Page 78 of Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
‘Really? By getting drunk and beating them at pool?’
‘By becoming one of them. Also drinking someone under the table is considered quite the badge of honour around here.’
I look at Tiffany to see if she’s being serious.
‘Honestly, it might not have impressed Arthur, or our local vicar, but as far as the regulars at the pub go – you’re quite the hero.’
‘Let’s just hope Hetty doesn’t hear about it, or she won’t be that keen to bring her WI ladies in for one of our group tours when they’re up and running.’
The tour guides that we hired have been doing sterling work with the visitors that are beginning to pour into the castle as the weather has improved and the spring has turned into an early warm summer. So much so that we’ve had an idea for doing group tours – well, Benji had.
I already had Hetty and both her WI ladies and her Brownies lined up for some of the first tours, and we hope to welcome lots more groups, including local schools, to the castle over the next few months.
‘Oh, she’ll have heard about it,’ Tiffany says knowingly. ‘Things don’t stay hidden long around here.’
‘Great.’
‘So how did you get on with Tom?’ Tiffany asks coyly.
‘Fine. Why do you ask?’
‘It was kind of your first date, wasn’t it?’
‘It wasn’t a date!’ I reply sharply. ‘Far from it.’
‘Oops, my bad,’ Tiffany says, pretending to busy herself with her computer screen again. ‘I thought . . . well,hopedit might be.’
‘What is your obsession with trying to pair me and Tom off? Why can’t we just be friends?’ To be fair, I wasn’t sure we were even that any more after Saturday afternoon. We had left things a bit awkwardly.
‘It’s not an obsession. I just think it would be nice. You’re single. He’s single. He’s hot and you’re . . . well, you’re very pretty.’
‘But not hot? Thanks.’ I grin at her.
‘No, I didn’t mean that. You could be hot; you just choose not to be.’
‘Oh, do I now?’
‘Well, I think that’s why you’re the way you are . . . ’
‘And what way is that?’ I ask, half amused, half intrigued by what Tiffany has to say.
Tiffany’s face screws up and her forehead wrinkles as she searches for the right words.
‘You’re sort of removed, aren’t you? I don’t mean because you’re a Lady or anything – it’s not that you’re snobbish, it’s like you’re reserved. Yes, that’s a better word. It’s like you’re always worried we’re going to get too close.’
‘What do you meantoo close? You make it sound like I’m worried about catching something!’ I’m half smiling as I say this, but Tiffany is getting a bit too close to the truth.
‘Not that sort of close. I mean it’s like you’re worried about getting too attached to anyone. Have you been hurt in the past, is that it?’
Talk about poles apart. One minute Tiffany is virtually curt-seying and calling me Your Highness, and the next she’s trying to delve far too deeply into my personal life. And I never feel comfortable talking about that – with anyone.
‘I think we’d better get on with some work,’ I say, leaving Tiffany in no doubt I’m changing the subject. ‘Now where are those wage slips?’
‘How’d you get on with Bill this morning?’ Benji asks me later when I bump into him in the village on my way to collect Charlie from school.
‘Good and bad,’ I say, and I proceed to tell him what Bill has told me.
‘At least they found it,’ Benji says practically. ‘If the worst had happened . . . ’
