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A stilted meow followed.
Callum smiled, ‘Good.’ He brought the campervan to a halt for a moment to let a motorist out of a parking space. He glanced at the cat. ‘Now, what say we forget finding these girls and giving them this here campervan, and just get on with the business of preparing the bookshop to sell? What do you say?’
Dickens took his front paws off the dashboard, sat down in the seat, and actually hissed at him.
‘Hey, calm down! What’s your problem?’ Callum actually shuffled over as much as he could in his seat to put some distance between him and the cat. Fortunately, he’d only driven a short distance when the cat jumped over the front seat into the back, surprising Callum with how agile he was for such an old cat. He could see Dickens in the rearview mirror. He was up on his hindlegs again, paws on the back window. He let out a kitty cry.
‘What is your problem?’ One minute the cat had been meowing quite happily, the next he was hissing; now he was crying. Callum shook his head.He thought of his dad and the mood swings his mother had told him about. Did cats get dementia too? Perhaps the cat would have been better off with dad after all.
Callum sighed as he continued his slow drive down the high street, still no closer to locating Cobblers Yard.
Chapter 35
Thea glanced out of the restaurant window, her eyes following a yellow VW campervan that was slowly driving down the road. She stared at it, her eyes wide.He came back, she thought. Then she saw a young man – a really good-looking young man with a suntan – driving the van down the high street.
‘What are you staring at?’ asked Katie, sitting next to her brother.
‘Oh, nothing,’ said Thea, absent-mindedly.What a stupid thought, she berated herself.It was just some guy, probably on holiday.
Katie turned in her seat to look out of the window too. ‘Oh, my god,’ said Katie. ‘Did you just see that?’
Thea stared at her. Surely, she didn’t know that her grandpa had owned a yellow VW campervan. Perhaps Jenna had told her, or she’d seen old photos. Either way, it didn’t matter. That wasn’t Dad. How could it be? He’d been gone decades. He was never coming back.
Katie turned to her brother. ‘Did you see that, Toby?’
‘Yeah, it was a yellow van – so what?’
‘No, I’m not talking aboutthe van, dummy!’
Thea was about to have words about Katie calling her broth-er names, but Toby said, ‘Then what are you talking about? And please stop calling me dummy.’
‘I’m talking about the guy in the van – did you see him?’
Thea rolled her eyes. Of course her thirteen-year-old niece, teenage hormones racing, had discovered boys, and good-looking guys passing by in campervans who were way too old for her.
‘That’s the guy who stars in that American TV drama.’
Thea leaned forward in her seat, ‘Who?’
‘That guy on American TV who plays Laird Fergus Mac-Gregor inThe Scottish Laird.’
Thea shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Oh, my god. Who hasn’t heard of that show?’
‘I haven’t,’ said Toby.
‘Well, that doesn’t surprise me, because you’re weird.’ Katie turned to her aunt. ‘But seriously, Auntie Thea, you’ve never watched that show? He’s famous.’
Thea shook her head. ‘I’m afraid not.’ She looked at Katie, sitting there avidly watching the campervan until it was out of sight. She didn’t want to burst her bubble, but if the guy was that famous, what would he be doing in Aldeburgh, driving an ancient VW camper van – even if it did look in good nick? She reckoned that her niece was mistaken.
‘I’ve got the DVDs of all the seasons. You can watch it if you like.’
Toby said, ‘You only started watching that show because your friend, Caitlin, loves it.’
‘That’s not true. Well, perhaps it was to begin with, but now I really like it too.’
‘And him,’ said Toby. ‘Someone’s got a crush.’
