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‘I hope there won’t be any,’ she said optimistically.

Upstairs, my bathroom smelled of unfamiliar perfume and half the shelf space was now occupied by a large sponge bag, several lush-looking bottles and jars of cream and potions.

I felt slightly resentful of this occupation, though I shouldn’t have; I could have found myself sharing it with a random paying guest at any point. Anyway, when one of us was in the bathroom, the door to the other bedroom could be bolted, so it wasn’t a big deal.

I washed and tidied myself, then changed into my linen top and new jeans, before attempting to coax my hair into loose curls. A little makeup … and I was about to go down when there was a knock at my door.

I’d managed to forget all about Robbie again, but there before me stood six foot two of handsome, well-meaning stupidity.

‘Alice! Sheila said you’d arrived at last,’ he said, pulling me into his arms and attempting to plant a smacker on my lips, which seemed to have become an unfortunate habit. I twisted my head away and over his shoulder spotted a small, slim dark-haired woman watching us, her hand on the bedroom door further along.

‘Get off me, you idiot,’ I said, fending him away.

‘I thought you’d be glad to see me, now you’d got that damned book out of the way,’ he said, looking hurt. ‘I was telling Zelda – this is Zelda, by the way – that I didn’t warn you exactly when I was coming up because I wanted to surprise you and anyway, I couldn’t wait to see you.’

‘Hi,’ I said to Zelda, and she stared at me out of a pair of enormous pansy-brown eyes.

‘Sheila was telling me about you. In fact, you seem to be flavour of the moment around here, even though no one’s ever even mentioned you before,’ she drawled huskily. Her eyes narrowed and looked me up and down. ‘I can’t imagine why.’

‘I stayed here while I was getting my flat ready to move into, and since then I’ve been back quite a lot because I’m helping Bel and Sheila to create a café in the pottery,’ I said. Then I added pointedly, ‘I’ve heard quite a bit aboutyou, too.’

‘From Nile, I expect,’ she said.

‘Zelda’s got things to discuss with Nile that are better done in person than on the phone,’ Robbie broke in before I could answer. ‘Shearrived without telling anyone she was coming, too. Odd we should both turn up on impulse at the same time, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, weird,’ I said. From the way they were looking at each other, like a pair of conspirators, I guessed they’d been exchanging confidences. In fact, they’d probably spent the entire afternoon telling each other their life histories.

‘Weneed to talk, too,’ Robbie said to me meaningfully.

‘Do we? Then I’m afraid it will just have to wait, because I’m going down to give Sheila a hand with dinner,’ I said quickly. ‘Where did you both get to, today, somewhere nice?’

‘Oh, we found a pub – the Standing Stones,’ he said.

‘I know it, it’s over Blackdog Moor towards Upvale.’

‘No idea where it was – we just drove and stopped at the first sign of civilization. It was cosy, with a wood fire, and since the rain was setting in we stayed put. It had good internet connection, too.’

‘Your joy must have been unconfined,’ I said, and he gave me an uncertain look. He’d never really understood my sense of humour.

‘I’d better go and change,’ Zelda said. ‘I’ll leave you two to have a chat.’

‘Yes, come on, Alice,’ Robbie said. ‘I’m sure they can manage dinner without you.’

‘Oh, all right,’ I said, giving in and letting him into my room, though I left the door open like a Victorian miss.

He is not the sharpest knife in the box, but after five minutes I’d managed to get it into his head that although delighted to see him, and very fond of him, I hadn’t the slightest intention of ever being more than good friends.

‘I don’t know why you thought we could just take up where we left off when you emigrated to Australia,’ I said. ‘I mean, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and we’re different people from when we first met. I can’t simply turn the clock back on my emotions.’

‘But I was hoping to take you back to visit my parents,’ he said, as if that made any difference to anything.

‘Robbie, I’m opening a teashop in less than a fortnight and I’moverwhelmedwith things to do before that. I put everything on hold while I finished the novel, but now I’ve got to get on with it and there’s no way I’m going anywhere for weeks, if not months!’

He looked baffled. I think he’d had a scenario in his head and things were not going the way he’d expected them to.

‘Think it through,’ I said to him. ‘I’m now permanently settled up here, while you live in Australia. That’s rather a long distance away.’

‘But I told you I might move back – with the right incentive.’