Page 36 of The Village of Lost and Found

She glanced around. There was nobody about. So she clambered over the stile and set off across the grass towards where the dog had been. She could feel her muddy trainers becoming sodden. Her white Converse were now completely ruined. Why hadn’t she brought her wellies? She really did need to remember that she lived in the countryside now. Even if it was only temporary.

As she walked across the brow of the field under the ever-darkening sky, she saw that the river ran alongside the field as well.

She had just reached the top of the small incline when it began to rain quite hard, quite quickly. Finally at the highest point, she was able to see the rest of the field. Unfortunately it contained nothing but the dog and a large, rather menacing-looking bull, who was staring at them both.

Lucy looked at the dog, who glanced back at her, both of them with wide eyes of terror. She then looked further on to the horizon, but there was no cover nearby. She was far away from the trees at the edge of the field. She looked back at the bull once more, who seemed as equally unhappy about her appearance as she felt about him.

She froze on the spot, her pulse beginning to race as she slowly began to back away down the other side of the hill.

And then the thunder rumbled in the distance, making them all jump.

The dog ran first and then suddenly the bull was charging at her. Horrified, Lucy turned and began to run away as fast as she could in the direction which she had come from.

The dog was running much faster than she could manage. She glanced over her shoulder, but the bull was already making swift headway into the distance between them. At an angle, she realised that he was going to cut off her escape route. So Lucy abandoned her idea of heading back the way she had come and instead went towards the bottom of the field.

She could hear the bull getting closer and was almost crying by the time she reached the bottom fence. With the adrenaline racing through her, she catapulted herself over the fence, where she landed flat on the other side in a pool of thick mud and brown water.

She lay in the muddy water in shock for a moment. Turning over, she saw that the bull had come to a halt and was staring at her from over the fence. Thankfully he had remained on the other side.

She blew out a sigh of relief, her heart still pounding. She looked around for the dog and spotted him slip under the stile and head off in the direction of the farmhouse. It turned out that the dog was more than capable of looking after itself. Unlike her, she thought, looking down at the smelly mudbath she was currently lying in.

With a shaking hand, she grabbed the phone from her shorts pocket and checked that it wasn’t ruined by the muddy water.

She was just about to stand up when she saw movement nearby. To her horror, a large black and yellow lizard was coming towards her. It was about a foot long and surprisingly speedy. Lucy shrieked and leapt up, causing the prehistoric-looking animal to falter in its tracks and the bull to race off in the opposite direction back up the hill.

Still clutching her phone, she heard it accidentally take numerous shots with the camera as she held on to it tightly and ran off down the nearest path away from the lizard.

Finally she made it back to her car and saw herself in the reflection of the window. She was soaking wet, covered in mud and she stank from what smelt like pond water. Glancing down at herself, she began to laugh. She looked a complete and utter mess. If only the tabloids could see her now!

20

Driving back to the village after her unexpected meeting with the bull, Lucy was hoping that nobody saw what kind of state she was in before she could head upstairs to get changed.

It was now past six o’clock so hopefully everyone was getting ready for the gin night and wouldn’t be around. She found that despite the disastrous afternoon, she was looking forward to spending the evening with the girls. They hadn’t been able to meet up that week due to all of them being free on different evenings.

At least the weather had changed for the better, thought Lucy. The earlier storm had cleared the air and the sky was clear and sunny once more.

As she drew up to park behind her apartment, she was hoping to get inside without anybody seeing her. But luck wasn’t on her side. Tom was standing on the corner of Riverside Lane and when he spotted her, he followed her up the street.

Taking a deep breath, she switched off the engine and climbed out of the car.

‘Woah!’ said Tom, stopping in his tracks to look her up and down in astonishment. ‘What happened to you?’

‘You don’t want to know,’ she muttered, embarrassed for some reason that he had seen her looking like that.

He broke into a grin. ‘Let me guess. You’ve decided that your glamorous life in London was shallow and meaningless so you’ve decided to dress a little more countrified these days?’

It hurt her a little inside that he thought so badly of her. Shallow? Is that how he saw her? Is that how everyone saw her?

But Tom was on a roll and obviously didn’t realise how much he was upsetting her. ‘Shall I take your photo?’ he carried on. ‘You could be front-page news again!’

She gulped. ‘Actually, I tend to avoid reading about myself these days,’ she told him in a dull tone.

Despite being covered in mud, she wrapped her arms around herself, feeling defensive and upset.

His smile faltered. ‘Well, trust me, I’ll make sure it’s flattering.’

‘Oh yes, let me see,’ she said, sarcastically. ‘Shallow Lucy Conway fell over in a field and came face to face with a miniature dinosaur! Was she wearing her high heels? Running away from a scary bull or yet another toxic relationship? It doesn’t matter! We don’t care about her! She just fills up a few columns until the next idiot takes her place. Does it matter that her feelings get hurt! Of course not! Do we care that nobody wants to get to know the real person? No! We’ll just keep printing the lies over and over until everyone believes that she’s stupid and useless. Even Lucy herself!’