Lucy, who had been making some coffee for them in the small kitchen nearby.

Belle sat on one of the sofas in the lounge area and Keith, the dog, immediately came over to lean against her and rest his head on her knee.

‘So your aunt and uncle are on a luxury cruise and hating every minute of it?’ asked Lucy, placing two mugs of coffee on the table between them.

‘I’m not sure they’re hating it,’ said Belle, stroking the dog’s soft furry ears. ‘Just each other.’

Molly looked across at her from her nearby desk. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked. ‘It must be really upsetting being left behind when your aunt and uncle are away for such a long time.’

Belle smiled. ‘To be honest, I’m quite grateful that I’m not stuck in a cabin with those two arguing their way around the world!’ she replied with a grin.

Molly shook her head. ‘That’s not what I meant,’ she said, not returning the smile. ‘It must be tough for you at the moment and, just remember, the girls and I are here for you.’

Belle smiled at her friend, grateful that they knew her so well that they expected her to be hiding her feelings as usual.

‘Hey, are you still free on Monday nights?’ asked Molly. ‘That new Dwayne Johnson movie’s out and I thought we could go and see it.’

Belle hesitated. ‘I can’t,’ she said eventually.

‘Won’t Pete give you the time off?’ asked Amber, with a frown. ‘That’s not fair. I’ll get Josh to have a word with him.’

‘It’s not that,’ said Belle quickly. ‘I just can’t make this Monday.’