Freya North 3-Book Collection: Secrets, Chances, Rumours

‘Stop the train!’

‘You can't stop a miniature railway, you daft bint. What's this oof business?’

‘It's Wolf – Tess's dog – the one who was hit! Look, there he is. Christ alive, he looks shite. Tess! Tess!’

But Tess, who had adopted a similar gait to Wolf, appeared not to hear.

Lisa put her little finger and thumb in her mouth and gave out a raucous whistle.

‘I didn't know you could do that.’

Lisa put her index and middle fingers in her mouth and whistled shrilly through them.

‘Nor that,’ her husband marvelled.

She poked her tongue out, then rolled it vertically from side to side.

‘Bloody hell.’

Lisa laughed. She hadn't managed to catch Tess's attention but her husband was captivated.

They alighted at the gardens and then doubled back on themselves, through the meadow between the river and the tracks, looking for a suitable spot to picnic. It was also the direction where Lisa had last seen Tess. She laid out the lunch with only half a mind on the job while she glanced around her every few seconds.

Her husband flicked a cheesy puff crisp at her. ‘Go on – go and see if you can find her.’

Lisa didn't need asking twice and she marched off, leaving her husband to tut, women! to their son.

It didn't take her long to catch up with Tess, on account of how slowly Wolf was moving. Em squealed when she caught sight of Lisa, Tess stood still and grinned, Wolf continued on his lope, unaware of the action behind him.

‘You!’ said Lisa, not sure where to start.

‘Me,’ Tess said with a mixture of pride and embarrassment.

‘Where the – excuse me, Em – fuck have you been!’

Tess shrugged.

‘Feathering some love nest up at the big house?’

Tess drew an arc in the grass with her foot.

‘You old slink!’ but Lisa was obviously delighted. ‘That bloke –’

‘Wolf!’ Tess called. ‘Wolf!’

He turned like an old jalopy doing a six-point-turn and ambled back.

‘Wolf,’ said Lisa, giving him a rub, ‘you must have a tale to tell, old thing.’

‘Actually,’ said Tess, ‘he has no tail to speak of.’

Lisa looked at her then smiled broadly. ‘That's good, that is – clever, very clever. You're not just a pretty face, are you, love?’

Tess had a good look at her shoes, and Lisa's, before raising her face. ‘That's what Joe said to me too.’

Lisa put her sunglasses up on her head even though it made her squint a little.

‘So – this Joe, then. Does this mean Seb's not getting a look in?’

Tess visibly paled. ‘Bugger,’ she said. ‘Seb.’ She paused. It sounded too crass and heartless to say she hadn't given him a moment's thought – but that was the truth.

‘The thing is,’ said Lisa, ‘I'll bet that, when Seb came courting, your mind still wandered to Lord of the Manor – even if you didn't want it to. But when Joe was back, I don't reckon the Surfer even made it to the shoreline of your mind.’

Tess thought about this. ‘You're right,’ she said, ‘and God, you have an amazing way of putting things.’

‘I'm not just a pretty face either, you know.’

They laughed.

‘Have you eaten?’ Lisa asked. ‘We've a picnic – if the trolls haven't troughed the lot. Come on.’

So Tess and Em and Wolf joined Lisa's family for lunch. The picnic was set out in the triangular meadow, bridges for Poohsticks at either end, the steep haul of the woods as a backdrop, the river and miniature railway as soundtrack. The grass was lush, long and glossy, not yet put upon by the main brunt of the visitor season. It was the first time that Tess had properly met Lisa's husband and she found him amiable. She liked the way he was with Lisa and with Sam. He gave Wolf some chicken and he sprang Em's curls between his fingers. He also seemed genuinely interested in his wife's new friend which Tess found affirming.

‘And what's next, then?’ he asked, when she'd given him a room-by-room inventory on her work at the house.

‘Well, I'd like to do the attic rooms – but there's so much stuff there and none of it's mine, so I can't chuck it out without Joe's say-so.’

‘You'll have to put it on hold, then, till he's next back.’

She nodded.

‘When'll that be?’ Lisa asked.

Tess ran her fingers through the grass like she did Em's hair. She wanted to appear blasé and not crestfallen. ‘I don't know.’