Page 80 of One More Day
‘Making cake by day, finding dogs by night.’
She puts her hand on her hip.
‘What?’
‘I’m joking,’ I say, fearing my seeping envy of Billy might be showing. ‘What I really meant was that you got changed very quickly. Like Wonder Woman.’
‘Oh.’
‘But no need to panic, honestly, he’ll come back soon.’
‘I’d rather he wasn’t out there in the freezing cold,’ she says, in a tone that shows she means business. She is wearing a yellow padded jacket, gloves, some heavy boots and the same bobble hat as before in her hand. ‘And I’ve some dog treats in my pocket which might help. George only went missing once but I was told afterwards to always take treats to lure him back should it happen again. Your Max has agood sense of recall. It’s important not to panic, just like you said.’
‘I’m not panicking.’
Sheis panicking, if only just a little.
I smile with my lips closed and eyebrows raised as Rose takes over control of the search operation, reassuring me as she fusses and grabs more dog snacks from her own supplies and stuffs them in her pocket.
‘You have a lot of energy for someone who was asleep only five minutes ago …’
‘I never sleep this early,’ she says. ‘Must have been the wine. Come on, let’s get searching.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yeah, I know the forest pretty well, even at night-time, so don’t worry,’ she says, fixing her woollen hat. ‘We’ve got this. We’ll find him in no time.’
I’m staring at her. I can’t help it.
‘What?’
I swallow hard. I shrug.
‘Thank you,’ I say, biting my bottom lip as if there’s nothing more to say right now.
‘It’s fine.’
‘You don’t have to do this, but it’s very much appreciated.’
‘Come on, no time to waste,’ she says, handing me Max’s lead. ‘The quicker we go, the quicker we find him. Come on, George. Let’s go find your best buddy.’
We step outside, all three of us, and plod through the crunchy frosted grass in the garden until we reach the small gate that provides a shortcut into the forest behindthe cottage, calling Max as we go, our breath visible in the black night air.
‘So, he’s done this before?’ Rose asks as she swirls the torch light into the tree, her voice a bit breathless already. ‘What a rascal!’
‘Many times,’ I remind her. ‘Springers like to hunt so he’ll sniff his way back, I’m almost sure of it. If it weren’t so cold, I’d leave him to it.’
Rose is already a few steps ahead of me, calling my dog’s name and reassuring her own dog George as she goes along the dirt path that’s already covered in snow.
‘Don’t worry, Georgie. We’ll find him. No need to worry at all, old pal.’
I can’t help but watch her in admiration as she hurries along, talking to George. It’s a bitter cold snowy night, and I know it’s not everyone who would head out while on holiday in winter to look for someone else’s dog. Especially one who has a tendency of going on adventures alone.
‘We’ll have Max home in no time,’ she says when she waits up for me. ‘He may have taken shelter somewhere out of the cold.’
‘Hopefully, yes,’ I say before stopping in my tracks.
As freezing as it is out here in the forest, as tired as I am and as jaded as I’ve been recently with everything that brought me here in the first place, I can’t help but feel a warmth in my usually cold heart tonight. Since I saw her at the fayre, since I spotted her in the pub, and since we walked under the stars again …
