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‘No,’ I tell her. ‘No, it’s not.’
‘Anything I can help with, lovey?’ She frowns, concerned.
‘Dominic’s missing. If you see him, send him home,’ I say. ‘Please send him straight home.’
Sprinting back to the house, I keep shouting and shouting but wherever Dominic is, he’s long gone from Nashley. What do I do? What do I do now? How am I going to find him? How can I get him to come back?
As I dash breathlessly back to Little Cottage, Mike is coming out of his house, getting ready to start his day’s work.
‘Mike!’ I shout out.
He rocks back in shock when he sees me. ‘What are you doing out in your dressing gown in this weather, woman? Is everything OK?’
I shake my head as I run up to him. ‘Dominic,’ I say. I fall, panting against him, tears flowing now. ‘He’s gone.’
Mike holds me away from him and looks into my face. ‘Dominic? Where?’
‘I don’t know,’ I admit. ‘I have no idea. As far as he can away from me. That’s all I know.’
‘Have you had an argument?’ my neighbour asks.
‘More than that.’
He waits patiently for my explanation.
‘We went to the Sno!Zone last night. A whole group from work. It was brilliant. Dominic was brilliant. You should have seen him.’ I sigh with frustration. ‘Then I was talking to Nina in the changing rooms afterwards and I told her that Dominic and I were planning to get married . . .’
Now it’s my neighbour’s turn to look taken aback. ‘You’re getting married?’ His expression changes to hurt. ‘And you didn’t tell me?’
‘Don’t be cross. Please don’t be cross,’ I say. ‘I would normally tell you first, of course I would, but Nina was being nice for once so I thought that I’d let her into our secret. It just slipped out. I didn’t plan it. Oh, Mike, she was awful, said the most terrible things. Her view is that Dominic is just marrying me for my money, that he’ll divorce me and take me for half of everything as soon as he can. She said everyone thought so. You don’t think that, do you?’
‘No,’ Mike says. ‘Of course I don’t. I think Dominic’s a great bloke. I’m pleased for you, Janie. Really I am. I’m pleased for Dominic too.’ He smiles at me, but there’s a sadness behind his eyes. ‘I’m just a little bit upset for me. That’s all.’
‘Oh, Mike.’ Tears well. What else can I say to him? That if it wasn’t Dominic I was crazy in love with, then it might well be him? Would that make him feel better or worse? ‘The thing is,’ I continue, ‘Dominic heard it all. He said that it would shame him in the eyes of the village and that he had to leave. Except I didn’t understand him at the time. It’s some Maasai thing. He was effectively saying that if he stayed when people thought that about him, then I would be shunned too. He’s trying in his own silly way to save me from that. When I woke up, he’d gone.’
‘Any idea where he might be?’
I wrack my brains, but all my thinking is veiled in a thick fog. ‘He said something about having to go out onto the plains and live alone if you’re a Maasai who’s been shamed. It might be clutching at straws, but he could just be in the fields around here somewhere. He has nowhere else to go.’
‘Has he got any money with him?’
‘No,’ I say. Not that I’ve checked. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Have you phoned in to work yet?’ he asks.
I shake my head. ‘I came out as soon as I realised he was gone.’
‘Do it,’ he instructs. ‘There’s no way you can go in today. They’ll have to cope without you. I’ll phone my office too, tell them that I’m not coming in, then we can jump in my car and go and look for him. He can’t have gone far, not without any cash. Let’s not waste any time.’
The tears roll down my cheeks. ‘Thank you. Thank you so much.’
‘No worries.’ He takes hold of my arms. ‘We’ll find him, Janie. We’ll find him and bring him back home.’
No worries. Hakuna matata. We’ll find Dominic and bring him back home. I can only hope with all my heart that Mike is right.
Chapter Seventy-Nine
I call the salon and speak to Kelly. ‘I’m not going to be in today,’ I tell her. ‘Dominic’s gone missing. I have to look for him.’
‘Janie, you have a full book,’ my boss says, somewhat sharply.
What do I care about cut and blow-dries and touching up roots when my loved one is missing? ‘Did you not hear me? Dominic’s missing,’ I repeat. ‘I have to find him.’
