Page 120 of Best Summer Ever

‘What?’ I gasped, picking up the pace. ‘As in rightnow? Your father might literally be about to turn up at Wynbrook now?’

‘Yep.’ Josh nodded. ‘That’s what Mom reckoned, once she’d worked out the timing of his flight.’

‘I’m guessing he’s realised the letters are missing then,’ I tutted, after I’d taken a few more speedy but leg-deadening steps.

Why was walking across sand always such hard work when you were in a rush?

‘Afraid so,’ Josh said resignedly.

‘Couldn’t your mum have given you more of heads-up? This is pretty short notice.’

Josh shook his head.

‘She didn’t know,’ he told me. ‘Apparently, Dad emailed her about what he was doing just a couple of hours ago. He’s away with work a lot, so she hadn’t given his absence from home a thought – until he got in touch and said he was on his way to Norfolk having taken a particular flight to Heathrow.’

‘I wonder why he told her at all,’ I puffed. ‘Surely, he must have known she’d tell you and that would ruin the… surprise?’

‘His arrogance probably got the better of him,’ Josh said darkly.

Thomas Alford and Laurence really were peas shelled from the same pod then.

‘So I’m guessing your mum didn’t know about the letters?’

‘No,’ Josh said, ‘but she does now – she’s literally packing a suitcase and leaving Dad as we speak. She said this was the final straw and that she’s moving out to our house in California, which is the one she’s always loved the most, and filing for divorce.’

I didn’t know what to say to that. The world Josh’s family – or at least one side of it – lived in, sounded absolutely nothing like mine. And actually, I was grateful for that.

‘Oh, love,’ said Dad, jumping out of the car the second he spotted us. ‘Your mum was so worried that she sent me to find you as soon as Laurence showed up, to give you a minute to compose yourself, but obviously we missed each other somewhere in the garden. Are you all right?’

‘Apart from being in shock,’ I told him, as I gave him a hug, ‘I’m fine. Laurence has gone again now – this time for good.’

‘Why are you in shock?’ he asked, frowning, as he pulled away and looked at me intently.

‘Well,’ I said, as Josh climbed into the passenger seat, ‘for a start, given what you’ve just said about Mum, you and herseem to have had quite a change of opinion about my ex. You both always thought Laurence—’

‘Yes, well,’ Dad interrupted gruffly, ‘opinions change when the need arises, don’t they? And your mum and I had already realised that it was him who had been in the wrong over something, not you, even before he turned up putting on airs and graces.’

‘I see.’ I nodded, feeling relieved they had truly got the message without me having to share all of the details.

‘Come on,’ he said, opening the back door for me. ‘We need to hurry up because it’s going to be out of the frying pan and into the fire, unless I’m very much mistaken. We need to be at the manor and on alert in case Thomas turns up. Has Josh filled you in?’

‘He has,’ I sighed. ‘What a day.’

Josh looked ashen on the drive back to Wynbrook and I was just about to ask him if he was all right when my mobile started to ring.

‘Hey Nick,’ I said.

‘Hey, Daisy. Is Josh with you? I’ve tried ringing his mobile but he’s not picking up.’

‘Hold on.’

I tapped Josh on the shoulder and passed the phone between the seats.

‘It’s for you,’ I told him. ‘It’s Nick.’

‘Hey Nick,’ he said tentatively. ‘What’s up? I know, sorry, I left it at the manor.’

He was silent for a few seconds while Nick talked and then let out a ragged breath.

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