by Kirsty Ferry
She looked around as if checking to see if anyone had seen her; and that’s when she spotted him, looking at her. She blushed and Theo Kent couldn’t help but laugh.
The girl hesitated a moment, then smiled and shrugged. ‘I recommend the fairy cakes.’
‘I’m glad to hear it! How did you get on at the bakery?’ She was standing next to the bureau where the spoons and the sugar were. Theo moved towards her with his takeaway coffee and she made room for him.
‘Oh! Fine thank you. Again – I’m so sorry for almost mowing you down.’
‘As you can see, there was no lasting damage.’ He ripped the corner off a packet of sugar and tipped it in the drink. ‘Enjoy your day.’ He nodded at her. Then he grinned suddenly. ‘I hope we bump into each other again.’
She crumpled the bag up and laughed. ‘It’s a small village. We’re bound to. You have a good day too!’
‘Your Panini’s ready my love,’ called the lady behind the counter. She held up a polystyrene container and the girl hurried over and relieved her of it.
Theo stirred his coffee and watched until the red-head dashed out of the coffee shop and across the road. He wondered where she was heading and also, idly, whether she was single.
Not that it really mattered; he had other things to worry about.
He adjusted his backpack. He needed to finish his lunch, head back to the campsite and get sorted. Then he was hoping to make it to the Folk Museum before it closed. Maeve had said he’d find it interesting. He only had a few days in Suffolk, but he was hoping to squeeze a lot in. And he wouldn’t get much squeezing done if he loitered here instead of re-reading his map to find out where the hell he was supposed to be going.
Kate had her lunch at one of the picnic tables next to the duck pond. Her feathered friends squawked over to her, gabbling incessantly about how starving they were, and she tossed some crumbs down for them, lobbing the scraps as far away as she could. Those ducks had been known to clamber up onto the tables before now and terrorise the visitors.
It really was a beautiful day. Not too hot, but just right. Kate stretched her legs out in front of her and wiggled her toes in her sandals. It wasn’t hot enough for her to shed her jeans yet, but at least she had lost her trainers. It was progress.
Kate looked up at the first cottage where the reception was and again cursed Jenna. It was just as well Jenna wasn’t that interested in the rest of the museum, as Kate would have been particularly offended to have her anywhere near the ice-skates – or, even worse, the last house. The one that was done out as an estate cottage. It had been the blacksmith’s home once upon a time; there was a horseshoe on the front door and a pile of crumbled stones not very far along the road. Within the ruin, they had located evidence of a possible furnace and it all made sense. It was, according to some old maps of the area, his forge. Kate liked horses and she thought that being a blacksmith would have been quite a nice job. It would have been a fairly steady one as well, seeing as the Hartsford family had always loved their racehorses.
Anyway, it was two o’clock and Kate’s lunch break was over. She couldn’t dwell on how lovely it must have been to work with horses; it was time to get back to the museum. She weaved her way between the rabid ducks and wondered if she could get rid of Jenna a little bit early. She couldn’t be bothered with her for the next few hours anyway and she was pretty sure Jenna wouldn’t object. Maybe if she just covered until the lunchtime rush had abated? Which – Kate checked her watch – would be about now.
In fact: ‘Jenna, do you want an early finish?’ she asked as she walked back in. ‘I’m sure it’ll die down now and I’ve got nothing else planned. You might as well take advantage.’
The girl was twirling her hair around her fingers and posturing somewhat. ‘Oh. Kate. Hi.’ She had the courtesy to look away from the man leaning on the nearest wall. ‘He was just waiting for you.’
‘Oh. Hi, Chris,’ Kate said, thrown a little.
‘Hey, Kate,’ her boyfriend said.
Chris leaned over and kissed her. ‘Surprise!’
‘Indeed, it is a surprise. I thought you were busy this weekend.’ Kate kissed him back. Chris lived and worked in London as a management consultant and they didn’t get to spend a lot of time together. Kate had lived down there with him, and worked at the British Museum for a while, but she’d never really settled into the City life at all. Then the job at Hartsford came up, and they’d made the decision that she should go for it, and see how it went. It had been successful so far – she enjoyed Suffolk, and Chris, apparently, enjoyed devoting more of his time to work. He’d never complained too much about her not being there. The long-distance thing seemed to be working, and they had more or less settled into a routine – of sorts, anyway.
Occasionally, he made noises about a virtual world and how you could work anywhere and how it might be interesting to branch out into Suffolk – but the noises never seemed to come to anything more. There was always a new contract to work on, or a different customer to please. Kate had begun to doubt it would ever happen.
‘I put my bags upstairs. That’s fine, right?’ He smiled at her, knowing she’d never normally object to that. He had a key after all and it made sense.
‘Yes, no problem all.’ Kate smiled back. ‘It’s good to see you.’
‘And you. Dinner tonight at the Green Dragon?’
‘Don’t see why not.’
‘The Green Dragon’s for old people,’ interjected Jenna. ‘I think you’d be better off at the wine bar, to be honest.’ She was, Kate noticed, addressing Chris, not Kate.
‘Ah, Kate likes the Dragon.’ Chris shrugged apologetically. ‘Says the meals are nicer.’
‘Yes. Yes, I do,’ Kate said. ‘And it’s not a meat market, which is why I happen to like it.’ She couldn’t quite believe she’d said that – but she was right. People like Jenna went to the wine bar. People like Kate went to the Green Dragon. Did that make her old? She was twenty-eight, which was hardly ancient.
‘Have it your way,’ said Jenna with a shrug. She stood up and stretched. ‘Well, that’s me done for the day then. My lunchtime cover has covered. I’ll be off now. And,’ she turned to Chris again, ‘I’ll be at the wine bar later. Guaranteed.’
‘We’ll be at the Dragon,’ Kate confirmed. ‘Because we’re old. I’ll see you tomorrow, Jenna.’
‘Yeah. Tomorrow. TTFN.’ She wandered out and Kate felt the atmosphere lift.
‘Thank God for that,’ she muttered and slid into her place behind the desk. ‘She’s too much at times.’
‘Ah, she’s fun,’ said Chris with a smile at her retreating back. ‘Not to worry. Anyway, I hope I’m not interrupting anything this weekend by coming up?’
‘No, I have nothing planned but work. Did you see the bicycle outside? I was going to do something with that. Cassie wants it for an event she’s doing up at the Hall, but it needs some TLC first.’
‘A bicycle? No, I didn’t notice. Sorry.’ Chris smiled his half-lazy, half-arrogant smile, and leaned against the edge of the reception desk, his hands in his pockets, his legs crossed at the ankles. ‘God, I need a break after this week. I have to tell you about this client …’
Chris clearly had a gem that he wanted to share with her, but as his professional life was a world away from Kate’s and Kate was anxious to get to the bicycle, her attention started to wander a little. Her eyes drifted towards the door and she wasn’t proud of that fact; but she really, really wanted to start on that bike.
‘… so like I said to him, it was never going to happen.’ Chris was still talking. ‘In fact, I just need to check the emails to see what they said about it. I’m pretty certain the figures they quoted were wrong. Forgive me, Kate?’
He pulled his mobile out and started messing with it.
‘No worries; take your time. Give me a shout when you’re sorted. I just need to look at that bike, okay?’
‘Yeah, yeah.’ Chris’s attention was taken by something on the scr
een, his brows knitted together over his sharp, grey eyes. ‘You sort the bike out. I just need to …’ He was lost to her.
Kate sloped out, sneakily happy that she could check the old bike. It really was in a sorry state.
Chapter Three
Theo found the campsite: a field was probably the best way to describe it. It was a decent enough field and pretty flat so it was easy to pitch his tent and get unpacked. But it was, at its heart, just a field.
He’d been in worse places. Fields with bunged-up portaloos and shower blocks inches deep in scummy water. Or fields with no portaloos and no showers. But this one, at least, seemed to have some proper facilities. Not that he minded a bit of roughing it. He’d travelled all over the world as a student – backpacking, hitch-hiking, camping. Everything had been an adventure to him and he appreciated it all.
One trip, rather more recently, had taken him to the Outer Hebrides; and that had led to meeting a group of people from Suffolk, among them Maeve. Maeve told him about Hartsford and the Folk Museum; and when they said goodbye, Theo decided to visit those places.
He had a feeling he’d love them. Maeve had told him about the pace of life in Suffolk; the little villages, the coastal areas, the heaths. From what he’d seen, the place had delivered on those promises already. It was all good, and exactly what he needed, just to take some time and get away from everything.
Theo checked his watch. It was two thirty. The Folk Museum wasn’t too far away. He could walk there in about fifteen minutes and scope it out, so he shrugged on his backpack and set off.
He was right. It didn’t take him long to get there, and soon he was standing outside the museum. It was a novel little place, a whole row of neat, stone cottages, just as Maeve had described.
There were some mangy-looking ducks running around a pond, and a circular green, and, opposite the terraced houses, a collection of barns which looked to contain old-fashioned farm equipment and tools. There was also some sort of vintage bicycle marked ‘Ice-cream’ outside the cottages. The bike was a bit of a sight, the sunlight showing up every little scratch and flake of the paintwork. It was what you might call a fixer-upper.
A girl was kneeling by the side of it. Her red hair was pulled back in an elastic band now, but there was no mistaking it was the girl from the café.
Theo walked up to her and stood beside the bicycle. ‘Is that how you transport fairy cakes around here?’
She looked up, startled; but then she laughed. ‘Hello again. Yeah. I could fit a few in there, couldn’t I? Delilah does make the most awesome fairy cakes.’
‘I was quite impressed with my own lunch, I must say. I went back for a slice of red velvet cake. You’d gone by then, so it was nice not to worry about anyone walking into me and wrecking it.’
‘Good choice. It’s lucky that nobody spoiled that experience for you.’ She stood up and wiped her hands down her jeans. ‘Sorry, did you want to come into the museum?’
Theo was thrown for a moment. ‘Yes. I do,’ he replied.
‘Okay. Come on then. I’ll get you a ticket.’
He was still slightly confused, but he followed the red-head and her jeans into the reception area.
She went behind the counter and Theo suddenly realised. ‘Aha! You work here.’
‘I do indeed. It’s a bit late, you know. Are you sure you want to come in? We close in about an hour. It’s four o’clock on a Friday.’ She looked up at the multitude of clocks that surrounded her.
‘An hour is fine,’ Theo told her.
‘Well, if you’re sure.’
‘I’m sure.’ Theo noticed a man sitting on an old church pew to the side of the room, his legs stretched out in front of him, inspecting a smartphone.
‘The signal doesn’t get any better here, does it?’ the guy said, directing his comment to the red-head.
She shook her head, concentrating on the till. ‘Nope. It doesn’t. You can use the laptop if you want.’
‘Thanks Kate. I’ll nip up now.’
‘Yep, you know where it is. There.’ She looked up at Theo and stapled his receipt to a little fold-out leaflet with a map on it. ‘If you follow the markers you can’t get lost. And if you don’t see it all, come back tomorrow. I should be on the desk until lunchtime at least. If I’m around, I’ll just let you back in.’
‘Thanks.’ He took the ticket from her. ‘You’re positive the boss won’t mind?’
She laughed. ‘I am the boss. It’s all mine. Well, I look after the place. It’s not mine, actually physically mine. You know?’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘Well if you’re the boss and you say it’s okay, it clearly is. So I start through here?’ He indicated the door to his left. It seemed to take him into the cottages and, he assumed, would lead him through the whole terrace if he kept on going.
‘Yes, start there. I’ll be out front if you need anything, just next to that bicycle. A friend wants to borrow it, but it’s in no fit state at the moment.’ She stared at the doorway thoughtfully. ‘I have plans for it though.’
‘Great. If I can’t find you, I’ll just ask your colleague.’ Theo nodded to the side-door where the man had disappeared.
The girl – Kate – laughed. ‘You can ask him, but he probably can’t help you. He doesn’t work here. He’s my boyfriend.’
For some reason Theo felt a bit miffed at that. She had a boyfriend. Oh, well.
‘Okay. I’ll just look for you.’
‘I’m not hard to find,’ she replied with a grin. ‘Oh! Can I ask you to leave your backpack behind the counter here, please?’
He had to agree with the “not hard to find” comment. He’d found her three times already today and he hadn’t even been trying.
‘Sure.’ Theo swung the backpack off. He handed it over to her and she dropped it onto the floor.
‘Like I said, just find me when you’re finished.’
‘No problem,’ he said and smiled at her.
Kate watched as the visitor disappeared through the door into the first cottage. Theo Kent. She’d read the name on his credit card. It was an automatic thing she did. Her poor customers; she knew more of them by name than they probably realised.
She looked at his backpack and saw it was pretty well-used and battered. He was definitely outdoorsy; the sort of guy you could envisage running up a mountain before breakfast and kayaking across an ocean after lunch. Kate couldn’t quite comprehend that level of physical activity for herself, but some people apparently thrived on it. And she had to admit it did wonders for their physique. Not that she should have been noticing such things, but still …
She headed back outside and squatted down by the bicycle. She had acquired some sandpaper from the tool store and thought she might as well try to take some of the flaky paint off. She’d need a bit more time and some proper equipment to stabilise the chassis and deal with the tyres though.
As it turned out, Theo Kent was the last customer of the day. Kate was a little startled when one of the clocks from the reception area struck four and she looked up. None of the clocks ever went off except the cuckoo clock; that bellowing ding dong ding dong was anything but her little wooden bird popping his head out. She dashed into the reception area and saw Theo looking as confused as she was.
‘Hey,’ he said. ‘I just came back through to get my bag. And your clock went off.’ He nodded over at the big grandfather clock from the Hall.
Kate frowned. ‘It shouldn’t have done. I’ll have to check it later.’ She reached down and retrieved the backpack. ‘There you go. It’s not as heavy as it looks, is it?’
‘Thanks. Yeah, it’s not too bad. I’ve left most of my stuff at the campsite. I’ve only got the weekend in Suffolk, but I’ll try and get back tomorrow if I can. I promised myself I’d do Sutton Hoo, though.’
‘Sutton Hoo is wonderful. If we don’t see you tomorrow, enjoy the rest of your weekend, okay?’
‘Will do!’ he said and flung the backpack easily over his shoulder.
Kate followed him to the door, ready to lock up. He walked across the car park towards the main road and turned briefly to face her. He raised a hand in farewell, then continued on his journey. She found herself waving back.
Something bothered her about that whole scenario and she puzzled over it as she brought the bicycle into the reception area for the night. It bothered her as she went across to the barns where the indoor picnic area and the smaller, antique farm equipment was displayed, and made sure everyone had left before she closed the doors. And it bothered her as she retraced her steps through the cottages, casting a glance at the ice-skates hanging up in their case. She half-smiled, remembering Cassie’s avarice this morning.
It bothered her until she stepped outside the blacksmith’s cottage to do a head-count of the monstrous ducks.
Kate looked in the direction he had gone and the road was empty, snaking off towards the countryside. And she realised that she’d seen that gesture before. Him – or someone very like him – had waved her farewell before.
‘You’re quiet tonight,’ said Chris. They were sitting in the Green Dragon, an empty bottle of wine between them.
‘Just enjoying the old people’s pub.’ Kate grinned. ‘At least we can get a seat here. And the portion sizes are much better. Bob’s a sweetie too, deep down.’ Bob was the barman – his reputation went before him. If you got a free drink at the Dragon, you were fortunate indeed.
‘Yeah, that wine bar has a completely different sort of clientele.’ Chris laughed.
‘You’ve been there?’ Kate asked, curious. He certainly hadn’t been with her. She despised the place.
He smiled. ‘Your Jenna likes it.’
‘She’s not “my” Jenna,’ Kate corrected him. ‘I tolerate her because I have to.’
‘Okay. Jenna likes it.’ He smiled again, and Kate had the fleeting idea that he hadn’t really answered her question.
She dismissed that thought and frowned. ‘She certainly seems to enjoy it there. Chris, have you ever fancied camping?’ She didn’t know where that came from, but there it was.