Page 12 of Secret Paths

Then I make myself leave.

By the time I reach the car, I have the whole thing neatly sorted in my head.

One night.

No expectations.

No complications.

I make it halfway down the road before the lie falls apart.

Because this is Mandy.

And nothing about wanting her feels simple.

Chapter 1

Peter

The Ramblers of St Claire meet on the village green at ten every Saturday, whatever the weather is doing.

Today, it is doing that thin, cold sort of rain that gets under your collar without ever quite committing to becoming proper rain. Nancy stands by the church gate with a map tucked beneath one arm. Luke is beside her, holding two travel mugs and looking as though he has accepted this is now part of his weekend routine.

Hunter and Alexandra are a little way off, heads bent together over something on Hunter’s phone.

Mrs Higgins has Bernard on the bench.

Or, more accurately, Bernard has himself on the bench, spread across it like a weary pensioner waiting for the bus. Mrs Higgins stands over him with his lead in one hand.

“Come on, darling,” she says. “You have not even started.”

Bernard opens one eye.

Then closes it again.

I am still watching him when I spot Mandy.

She stands near the edge of the green with a small rucksack over one shoulder and both hands tucked into the pockets of a plum waterproof. Her boots are muddy around the soles, old enough to have seen more than one field, and a pair of little yellow daisy earrings peek out beneath her knitted hat.

I have seen her a handful of times since the night at her cottage two months ago.

A hello across the bar. A quick exchange in the bakery queue. One awkward moment in the Co-op when we both reached for the last bottle of prosecco and then suddenly found the dairy aisle very interesting.

Nothing private.

Nothing that asks either of us to remember her kitchen counter.

She notices me looking.

“Morning,” I say.

“Morning.”

I nod towards the rucksack. “You look prepared.”

“It has water, a snack and spare socks.”

“Spare socks?”