Page 65 of Watch For Me By Candlelight

‘Because if it’s almost time to close up,’ she said, moving over to Tom, ‘I’ve got just the place to take you.’ She walked her fingers up and down his chest and Kate’s jaw slackened and dropped open. ‘Have you been to the wine bar? They do cocktails on a Sunday evening and it’s absolutely terribly boring when you’re a woman on your own and you ask for sex on the beach, or a slow, comfortable screw.’

Kate felt her cheeks heat up. Good God, this girl was like a young, black-haired, Marilyn Monroe. Tom had totally fallen for the wily young minx as he practically drooled over her and nodded, speechlessly.

‘Theo, you can come too.’ Jenna quite pointedly ignored Kate as she trailed her fingers down Tom’s arm and took his hand.

She held out the other hand for Theo but he just smiled and shook his head. ‘Not tonight, thanks all the same.’ He looked down at Kate and his expression softened. ‘I’ve already made plans.’

‘Suit yourself,’ said Jenna, shrugging nonchalantly. ‘We’ll be there all night if you want a little bit more — excitement.’

As a parting shot, she turned and winked at Theo, as she and Tom began to walk off across the courtyard.

Kate stared after them, her mouth still hanging open. ‘Tom!’ she called out, but he didn’t seem to hear her. ‘Unbelievable. That girl is—’

‘—a genius.’ Theo turned to her and dropped the keys into his pocket. ‘Now, you don’t have to entertain your brother until much, much later, if at all. You just need to entertain a horse whisperer — who happens to have six bottles of beer very close at hand and is longing to spend the evening with you, and not anywhere near Jenna and her wine bar. Do you have a bottle opener? If it’s okay to leave the van here, I’ll just walk back to the campsite tonight. It’s a waste of energy driving back to the site, coming to the village, going back to the tent — that sort of thing. I’ll need to be here in the morning to ride your bike up to the Hall anyway, so I’ll just set off extra early and walk down.’

‘Ride my bike to the Hall? You’re offering?’

‘Of course.’

‘Thank you, that would be very kind. But right now, I need to make sure the visitors have gone, and I have to close up properly. And I need food.’ Her stomach growled, as if in agreement. ‘And my ducks need food.’

‘Okay.’ Theo smiled. ‘I’ll sort your ducks out, and you sort your visitors out, and then how about we head to the Dragon? The beer can wait until after that.’

A visit to the Dragon would definitely be the best way to soak up the promised beers and Kate nodded again. ‘The ducks have proper duck feed, just in that barn over there.’ She indicated the barn where the bicycle lived. ‘There’s a huge sack of it. If you take the bike with you, that’ll be great. I need to get changed though — I can’t go out in this suit. Oh.’ She stared at him. ‘You’ll need a shower, I guess? I’m having one.’

‘Really?’ Theo raised his eyebrows. Kate had a sudden vision of him, all soapy and glistening with droplets of water running down his chest.

There was an awkward moment as she stared at him; then she managed to break eye contact. ‘Yes. There’s a staff one, if you want to use it.’

Theo burst out laughing. ‘A staff shower? Seriously?’

‘Seriously. It’s just to the right, near the back of the entrance cottage. There was a push from the Board for all things healthy a couple of years ago, and we got a grant for a shower cubicle and they put in some waymarked paths and a heritage trail leading off from the museum to encourage walkers. Maeve used to do a five-mile run before work and she’d clean up in our shower — she loved having it. It was meant for people who wanted to be fit yet not sweaty when they got to work. You know, like if they cycled to work, or jogged. Like she did.’

‘She still does,’ said Theo. ‘She runs around the Loch every morning, or at least she did when I was there.’

‘She puts me to shame, she really does!’ Kate grinned affectionately. ‘Jenna has used our shower a few times — if she’s stayed out all night. There’ll be a spare set of her clothing bundled up in the room, mark my words. But we have towels and shower gel — so, you know, feel free. Shampoo too, I think.’

‘Thanks,’ said Theo looking amused. ‘I might just do that. I don’t think I’ve ever used a staff shower before. It’s all an adventure, isn’t it?’

Adventure. There was that word again.

Kate shivered, despite the heat.

* * *

Will realised that he felt at home outdoors. As he grew stronger and ventured outside, he found himself with an affinity to nature that he was astonished at.

He filled his days with manual work, helping Felicia’s father, Meneer Peeters, build walls and repair buildings; turn soil and tend crops. And, to his even greater surprise, he discovered a deep satisfaction whenever he cared for the livestock. His hands seemed to know their way around every lame limb, knew how to brush out a knotted coat, instinctively knew what to murmur to distressed animals to calm them and soothe them.

Deep in his mind, he was aware there must be more to these instincts than he realised.

‘Your body will heal first, and then the mind,’ Vrouw Peeters, Felicia’s mother would say after supper in the farmhouse. ‘You must stay here until then.’

‘I can’t think of anywhere I would rather be,’ he told her, smiling. But he could, although he would never, ever tell her. He would rather be somewhere that flickered around the edges of his consciousness; somewhere that was blue and green and somewhere in England. Sometimes, he would dream of that place, and he’d wake up, just as a girl’s face blurred into the edge of his mind; so close to him, although so far he couldn’t even reach out and touch her.

But who was she? If only he could remember . . .

* * *