His hand reached reflexively for his tin, but when he flipped the lid open to survey his goodies, he was surprised to find not one of them tempted him. Not even the tablet.
He scratched his head and thought very hard.
The cruive stood behind him, the door open, awaiting his return. The chimney gave off a thin curl of smoke as the hearth died down.
There was something not right, not right at all. Was he ill? Sleepy? Hungry? No, it was none of those things. What was this?
Murray was down there in the town. He’d promised him he’d be back to see him next week, and it was Sunday now. Finlay was already driving himself wild with waiting. Murray had sent him a text every morning and every night, and there’d been rather too many photos of puppy dogs, and not enough messages about where exactly the pair of them stood now. Neither had there been any mention of those contracts Murray had either signed or shredded. Finlay had a good idea which it was, and guessed Murray was holding off on telling him the bad news until they were face to face. There was also the small matter of his library holds, another thing Murray had proven not very forthcoming in detailing. Had he got the new KJ Charles or not? A man needed to know these things, but most of all he needed to know if Murray was burning for him like he was for Murray.
‘Dammit! This is insufferable!’ he shouted, scaring his sparrow friends away.
He stomped his way back to the cruive and pulled the door hard behind him, not thinking once how he’d left his precious rations tin out on the wall for the crows to find.
He was going to have to go down to town himself.
43
There hadn’t really been time to talk, what with her new recruits to see to around the garden, helping them settle in. Cary had simply told Alice he was glad to see her looking so well and then headed inside the repair shop, followed by Senga Gifford, hot for some gossip.
So Alice had done her job, chatting with the participants and their families, asking about their current prescriptions or their physio regimes, and answering their questions about how she was finding the town, now she was settling in.
She’d helped Jolyon plant a long row of seed potatoes, noting how withdrawn he and his mother were today and finding that nothing she said seemed to cheer them up. Soon they were out of seeds and glad of the excuse to follow Cary indoors, she excused herself and made her way into the shed. As she entered, Livvie, Roz and Shell were on their way out, and the little girl was giggling about something. She’d have thought more of all this if she wasn’t determined to see Cary.
He was at his workbench where he had been deep in conversation with Senga or, more likely, she had been filling him in on Finlay getting lost in the fog and Murray and Nell’s rescue mission. Yes, that would be it. There was so much he’d missed.
‘I’ll leave you two to catch up,’ Senga said upon seeing Alice standing there, and with a look so indiscreet she’d actually wanted to laugh, but Cary didn’t look like he was in the mood for laughter.
‘So, you’re back,’ she told him.
He nodded.
She took her time building up to her next utterance. ‘And… do you think you’re staying?’
‘I don’t know yet.’
This jolted her. ‘Is it me?’ she demanded. ‘Because if it is, I’m sorry. I know you came to the Burns supper that night, Rhona told me she saw you…’
Cary’s face fell.
‘Itisme, then!’ she cried. ‘You know I sent Bastian packing, right?’
Cary looked wary.
‘He stayed the night and made you breakfast,’ he said, ‘and he was on about whisking you away for a spa break and how things were going to be different with him around, and then Senga was just telling me about how youhavebeen off on a spa break, which of course is none of my business, but…’
‘A spa break?’ She breathed deep to stop the dizziness striking, just like she’d mastered, working with Bonnie. ‘I was away for one day at a lovely castle, and I suppose, yes, technically it was a spa, but it was a women’s wellness retreat.’
Cary blinked.
‘And I went on my own, or rather, I went with a load of other women and Bonnie was there too.’
‘Bonnie?’
‘The counsellor I’ve been seeing. The one you recommended?’
Cary took a deep breath as light dawned. ‘You weren’t away with your Manchester doctor boyfriend, then?’
‘God, no!’
