Page 61 of The Cotswolds Christmas Fair

These were old worries, she reminded herself. Part of an old life. They had nothing to do with Anthony. They were based on assumptions she’d made that weren’t true.

It didn’t matter what Julia thought, or what Ted thought. Anthony understood her, he championed her and didn’t make her feel bad about her life. They were two of a kind. She really believed that. And she mustn’t let old wounds persuade her otherwise.

She distracted herself with Christmas fair jobs – she needed to keep busy, to stop herself obsessing over Anthony and his silence, over what Julia had told her about Ted.

She called Lou as she dressed and did her make-up. Her friend picked up on the second ring.

‘What’s the news?’ she asked. ‘How’s it going with Train Guy?’

‘Oh, you know.’ Jen fastened the cat necklace, smiling as it brought back memories of her favourite pet, reminding her that there had been happy times. ‘We’re messaging. He mentioned dinner, but nothing’s been—’

Lou sighed. ‘Oh, a nice romantic dinner. Just the two of you, how lovely. Where are you going?’

‘Well, we haven’t quite decided yet, but you know, something weird happened that—’

‘I bet it’ll be somewhere gorgeous,’ she said. ‘He sounds the type to go for romantic gestures, right? Has he done that?’

‘Well . . .’ Jen considered as she applied mascara. ‘He drew a picture of me, so I suppose so.’

‘Oh, you should get it framed! Then later on it’ll be like—’

‘Lou, you’re getting ahead of yourself, and anyway I want to talk to you about Ted.’

‘Ted?’

‘Yeah.’ Jen brushed out her hair, the curls falling shiny and soft around her face. That kids’ shampoo of Amy’s that she was stealing seemed to be doing the trick. ‘Something weird happened.’

‘OK.’ There was something cautious in Lou’s tone.

‘Julia said that – you know when we were together, me and Ted, all those years back? Just for a little . . . anyway, Julia said that he only broke it off because he was worried about taking advantage of me. Because, you know, my parents and all that.’

‘Yes.’

She waited, but Lou said no more.

‘Well, that’s – that’s kind of a shock, I mean, I always thought he just didn’t want to be with me.’

‘What, you didn’t know?’

‘Well . . .’ Jen blinked at her reflection in the mirror. It was frowning. ‘No, but apparently everyone else did! What – I mean . . . what? You all knew?’

‘Well, it . . .’ The sound of crying rose in the background, and Jen felt Lou’s focus immediately slip away. ‘I don’t know, it was kind of obvious.’ She began to coo softly and Jen heard the rhythmic patting of a hand on a child’s back. ‘I mean did you really never realise how he—oh, oh no, sweetie, don’t . . .’

The grizzling became a full-on wail. Jen winced.

‘Sorry, actually, I’m going to have to go,’ Lou bellowed, over the cacophony. ‘Sorry. Call me again, I want to hear all about everything with Train Guy.’

‘Anthony,’ Jen said. But Lou had already hung up.

Jen threw her make-up back into the bag with more force than usual. What was going on? Apparently everyone knew about this apart from her. Apparently it had been obvious. So how had she missed it?

She thought back to the girl she’d been at the time. No wonder she hadn’t realised. Nothing had made sense to her, and she had doubted everything; her family, herself, her relationships. She was a mess, and she’d have been a terrible girlfriend at the time; a self-absorbed, snivelling wreck. She would probably have ruined everything with Ted if they’d stayed together. Thank God he’d had the sense to realise it, and instead given her a decade of the best friendship anyone could hope for.

The least she could do in return was help him organise the fair.

Jen sighed as she trudged down the village street; Michelle had her nephew visiting and had invited Jen to come for a cuppa and a chat. Babblebrook twinkled in the glow of fairy lights reflected in snow. The snow family she’d made with the children was beginning to soften and slide into the ground, but she still smiled at the memory.

Walking past The Plough, church and village hall, Jen couldn’t help but think that Ted was over-complicating the fair. Of course he wanted it to be a success, and there was clearly a lot to live up to after previous years, but she felt that everything he needed was right there in the village. It was full of its own quirky charm, and no other school would have that. She was sure that Gillian would provide food, and the Woods would bring farm animals to be petted. So it wasn’t fireworks or a live band or living nativity tableau. But it was uniquely Babblebrook. And nothing could compete with that.