Barney sighed. ‘I think it’s best that if I’m no longer running the ball, then someone else takes over and moves it to a completely different venue. That’s if you can find someone else to do it. People have busy lives.’
Harvey looked out of the window at the large structure looming well above the juniper trees on the other side of the courtyard. ‘The barn makes the event, you know that, right?’
‘Easy for you to say, son. But I’m done.’
‘Why not let someone else run it in the barn?’ Harvey wanted to know.
‘Nobody else I’d trust in my barn, not a chance.’
‘I would offer to do it,’ said Tilly, ‘but I’m useless at organising.’
‘I’m not bad,’ said Ashley, ‘but between running the charity and caring for my elderly parents, I’m just far too busy I’m afraid.’
Tilly told Ashley about her new dress. ‘I was really excited to wear it for the first time.’
‘I’m sure you were.’
‘Are you bringing anyone?’ Tilly wanted to know. She was talking as though there was no way the event would possibly be cancelled. Harvey suspected most of the village would react the same way.
‘Not likely,’ Ashley smiled. ‘My divorce was final three years ago and I’m happily married to my job now.’
Harvey went to the ball every year, to support Barney, to be a part of the village where people actually cared about one another. His mum went every year too and to see her happy after all this time was always special, it was one of the rare occasions she did herself up, got outside the house and remembered she was a better person than her husband had ever made her feel.
‘What about you?’ Tilly suggested, looking Harvey’s way. ‘Why don’t you organise it?’ If she was on friendlier terms with Melissa he’d think they’d been talking. ‘You trust him, don’t you, Barney?’
‘Of course.’
Ashley picked up her handbag. ‘I have to get going, but please keep me informed. I’m hopeful we can find a solution other than cancelling, but if that’s what you choose to do, Barney, then I respect your decision.’
After she left it was time for Harvey to get back to work too. ‘Do you need anything before I go?’ he asked Barney.
‘I can stay a while longer,’ Tilly assured him. ‘We can chat, but then I’d better get back to the shop.’
‘Melissa used to love your little store,’ Barney smiled, the folder about the ball cast aside for now. ‘She spent a fortune in there.’
‘That was then. She’s not welcome in there after what she did to you. To both of you, leaving all of a sudden like that.’
‘Now that’s no way to talk,’ Barney admonished. ‘She’s very special, she’s had her problems along the way.’
‘Maybe she’ll leave soon,’ Tilly suggested, ‘before she can upset anyone else.’
‘Tilly, it really is kind of you to look out for me, to be on my side, but I’m thrilled Melissa is back. Do me a favour and don’t make it any harder for her than it already is. If you see her out and about, be kind.’
‘Might be a bit late for that.’
‘Oh dear. Maybe next time then.’
Harvey left them to it. He’d hoped that Barney could be talked around by Ashley and Tilly, but it seemed the only option they were floating around involved him, and that still didn’t sound any better than when Melissa had suggested it in the first place.
*
Melissa had been back in the Cove a week and Jay had missed her incredibly.
‘A week off on my own just wasn’t the same,’ he told her on the phone as she called him before she headed to the pub to meet Tracy. They’d finally lined up a girls’ evening at The Copper Plough and Melissa hoped Tracy was looking forward to it as much as she was.
‘But Bath would’ve been a change wouldn’t it?’ He’d gone with her suggestion of visiting his sister rather than hanging around Windsor missing his fiancée.
‘Yeah, my sister was good company. Just not as good company as you. How’s it all going with Barney? Have you persuaded him to exercise yet?’
